Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken power at the Center and in several Hindi heartland states, there have been concerted efforts to erase Muslim history and the contribution of the Muslim community in the freedom struggle and its role in the progress and development of the country.
Behzad Parvez | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — After deleting lessons on the Mughal era in the NCERT textbooks, it is now the turn of dropping iconic poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal from the political science syllabus at Delhi University.
The Academic Council of the university on Friday passed a motion to remove a chapter on Sir Muhammad Iqbal from the syllabus, members of the statutory body confirmed.
“A motion was brought regarding a change in the syllabus of political science. As per the motion, there was a chapter on Iqbal that has been removed from the syllabus,” said an Academic Council member.
The chapter titled ‘Modern Indian Political Thought’ is part of BA’s sixth-semester paper.
Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh said those who laid the foundation to break India should not be in the syllabus.
Born in 1877 in Sialkot in undivided India, Iqbal had written the famous song ‘Saare jahan se achcha’. He is often credited with giving birth to the idea of Pakistan.
Vice Chancellor Singh said Iqbal wrote songs supporting the “Muslim League” and the “Pakistan Movement”.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also welcomed the development.
A unit on Iqbal titled ‘Iqbal: Community’, is part of the 11 units in the course. Its objective is to study important themes through individual thinkers.
Other thinkers that are also part of the course include Rammohan Roy, Pandita Ramabai, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, and Bhimrao Ambedkar.
Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken power at the Center and in several Hindi heartland states, there have been concerted efforts to erase Muslim history and the contribution of the Muslim community in the freedom struggle and its role in the progress and development of the country.
As part of this villainous campaign, some teachers in Uttar Pradesh schools were booked and later terminated for allowing students to recite Allama Iqbal’s famous poem “Lab pay aati hai.” In Uttar Pradesh, three such incidents have been reported where teachers have been targeted rather fell victim to the Islamophobic campaign over recitation of the prayer.
The action against the teachers was initiated after some Hindutva fanatics lodged complaint to the police and administration alleging that it’s an effort to convert students to Islam.
It is pertinent to add here that Allama Iqbal’s “Shikwa” and “Jawab-i-Shikwa” became so famous that writer and journalist Khushwant Singh translated them into English. The translation titled Shikwa and Jawab-i-Shikwa: Iqbal’s Dialogue with Allah became a bestseller.
‘Saare jahan se achcha is one of the most popular poems, sung across the country, especially on Independence Day and Republic Day.
Formally known as “Tarānah-e-Hindi”, it was first published in the weekly journal Ittehad on August 16, 1904. Allama Iqbal publicly recited it the following year at Government College, Lahore (now in Pakistan) where he was a lecturer. It later quickly became an anthem of opposition to the British Raj.
