The proposed revision of the MA syllabus at the University of Jammu has snowballed into a larger political and academic flashpoint, with sharp reactions pouring in ahead of the crucial Board of Studies meeting.
The Board of Studies will tomorrow discuss the proposal of the Departmental Affairs Committee of the Political Science department to drop from the Political Science MA syllabus references to Pakistan’s founder and the first Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as well as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan—often regarded as a key proponent of the two-nation theory—and poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, who penned the iconic “Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara.”
A senior J&K Minister Javed Ahmed Rana on Monday launched a scathing attack on the move and called it “anti-scholarly act of intellectual vandalism”.
The minister wrote on X; “The recommendation by Jammu University’s Political Science Department to purge Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan from the curriculum is a laughable, anti-scholarly act of intellectual vandalism. By erasing these foundational figures of political thought, JU 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”.
“JU must stop acting as a laboratory for historical revisionism. It should instead leverage its academic autonomy to promote a culture of dialectic enquiry and intellectual pluralism, making students restless and inquisitive rather than mere docile propagandists”, he added.