New Delhi: Hindu scriptures and epics such as Mahabharat and Ramayana, teachings of Indian sages, and the history of Hinduism, both as a religion and as a way of life. These are the topics Delhi University will cover in its new ‘Hindu Studies’ courses, which will be offered at postgraduate and doctoral levels from the next academic year.
Last Friday, the DU executive council — the university’s top decision-making body — approved the proposal to set up a ‘Department of Hindu Studies’. DU will now be only the second central university, after Banaras Hindu University (BHU), to offer courses in the subject.
The decision comes months after DU instituted a 17-member committee to consider a separate centre for studying the history of Hinduism.
University officials said further details about the department — how many seats will be on offer and the minutiae of the coursework — are still being worked on.
But they clarified that Hinduism and its nuances aren’t the only thing that will be taught — “contemporary job skills” will also be kept in mind while designing the course. This means that the “vocational and skill-based” subjects will also be offered to students, although as “minor subjects”.
The idea, according to K. Ratnabali — dean (academic activities and projects) at DU — was to not only “make sure that our students have the knowledge of Hindu culture but are also job-ready for the current market”.
DU’s institution of a Department for Hindu Studies comes at a time when the Modi government, through its sweeping education reforms via the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and other initiatives, is pushing for “decolonising education”. According to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, NEP 2020 will help create “pride in our languages, culture and knowledge”.
Two years ago, India’s higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission, had first issued a broad coursework for postgraduate degrees in Hindu Studies.
DU’s curriculum
According to officials, the curriculum is likely to include Ramayana, both the traditional text written by Valimiki and other variations, Mahabharata and women’s role in it, ancient Indian literature and geography, the meaning and the implications of the term “Hindu”, and the thoughts and teachings of Indian sadhus, or sages.
Meanwhile, the university is also finalising minor subjects that students will have to take in order to make them “employable”. Among the subjects under consideration for this are management studies, computer sciences, content writing and web designing, officials said.
“We have decided to create a pool of minor subjects which will be vocational- and skill- based in nature. Twenty-four of the total credits will be assigned to these minor subjects,” Ratnabali told ThePrint.
BHU, state universities — who else offers the course
According to UGC data, 211 students appeared for Hindu Studies exams in December 2022, and 159 took them earlier this month.
The first central university to introduce Hindu Studies at a postgraduate level was BHU — the two-year course, M.A. Hindu Studies, was first introduced in 2021 and is now all set to see its very first batch of students graduate.
The course currently has 80 students, Sadashiv Kumar Dwivedi, coordinator at BHU’s Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, told ThePrint.
Four second-year MA students have already cleared the NET — the UGC’s qualifying tests for teaching positions — are all six set to become Junior Research Fellows, he said.
“Hindu culture is the only one that doesn’t have a single man giving religious instructions. Instead, a group of thinkers, or sadhus, will spend months pondering and gathering observations from society and nature. They would then come back to their ashrams to hold discussions with their students,” he said.
Over time, the essence of these ancient teachings were “diluted and lost in translation”, he said, adding, “With this course we are reintroducing our youth to our traditions”.
At least four state universities offering the course too, either as a degree or as a part-time subject. While the two central universities are offering only postgraduate and doctoral courses, universities like the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) in Baroda have decided to tailor the course for its undergraduate students as well.
Dilip Kataria, course coordinator at MSU, said the university offers an introductory course at the undergraduate level. The course, according to him, includes not only the basics of what is taught at the Master’s level but also has additional papers on topics such as arts and architecture.
“We don’t want to make the course only about history and culture. We want to make it holistic in nature, which is why for the undergraduate course we have introduced such papers in a bid to make it more than just philosophical,” he said.
The university currently has 60 seats on offer at its undergraduate level, of which 24 are filled. It also offers postgraduate courses.
Kataria attributes the low enrolment in undergraduate courses to the delay in instituting the department in 2022.
Among others, Gujarat Technical University offers Hindu Studies as an optional subject, while South Gujarat University has it as a part-time course.
Another state university to offer the course is Mumbai University. Since 2022, the university has been offering a Master’s degree in the subject under the Centre for Hindu Studies, or the Hindu Abhyas Kendra.
There are 60 seats on offer for the two-year Master’s course. Besides its Master’s and PhD programmes, the centre also offers allied certificates and diploma courses.
The course, according to the university, will be beneficial for corporates and will help companies “inculcate commitment, dedication and morale among their employees”, one official said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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