Gramsci Stays, Iqbal Goes
Huzaiful Reyaz | 31 March 2026 | Frontline
What was removed from Jammu University’s Political Science curriculum was not a political position, party manifesto, or disputed verdict on history. What was removed was thought, specifically the thought of men who thought seriously, rigorously, and at the highest intellectual level in colonial South Asia. The difference between removing a politician from a syllabus and removing a thinker is not a fine academic point. It is the entire argument. And the fact that this distinction has gone unmade reveals something troubling not only about the act itself but about the poverty of the defence being mounted against it.
The defence has been predictable. It goes: these were complex men. Muhammad Iqbal wrote Saare Jahan Se Achha. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan built a university. They deserve to be remembered for their contributions to India. This is an argument for rehabilitation, for partial acquittal on the basis of mitigating patriotism. It concedes, entirely and without noticing, the premise of those who demanded the removal: that the question is whether these men were sufficiently good for India, whether their credentials clear a nationalist threshold, whether they pass the test. The defence accepts the test, arguing merely for a different score…