Hindu studies will now be taught in Delhi University. A team of 17 experts has been formed to prepare a course on Hindu studies. The committee includes several deans, heads of departments, directors, principals of colleges and senior professors. The 17-member panel will be headed by Prakash Singh, director of DU’s South Delhi campus. An Academic Council member has questioned the need for this course.
Prakash Singh, director of DU’s South Delhi campus, said that there are around 23 universities across India that offer courses in Hindu studies. DU also thought that there should be a center for Hindu studies here. He said, ‘We have a center for Buddhist studies, but no center for Hindu studies. We thought let’s see whether opening a center for Hindu studies is viable or not.
Hindu studies will start for these students first.
Director Prakash Singh insisted that the panel would first focus on examining the need of the center and then start the curriculum accordingly. He said that first we will start this course for postgraduate and research and later it will be started for undergraduate students.
When will the course start
The committee will decide how many courses will be started and the courses will start from this year or next year. However, the panel also plans to present the outline to the Academic Council in the near future.
Question raised on ‘Hindu studies’
However, an academic council member has opposed the need for the centre. On the condition of anonymity, the member told the news agency PTI that where are the Sikh, Muslim and other centres? The university should start courses for these other religions as well. To this the director replied that it is wrong to associate it with any religion as ‘Hindu is a way of life’. He said, ‘Unfortunately, we only see the religious part of Hindu, Hindu is a way of life. Religion is just one aspect of it, we have a history of thousands of years. The Center will focus on this aspect.
17 List of Members
Besides Prakash Singh, Director, DU South Campus, the members of the 17-member committee are Professor Payal Mago (Director, Open Learning Campus), Professor K Ratnabali (Dean, Academic Affairs, Dean, Faculty of Science, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Dean, Faculty of Arts ), Professor Seema Bawa (Head, Department of History), Professor Sangeet Kumar Ragi (Head, Department of Political Science), Professor Anil Kumar Aneja (Head, Department of English), Professor Ranjan Kumar Tripathi (Joint Dean of Colleges), Dr. Jaswinder Singh ( Principal, SGTB Khalsa College), Professor C Sheela Reddy (Principal, Sri Venkateswara College), Professor AK Singh (Head and Dean, Faculty of Commerce), Professor VS Negi (EC Member, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College), Dr. Aditya Gupta (Department of Philosophy) and Dr. Prerna Malhotra (Department of English) and Mr. Jai Chanda (Joint Registrar, Academics) are also part of the panel.