As per the media reports, a 35-year-old JNU research scholar has approached the Delhi High Court alleging that he was compelled to portray Hindi as a ‘communal language’. Ashutosh Kumar Roy, a PhD student at the Centre for Historical Studies at JNU, further claimed that his professor “arbitrarily” suggested him to change the course of research stating that Hindi is a “communal language”.
Hearing the issue in the court, Justice C Hari Shankar issued a notice to the university and the associate professor directing them to file their responses till April 23. While seeking to implement his constitutional rights, Ashutosh Roy requested, in his plea, to direct university that he be allotted a PhD Supervisor for grant of registration in the Winter Semester 2019.
The plea alleged that the acts committed by the acting supervisor and others to “coax the petitioner to carry out a motivated research against Hindi language, against stalwarts of Hindi language, and arbitrary denial of permission to pursue PhD, is blatant violation of his fundamental rights as well as university rules”.
The plea further urged for an inquiry into the alleged wrongful denial of registration by JNU and its authorities. Roy registered for carrying out research pertaining to ‘Hindi Public Sphere (1870-1970): Debates on Nationalism’, which deconstructs significant prevailing ideas pertaining to the Hindi language.
In his plea, Roy also shed light on the negligence of the JNU administration. In the period of 6 months (December 2017-June 2018), Ashutosh had submitted three representations for allotment of the new supervisor, but no acknowledgment was given.
Not only that, in the plea, Ashutosh stated that he continued his work without supervision and submitted the self-improvised Ph.D. synopsis on July 17, 2018, to the associate professor. “The petitioner’s work was appreciated by faculty members after the presentation and no suggestions with respect to the research work were made to the petitioner. It is important to mention here that only verbal suggestions were made, related to a choice of words in the synopsis and the synopsis was passed,” the plea said.
Also Read: ‘Hindi and Hindu are dividing the country’, Tharoor’s attacks on Hinduism continue
The plea submitted by Ashutosh Roy further states, “After submission, the competent authority presents the synopsis before the Committee for Advanced Studies and Research” and alleging that the professor kept the synopsis with her and said “… There is no place for such pro-Hindi research in JNU! You better go to Delhi University….and idolize Bhartendu Harishchandra!”
Also Read: Abu Dhabi recognizes Hindi as the third official language in Courts
While Hindi is getting its due worldwide, the cabal is hell-bent on defaming the language. Few days back, in a big victory for Indian diaspora living in the Gulf, Abu Dhabi declared Hindi as the third official court language. Notably, the adoption of Hindi language by the Abu Dhabi government comes days after prominent Congress leader and former Minister, Shashi Tharoor called ‘Hindi’ as a divisive language. It is unfortunate that when Indian culture and civilization is getting its due worldwide, some leaders have continued to undermine this.