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Saffronisation through the backdoor?
By Pranab Dhal Samanta
NEW DELHI, JAN. 22. Torn by controversy until not long ago, the proposal to set up a Centre for Study of Human Consciousness figures as one of the major projects in Jawaharlal Nehru University's Tenth Plan proposals submitted recently to the University Grants Commission here.
Part of a larger plan to set up six new centres in the University, the 59-page proposal -- which has not been tabled either before JNU's Academic Council or Executive Council -- devotes just one ambiguous paragraph to this centre. It states that since human consciousness has the ``elemental force'' of influencing every human being's daily life, it has ``fundamental significance'' to understanding both the individual and collective forms of human life.
The idea -- first mooted at a meeting of the JNU Academic Council last April as part of a larger proposal to set up a School of Classical Studies and Indology -- was vehemently criticised on the ground that it was part of a larger agenda to ``saffronise'' education. It is learnt that barring two members, the rest of the Academic Council rejected the idea outright.
At its next meeting on October 19, the plan was again shot down. The newly set-up Centre for Sanskrit Studies was the only part of the project that was cleared. To suddenly find the item included in the Tenth Plan proposals now has come as a shock to the JNU community.
Also proposed are five others centres including a Centre for Cultural Policy and Development as well as a Centre for Comparative Culture Studies under the School of Languages, Literature, and Cultural Studies. Apparently none of the deans of social sciences was taken into confidence by the Administration in the formulation of the proposal.
With the document coming to light nearly two weeks after it was sent to UGC, an angered teaching community responded by unanimously rejecting it and demanding its withdrawal at the annual general body meeting of JNU Teachers' Association today.
Meanwhile, in a response on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Asis Datta, the JNU spokesperson said necessary procedures had been followed in tabulating the proposal. ``Once it is cleared by UGC, it would be tabled before the Academic Council.''
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