The Crossbill News Desk
Delhi University’s newly notified postgraduate History syllabus has left out several courses dealing with key periods and themes in Indian history, including a long-running paper on the Delhi Sultanate, according to university records reviewed by The Indian Express.
The paper, titled “The Delhi Sultanate: Structures of Authority in Medieval North India (13th-14th Centuries)”, was earlier offered in Semester III but does not feature in the syllabus notified by the university on August 7.
Other omitted courses include “History of North India, c. 1400-1550”, “Gender and Women in Early India: 1500 BCE to 1000 CE”, “Political Processes and Structure of Polities in Ancient India” and “Religion and Society in Ancient Indian Literature”.
The omissions come despite records showing that the courses had cleared different stages of DU’s syllabus approval process. Of the 38 Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) papers proposed by the History Department, only 16 were included in the Semester III syllabus. Several other papers remain classified as “under discussion” or “undiscussed” in university records.
The Delhi Sultanate course has been taught as a core paper on medieval India for decades, according to a faculty member in the History Department.
The faculty member also rejected comparisons between the postgraduate course and a similar undergraduate paper, saying the two serve different academic purposes. The postgraduate course focuses on a “specialised thematic and historical study”, while the undergraduate paper is a “survey course” on Indian history.
A DSE allows postgraduate students to specialise in a particular area within their discipline rather than study only compulsory subjects.
The syllabus revision process at DU involves multiple levels of scrutiny. Proposed courses are first considered by the department’s Committee of Courses, followed by the Standing Committee and Academic Council. The Executive Council gives the final approval before a syllabus is notified.
DU’s Dean of Academic Affairs, K Ratnabali, rejected the suggestion that the courses had been deliberately withheld.
“None of the courses were held back. We took everything to the Academic Council, which gave the Vice-Chancellor the liberty to constitute an Expert Committee to look into courses that required review. The committee included three external experts, the Head of the Department and two Academic Council members,” he told the paper.
Explaining why some courses did not make it into the final notification, Ratnabali said: “The issue was that even after papers were cleared by the Standing Committee, the department had made changes to some of the approved syllabi…. papers were added or deleted, units were changed and readings were removed or replaced. This created a trust deficit and meant that the syllabi had to be revisited. The committee examined the revised syllabi and cleared those that were found to be in order for notification. A few more papers are also expected to be notified once the committee completes its review.”
The university’s explanation indicates that the changes are part of an ongoing review rather than a final decision on all the omitted courses.
However, the exclusion of established papers covering medieval and ancient Indian history from the latest notification has raised questions over the direction of the postgraduate History curriculum at DU.
The paper, titled “The Delhi Sultanate: Structures of Authority in Medieval North India (13th-14th Centuries)”, was earlier offered in Semester III but does not feature in the syllabus notified by the university on August 7.
Other omitted courses include “History of North India, c. 1400-1550”, “Gender and Women in Early India: 1500 BCE to 1000 CE”, “Political Processes and Structure of Polities in Ancient India” and “Religion and Society in Ancient Indian Literature”.
The omissions come despite records showing that the courses had cleared different stages of DU’s syllabus approval process. Of the 38 Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) papers proposed by the History Department, only 16 were included in the Semester III syllabus. Several other papers remain classified as “under discussion” or “undiscussed” in university records.
The Delhi Sultanate course has been taught as a core paper on medieval India for decades, according to a faculty member in the History Department.
The faculty member also rejected comparisons between the postgraduate course and a similar undergraduate paper, saying the two serve different academic purposes. The postgraduate course focuses on a “specialised thematic and historical study”, while the undergraduate paper is a “survey course” on Indian history.
A DSE allows postgraduate students to specialise in a particular area within their discipline rather than study only compulsory subjects.
The syllabus revision process at DU involves multiple levels of scrutiny. Proposed courses are first considered by the department’s Committee of Courses, followed by the Standing Committee and Academic Council. The Executive Council gives the final approval before a syllabus is notified.
DU’s Dean of Academic Affairs, K Ratnabali, rejected the suggestion that the courses had been deliberately withheld.
“None of the courses were held back. We took everything to the Academic Council, which gave the Vice-Chancellor the liberty to constitute an Expert Committee to look into courses that required review. The committee included three external experts, the Head of the Department and two Academic Council members,” he told the paper.
Explaining why some courses did not make it into the final notification, Ratnabali said: “The issue was that even after papers were cleared by the Standing Committee, the department had made changes to some of the approved syllabi…. papers were added or deleted, units were changed and readings were removed or replaced. This created a trust deficit and meant that the syllabi had to be revisited. The committee examined the revised syllabi and cleared those that were found to be in order for notification. A few more papers are also expected to be notified once the committee completes its review.”
The university’s explanation indicates that the changes are part of an ongoing review rather than a final decision on all the omitted courses.
However, the exclusion of established papers covering medieval and ancient Indian history from the latest notification has raised questions over the direction of the postgraduate History curriculum at DU.
Comments (0)
Leave a Comment