New Delhi: Responding to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)’s demand for the immediate removal of Muhammad Ali Jinnah from academic curricula, RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha on Saturday said that history cannot be altered and must be understood in its entirety.
Speaking to IANS, Jha questioned the rationale behind such demands and emphasised the importance of studying historical figures in context.
“I do not understand whose domain is what and who is commenting on which domain. If you remove Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then how will you understand the Two-Nation Theory?” he said.
He further added, “How will you reflect on the ideas against which the struggle for Independence was fought? It is not possible to perform surgery on history. What we are witnessing is an attempt to reshape narratives. In the future, film-makers might also be told to present history in a particular way. Such tendencies are already visible.”
Jha cautioned against distorting historical facts, stating, “Whenever you want to make fictional interpretations, do so, but do not tamper with history. This is a disservice to the country’s past and an attempt to belittle it. Tomorrow, if someone demands the removal of the Delhi Sultanate from textbooks, how will we understand historical transitions? History has no vacuum; it is a continuous process.”
Meanwhile, the ABVP staged protests at the University of Jammu, demanding the removal of a chapter on former Pakistan president Muhammad Ali Jinnah from the revised postgraduate political science syllabus introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
However, the university administration maintained that the inclusion of Jinnah in the syllabus aligns with University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines and is consistent with curricula followed by several universities across the country.
Led by ABVP Jammu and Kashmir secretary Sannak Shrivats, protesters gathered on campus and raised slogans against the administration, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the chapter from the ‘Modern Indian Political Thought’ module under the paper ‘Minorities and the Nation’.
The protesters also tore posters of Jinnah and warned of intensifying their agitation if the content is not removed.
In response, the University of Jammu administration has constituted a committee to examine the issue. According to an official order issued by the Office of the Dean Academic Affairs, the committee has been formed on the directions of the Vice-Chancellor and has been asked to submit its report at the earliest.
(IANS)
