Reinstate Texts By Mahasweta Devi, Dalit Writers, Appeal Academicians

The petition came a few days after the teachers of English in the university made the same plea and accused the Oversight Committee of making a "complete mockery of all democratic and due processes" while drafting the syllabus.

Over 1,100 academicians, writers and civil society members have written to Delhi University's acting vice-chancellor, urging him to reinstate the works of Mahasweta Devi, Bama and Sukirtharani in the English (Honours) syllabus. The petition came a few days after the teachers of English in the university made the same plea and accused the Oversight Committee of making a "complete mockery of all democratic and due processes" while drafting the syllabus. The petition has been signed by the likes of writers Arundhati Roy and Vikram Chandra, actors Sharmila Tagore and Shabana Azmi, filmmaker and writer Adoor Gopalakrishnan and filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. "The exclusion of Bama and Sukirtharani is a blatantly casteist act as it discriminates against contemporary Dalit women authors in a core paper on women''s writing, Surely, to delete, without any justification, two living Dalit women authors is a rare example of political disregard, omission and marginalisation of existing living writings...