The University of Delhi (DU) has modified its list of academic subjects to include all 21 Modern Indian Languages (MILs) mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. These languages are Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
The Admission Committee of DU has decided to relieve the students who have an MIL as one of their main subjects by forgoing the deduction in their percentage. Previously, there was a subtraction of 2.5% from the aggregate Best of Four (BoF) if the student had an MIL because these languages were not mentioned in DU’s academic subjects list.
The University’s Standing Committee of the Academic Council wanted to make the admission process more inclusive for the students who generally take the language they speak as an elective subject in class 12th. “This move would be advantageous to the state board students,” says Rasal Singh, a member of the committee as reported by Hindustan Times.
The Committee also decided to include a few state education board subjects, such as those of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Board, Maharashtra Board, Andhra Pradesh Board, and Jammu and Kashmir Board, in the academic list. Till last year, only those subjects which were taught in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) were included in the list. However, this move will bring state board subjects such as Biochemistry from the J&K Board, Civics from the UP Board and Statistics from the Maharashtra Board, etc. under this list. These subjects were treated as vocational subjects and now are considered main subjects.
The students can now consider their state board subjects, which were previously not included, in their BoF and this will not result in any reduction in their overall aggregate. The colleges, till now, were known to provide relaxation in cut-offs only when the candidates took up MILs as a subject while taking admission in B.A. or B. Com. (Programme).
The University has also directed the state board students to get an attested letter from their school in case their class 12th subjects are missing from DU’s academic list. Hence, this ensures that these subjects also get priority as given by the constitution.
Image Credits: Saubhagya Saxena for DU Beat
Antriksha Pathania
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Most people who take up History in college expect a lot from the subject. One can usually see enthusiastic first years say on the first day of college, “I want to do archaeology, hence I took up history”, “I like history as I love memorising dates”, and then one can also hear the clichéd line, “I want to crack the Civil services, hence I took up history”. Well, all first year history students should brace themselves for something completely different! History is not just about dates and wars, it’s a discipline that transcends all conventional notions of education. I am sure teachers must have already started giving out huge bibliographies to you all, which must have tired your wits out! It’s completely understandable, that after coming from diverse backgrounds and schools, you will find it difficult to initially adjust to the incessant xeroxing and fragmented readings. But like our NCERT and Frank brothers, we also have some base books for History (hons.), which will help you garner a good grounding in your subject.
But the million dollar question is: Which are the books that will help me sail my way through the first year? Don’t assume that I am creating a guide book list for all of you: this is just a preliminary guideline, to help you in your initial days through this indecipherable course called History (hons.) in Delhi University.
The first honours paper: Ancient India, seems like a very difficult paper in the beginning, but one book will save everybody’s souls and studying time- ‘A History of Ancient and Medieval India: from the stone age to the 12th century’ by Dr. Upinder Singh (yes, she is Manmohan Singh’s daughter). The name of the book may sound daunting, but trust me; it is your bible in the first year. Not only will this book save you hours of reading through subsidiary readings, it is also an excellent resource for the section on Harappa. But at the same time, it is also quite inadequate for a lot of stuff, so don’t do the mistake of reading this book alone! You can also buy R.S Sharma’s ‘Ancient Past’ if you want (but for those people who are content with buying Upinder Singh: it won’t be much of a loss). But the real joy of Ancient India comes through reading up lots of stuff, so please do not miss out on that. The paper requires a lot of debate, so make sure you read up as much as possible, so that you can substantiate your paper with relevant arguments.
The second paper: Social Formations and Cultural patterns of the Ancient and Medieval world (don’t worry about remembering the name, most of us forget it by the time we reach our third year), or popularly called, “Sofo”, can be cracked with the help of Dr. Amar Farooqui’s famous book (every student in DU reading history has read him once in their lifetime), ‘Early Social Formations’. This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and detailed book on the subject. There is just one problem- in case your college teaches you Shang China, then the only person who can save you is K.C Chang. Otherwise, it’s Amar Farooqui all the way!
And as for the qualifying paper: Hindi, life would have been so much easier without this paper wouldn’t it? The only guidance I can suggest is guide books. They will be enough to make you pass with a decent grade. The second semester will hopefully be less hard for you all, as by then you would have learnt to navigate your way through this course and of course your college! And above everything, there are always teachers and seniors to help you all out, so keep them on your reference list too!
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