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An anonymous X post referring to various Ambedkarite, anti-caste academic texts as ‘poison’ has prompted immediate action straight from the Prime Minister’s Office, which has asked all central universities to respond to the post ‘urgently’. The readings which the X post complains about include seminal anti-caste texts such as BR Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste and Jyotirao Phule’s Gulamgiri.
The post by a right-wing account, ‘The Story Teller’ (@IamTheStory__), also specifically lists works of Ambedkarite scholars such as Gail Omvedt, Sharmila Rege, and others, taught in Master’s level courses at Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Ambedkar University Delhi.
Academics say such an intervention from the Education Ministry, that too at the behest of the PMO, is unprecedented. “This is very dangerous if the syllabi in higher educational institutions is being monitored by the PMO. It needs a major debate. How can a tweet from an anonymous account be of serious concern to the PMO?” asked political theorist and writer Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, former Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP) at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU).
Three of Ilaiah’s works, including Why I am not a Hindu, were also flagged on the list shared in the tweet. It said that such readings, which spoke about patriarchy, caste annihilation, and debrahmanising history, were “feeding young minds with a poison”. It called the texts “anti-Hindu propaganda” used by “left-leaning teachers” to "groom" students into student leaders like All India Students' Association (AISA) national president Neha Bora and former JNU Students’ Union president and present Congress in-charge of its student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI), Kanhaiya Kumar.
A snapshot shared in the tweet listed readings prescribed mainly in MA History courses at JNU, DU, and CUP, including the writings of Savitribai Phule and Periyar, and prominent scholars including G Aloysius, Uma Chakravarti, and others.
An email was sent from an Assistant Section Officer of the Union Education Ministry’s Department of Higher Education to central universities on September 27, linking the X post that was put out the previous day. The email said it had received communication from the Prime Minister's Office regarding the tweet and included a link.
The email asked all central universities to “furnish comments” on the tweet and share enrolment details for the courses mentioned, including MA English and MA Political Science at DU and MA History at JNU and the Central University of Punjab (CUP).
“This may be treated as 'URGENT', and the required comments/information may be furnished to the Ministry at the earliest,” the email said.
The post attributes the readings to a ‘leftist cabal’, but most of the texts are by Ambedkarite scholars, and some are even critical of the Indian left. Academic and writer Ravikant Kisana noted that the list had standard texts that have been part of universities’ curriculum for decades.
Remarking on the post even objecting to Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, Sowmya Dechamma CC, who heads the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Hyderabad, said it was “quite surprising that the PMO and Education Ministry took this into consideration without any thought.”
Sowmya said that all syllabi, including recommended readings, go through an elaborate procedure and are cleared by the department board, school board and academic council, and the minutes of these meetings are sent to the Education Ministry.
Universities have complete autonomy when it comes to the syllabus, she said, adding that unless there was a complete overhaul of the system, it would be difficult for the PMO or Education Ministry to make any direct changes.
“The communication could put indirect pressure on these universities. In some cases, the vice chancellor or registrar or dean may start putting pressure on the department on their own, and subsequently, people may drop some readings of their own volition,” Ravikant said. But even this would not always be easy, Sowmya said, saying even if individual teachers or heads of departments were willing to redo the curriculum, they would need the support of many individuals in the department, as the decision has to go through multiple boards.
“We thought our classrooms were immune,” Sowmya said, hoping that teachers’ associations across universities resist any such interventions to the curriculum and insist on autonomy.
Unlike the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)’s school textbooks for history, which are regularly revised, Ravikant said the present move “feels like something which has emerged out of a social media sphere rather than a carefully thought-through process from a legislative or regulatory agenda.”
Any move against teaching Ambedkar in universities would be politically sensitive and lead to backlash, he said.
Comparing the Education Ministry’s email to central universities with the BJP’s recent outreach to anti-reservation protesters, Ravikant said that it could be seen as a perfunctory move to appease supporters of the BJP who are disappointed with the party’s outreach towards SC, ST, OBC communities.
“This could be a part of BJP's own strategy of managing some of its inherent contradictions,” he said.