A major political controversy has erupted in Jammu and Kashmir after a committee at Jammu University reportedly recommended removing chapters and references to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, and Muhammad Iqbal from postgraduate political science syllabus.
The row began after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) chief in Jammu demanded the removal of the chapter on Jinnah from the “Modern Indian Political Thought” module under the paper “Minorities and the Nation".
Protesters raised anti-Jinnah slogans and tore his effigies, prompting Vice-Chancellor Umesh Rai to constitute a committee to review the syllabus.
Reports on Tuesday suggested that the panel has recommended dropping references to Jinnah, Iqbal, and Sir Syed from the postgraduate course.
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Jammu and Kashmir Minister Javed Ahmed Rana strongly condemned the move, terming it “laughable, anti-scholarly, anti-academic demeanour and intellectual vandalism.”
He said, "By erasing these foundational figures of political thought, the University of Jammu is transitioning from a site of critical pedagogy into a propaganda apparatus for RSS supremacism. This is a deliberate attempt to manufacture ideological bigots rather than nurturing inquisitive citizens.”
Rana added that the university should promote “dialectical inquiry and intellectual pluralism".
BJP leader Jahanzaib Sirwal also criticised the recommendation and wrote to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan seeking immediate intervention.
“I have formally appealed to the Union Minister of Education regarding the University of Jammu’s recommendation… Erasing figures who shaped modern Indian thought reflects a narrow and selective approach to academia,” Sirwal said on social media.
However, Head of the Department of Political Science at Jammu University, Baljit Singh Mann, defended the existing syllabus, saying the inclusion of Jinnah and other thinkers was purely academic and in line with curricula followed by universities across the country and UGC norms.
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