A stringent implementation of policies and a constant appraisal of students’ performances by our universities will ensure that pedagogy actually gets transformed into meaningful action, especially in the subject of literature
The Indian university system came into existence in the mid-19th century with an aid provided by the colonial administration. The motive was connected to their own interests. Most of the liberal arts programmes within India’s higher education curriculum usually trace their genealogy to Western concepts and ideas. A major reason for this is also that most of the thinkers, writers and essayists within the curriculum wrote or lived in Europe. However, after India becoming independent, there has been considerable freedom in academic policy-making — at least to an extent, and maximising limits provided to the higher educational authorities to keep both the nation and the students’ interests to the fore.
let us specifically look at the nature of streamlining of English literature as a discipline since independence. Taught under the mantle of ‘Western liberal education’ in pre-independent India, there has been considerable debate and discussion on how English literature in India can become more conducive to national interests. This is why there has been a series of curriculum-related modifications from time to time, with additions of Indian literature, Dalit writing, translation courses etc.
These have been incentivised, for the apparent correct intention on the part of policymakers to allow enough mobility of students, from the rural/semi-urban/backward areas, as well as across a range of social classes. After the 1990s, due to a series of considerable debates in the 70s and the 80s, most of the literature syllabi across universities have been displaying this sensitivity and heterogeneity.
A case in point could be the orientation of two pioneering universities in India — Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Both the universities have kept themselves attuned to transforming the national and the global scenario by designing numerous courses within the English literature curriculum consisting of diverse regional Indian writers and a variety of social and political issues. Adequate attention was paid to numerous Indian languages and issues of sensitivity to cross-cultural diversity. This has been in sync with a post-1960 global trend of being sensitive to issues related to multi-culturalism, race, social disparity, and migrancy.
The greater question amidst all this is: How much of an awareness of what exactly a ‘liberal arts’ programme entails, feeds into Indian students’ minds, before determining possibly one of the most crucial decisions of their life of entering through a definitive stream in an Indian universityIJ Here, this researcher will speak both from her experience and by means of a short survey which she conducted across colleges. As far as English literature at the under-graduate level is concerned, there seemed to be a tendency to label the decision as ‘well-planned’ by students of some elite colleges. But across the board there seemed to be either a greater tendency of taking the programme either out of compulsion or not knowing what to do after high school, or because of the ‘fun’ element involved in a liberal arts programme. Needless to say, the situation seemed better at both the post-graduate/research level where students seemed to have a greater awareness of their own literary interests and corresponding career choices.
This situation usually arises because not only is there a disjunction between English literature/language courses designed for schools as compared to what they are in colleges but also because some of the entrance procedures for universities seem to be less in sync with what the programme entails for the next three to four years.
The situation gets compounded by the fact that both classic English literary texts and theory, as well as texts in Indian writing, are very often taught with little sensitivity to a student’s specific situation, realities of general context or through a combination of exercises designed to enhance their grammar, linguistic abilities, and interpretation all at once.
The situation often transforms into a morose academic environment, with students being less interested in their courses and more in other outlets. This is perhaps also due to the absence of stringent university policies (or their implementation). This translates into practically no idea of where to go after graduation or to get into research half-heartedly.
Mere curriculum modifications are not enough. One has to translate it into both meaningful pedagogic discourse, and sensitivity to students’ situations. A possible starting point could be to translate the intrinsic humanistic aspect of a liberal arts programme like English literature into a creative pedagogic exercise, where a combination of text, context and alternative channels (workshops, audio-visual mode, seminars) can work. A stringent implementation of university policies and a constant appraisal of students’ performances will ensure that pedagogy actually gets transformed into meaningful action.
(The writer teaches at the University of Delhi)