Madras University deletes controversial dalit text from syllabus

CHENNAI: University of Madras on Saturday decided to remove ‘Thunbakkeni’, a 75-year-old short story by revolutionary writer Pudhumai Pithan from its Tamil curriculum after complaints that certain references were derogatory to dalits. In August 2013, a petition had been filed in the Madras high court saying the story would hurt dalit sentiments. An official said the decision followed complaints from many quarters. “The controversial story may be replaced with another text by the same writer,” he said.

The decision, taken at the academic council meeting chaired by vice-chancellor R Thandavan, does not seem to have gone down well in academic circles. Dissenting views of Tamil scholars in the academic body were ignored, said a professor. “Pudhumai Pithan was one of the most influential modernist writers and his writings raised liberal thinking much before the advent of dalit writing. His stories should be read in the context of the period when they were written,” he said.

‘Thunbakkeni,’ which portrays the exploitation of dalit families and women in the tea plantations of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), was introduced as part of this year’s Tamil paper (part-I) for undergraduates.

Leading dalit writer and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader D Ravikumar said attributing casteist motives to Pudhumai Pithan (1906-1948) was not acceptable.

Social historian and writer V Geetha said removing a text would not serve the purpose and wouldn’t help students either. “The issue can be addressed in more enabling ways: by ensuring that more texts that do this, including by dalits, are made part of the curriculum; and by insisting on dalit representation in academic bodies in the uiniversity,” she said. Geetha recalled how the late Sharmila Rege, leading sociologist and feminist who headed the Women’s Studies wing at University of Pune, did just that. “She ensured that there were enough dalit and female students from marginalised classes in class to present other points of view,” said Geetha.

Retired Madras high court judge K Chandru said the university’s action was worse than Penguin withdrawing ‘The Hindus: An Alternative History’ by Wendy Doniger. “Penguin is a commercially-run company whereas a university has no business to withdraw a book to please a small minority, especially when the court ruling on the issue is pending before the high court,” he said.

Source: The Times of India