Lacks respect for intellectual rigour, imposes ideologically motivated content': Kerala govt rejects UGC draft curriculum

While criticizing the draft curriculum put out by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the previous month, a committee set up by the government of Kerala raised the issue of "imposition of ideologically motivated content in the name of Indian knowledge system", stale content and infringement upon academic autonomy.

Based on the report of the panel presented earlier this month, the Kerala government this week declared that it had turned down the draft curriculum and informed the UGC about it. The UGC had proposed the curriculum structure for nine subjects last month and invited comments on them.

The government panel in Kerala, led by economist Prabhat Patnaik, urged a reconsideration of the very basis of the proposed framework for the curriculum, rather than making just rectifications.

The report, released on Thursday, stated that UGC's draft learning outcomes-based curriculum framework does not "respect the standards of intellectual rigour, disciplinary integrity, and academic autonomy that Universities in the State are legally required." The report stated that the curriculum frameworks encroach upon the autonomy of universities to an extent that "does not exist in any major country of the world" and is "unprecedented even in our own country".

It "arrogates to the UGC, and a group of hand-picked experts by it, the power to dictate the contents of the syllabi in every discipline to the entire academic community of the country." 

Explained | What UGC's draft curriculums for undergraduate courses say, why some states have objected to them

The panel consisted of Rajan Gurukkal, Vice Chairman, Kerala State Higher Education Council; historian and special invitee Romila Thapar; NJ Rao, former professor at the Indian Institute of Science; and Vani Kesari, Director, Prof N R Madhava Menon Interdisciplinary Centre for Research Ethics and Protocols, CUSAT, Kochi, among others.

It called the draft curriculum "an admixture of material" from British and American university textbooks, of writings which downplay the exploitative function of imperialism in the history of our society, and "of a Hindu-exclusivist vision of the Indian knowledge system.

It provides "a dash of Hindutva-inspired smugness and self-satisfaction in the name of Indian knowledge system," the panel stated. It further observed that the syllabi lack the need for what university syllabi need to do in India — such as imparting to students an awareness of the contributions "made to the Indian society by diverse ethnic, caste and religious groups.".

It added the draft becomes objectionable still further when Indian contributions are equated with Hindu contributions. "The Buddhist and Islamic contributions for example are not covered in the syllabi, nor are the Arab-Indian interactions which resulted in the spread of Indian ideas worldwide," the report had said.

The report had cited Thapar as stating: "I would also question the routine references across different contexts to something which educational organizations of our times refer to as "the Indian Knowledge System". None of them have spelled out what they mean by this, nor has there been any analytical writing about it."

"So. It will once more be anything and everything that anyone in power wants to see taught. It has also been quite rightly stated that however one tries to define it, it cannot be dealt with as a Hindu contribution alone," she stated.