Kannur University won’t include works of Savarkar, Golwalkar in syllabus

The inclusion of extracts from Savarkar’s “Hindutva: who is a Hindu”, and from Golwalkar’s “Bunch of Thoughts” and “We or Our Nationhood Defined”, Deendayal Upadhyaya’s “Integral Humanism” and Balraj Madhok’s “Indianisation: What, Why and How” had led to a controversy with opposition parties and Left academicians alleging that the ruling CPI(M) was facilitating saffronisation of education in the state.

Although Vice-Chancellor Prof Gopinath Ravindran defended the inclusion of the extracts, the government took exception to it with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan speaking against the decision.

On Thursday, Ravindran said the paper “Debate on modern Indian political thoughts”, in which the extracts were included, would be dropped from the third semester of the course. The paper would be included in the fourth semester after necessary changes. A final decision would be taken after the academic council meeting on September 29, he said.

The BJP criticised the university’s decision to freeze the syllabus, alleging that this proved the nexus between the CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala. “It is surprising that the CPI(M) decides to withdraw the portions about national leaders from the syllabus when Congress demands so. The pressure from jihadis would have also prompted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to withdraw the text,’’ said Kerala BJP president K Surendran.