Mahatma Gandhi University scraps Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

KOTTAYAM: The Mahatma Gandhi University has removed the controversial portions from its syllabus for the undergraduate course containing the philosophy of hardcore Hindu nationalist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar after protests. ‘Hindutva and cultural nationalism’ of Savarkar was one of the optionals in ‘political thought in Indian tradition’ prescribed for the third semester students of political science from this academic year.

Syndicate member Prof. Tomichan Joseph told DC that the university had removed the topics containing the crux of the political philosophy he enunciated, “which acted as the ideological fountain of the RSS.” He said the syndicate would check how it crept into the syllabus and that the new decision followed a report by A.M. Thomas, dean of the School of Social Sciences, to the vice-chancellor. The perception among the academic community is that the text material, written by a member of the university faculty and cleared by the left-dominated syndicate, was not an academic exercise to critically examine the philosophy of the Hindutwa proponent but an attempt glorify it. "The Hindutva philosophy is mentioned not as a critical study, but along with Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence which makes it difficult to teach," said Rony K. Baby, an associate professor at the St Dominic's College, Kanjirapally.