Delhi University | ANI file photo
New Delhi: Malayali students and teachers demanded the Kerala government to intervene for reopening the Malayalam department at Delhi University, which has been closed for 28 years. The Malayalam department at the university which had dealt with courses even in the post-graduation section turned redundant following the retirement of Prof. Akavoor Narayanan in 1994. Later, no appointments were made for this department.
Though the university released notification for appointments in the Malayalam department after receiving frequent requests from the Malayali students and teachers, no interviews or appointments were carried out, informed a former member of the academic council and associate professor N Sachin.
Malayali students' union ‘Maithry’ has handed over a letter requesting the state government’s mediation in the issue.
An office bearer of Maithry, Mohammed Salih alleged that the regional languages are being marginalised while the university is attempting to make Sanskrit and Hindi compulsory for students pursuing graduation.
According to the central university rules, the students shall have the opportunity to study any of the 22 official languages included in the eighth schedule of the constitution. However, the discrimination against these regional languages continues in the university without conducting appointments to the concerned departments.
The Tamil Nadu government has allotted Rs 5 crore to establish a Tamil department at Jawaharlal Nehru university. Meanwhile, the department of Tamil at Delhi University continues to be under crisis. Similar conditions persist for languages such as Punjabi, Bengali, Kashmiri, Telugu, Kannada, and Assamese languages in different central universities.