‘Saare Jahan Se Achha’ out of DU syllabus
The universally popular song ‘Saare jahan se achha’ is likely to be removed from Delhi University’s BA political science syllabus, if the academic council’s decision is finally approved. The apparent reason for the removal is that it was written by Allama Iqbal, considered the spiritual father of Pakistan, forgetting that it was written as a paean to a pluralistic and composite Hindu-Muslim culture (something Iqbal dreamed of seeing as a young scholar), the reason for its popularity across the length and breadth of India.
Mohammad Iqbal’s popular song ‘Saare jahan se achha’ could soon be out of Delhi University’s BA political science syllabus, if the syllabi changes cleared by the university’s academic council (AC) on Friday are given a final stamp of approval by the university’s executive council (EC), which is scheduled to meet on June 9. Iqbal was included in the paper, ‘Modern Indian political thought’.
This was the most controversial of the decisions approved by the AC, which has over 100 members.
Though it was written by someone who later changed his political stance to root for a separate Pakistan and is considered the spiritual founder of the country (the political founder being Jinnah), when Iqbal wrote the song in 1905, the 27-year-old viewed the future society of the subcontinent as both a pluralistic and composite Hindu-Muslim culture.
The song has had an unalloyed success in India, being popular among people of all ages in the secular country as a stirring patriotic song, sung during morning assemblies and played by the armed forces as a marching song.
Iqbal, also called Allama Iqbal (‘allama’ meaning ‘scholar’ or ‘learned’), is one of the most prominent Urdu and Persian poets of the Indian subcontinent.
The other syllabus-related controversial decision was the decision to set up a centre for Partition Studies. Though a centre for Partition-related studies, its “objective states that the centre will study past invasions, suffering and slavery over 1300 years”, an objective which is fraught with the potential for creating an “offensive, communally divisive” agenda, said a statement signed by five AC members, who were among those dissenting on the council’s decision.
