Delhi University removes poet Muhammad Allama Iqbal from the political science syllabus

The adoption of a four-year integrated teacher education programme was one of several controversial recommendations that the Delhi University Academic Council approved against resistance from some of its members. According to officials, the council has also approved several changes to the syllabi, including the deletion of a chapter on Muhammad Iqbal from the BA political science syllabus. The meeting, which started on Friday, was continued till Saturday morning at 1:30. The political science curriculum will no longer include a chapter on Muhammad Iqbal, the national poet of Pakistan.

They stated that plans to establish new centres for Partition Studies, Hindu Studies, and Tribal Studies were additionally authorised by the council. Iqbal is one of the most well-known Urdu and Persian poets of the Indian subcontinent and is the author of the well-known song “Sare jahan se acha Hindustan hamara.” He is frequently addressed as Allama and was credited with coming up with the idea of Pakistan. He is Pakistan’s national poet as well.

The official statement

The syllabi and plans for establishing various centres were approved at the council meeting on Friday, according to DU registrar Vikas Gupta. It has been decided to establish centres for Partition, Hindu, and tribal studies. Mohd Iqbal has been removed from the curriculum, according to Gupta. Iqbal was mentioned in the paper on “Modern Indian political thought” for the BA in political science. The executive council (EC) of the university must give the ideas its final seal of approval. They will meet next on June 9.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a group linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, applauded the new move of Delhi University. And claimed that Iqbal was a “fanatical theological scholar” who was to blame for the division of India. “He is the ‘philosophical father of Pakistan’. He was a crucial figure in Jinnah’s rise to prominence within the Muslim League.”  And “Mohammad Iqbal shares equal blame with Mohammad Ali Jinnah for the division of India,” they added.