A resolution was passed by the Delhi University's Academic Council on Friday, May 26, to set up a Centre for Independence and Partition Studies, officials confirmed.
They further added that the centre would facilitate research on the heated politics that accompanied the country's partition and how the central leadership failed to contain sentiments of separatism, according to PTI.
The Partition Centre
The centre that will be a constituent of the Faculty of Social Science will also focus on different facets of the struggle for freedom and would explore the reasons and impact of Partition. A committee formed to set up the centre also stated that, in due course of time a specialised resource and research centre will be established in order to promote the studies of Partition.
"The Centre shall broadly focus on the intricacies surrounding Partition. Within this context, many questions need further research. For instance, the role played by Radcliffe (who was hardly familiar with Indian culture, geography and demographic pattern) in Partition; the game plan and the strategies of the imperial government; the high voltage politics accompanying Partition; the germs of separatism that the central leadership failed to contain; the way Congress Working Committee consented to Partition without consulting Gandhi," a note read.
Academic cleansing while expansion?
In other news, the Academic Council of Delhi University on Friday, May 26, passed a motion to remove a chapter on Pakistan's national poet Muhammad Iqbal from the Political Science syllabus, members of the statutory body confirmed.
The poet, born in 1877 in Sialkot in undivided India, wrote the famous song ‘Saare jahan se achha'.
The official said that it will now be presented before the Executive Council of the university which will take the final call as per PTI reports.
"A motion was brought regarding a change in the syllabus of political science. As per the motion, there was a chapter on Iqbal that has been removed from the syllabus," said an Academic Council member.
The member further added that the chapter was crucial as it added richness and diversity within Indian political thought that would help students develop critical thinking on modern thought and its various trajectories.
