DU panel suggests dropping Marx, Malthus from Sociology syllabus

Karl Marx and Thomas Robert Malthus — two foundational figures in population theory — may no longer be part of the Delhi University (DU) sociology curriculum. The university’s standing committee for academic affairs has recommended removing both thinkers from a discipline-specific elective (DSE) paper titled ‘Population and Society’, a committee member confirmed on Tuesday.

This recommendation was made during the committee’s meeting earlier in the day, which continued the review process of syllabi for undergraduate fourth-year courses under the new Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP).

The paper ‘Population and Society’, which introduces students to the “study of population in sociology”, currently examines foundational theories such as the Malthusian perspective and its critique by Marx. According to a professor from DU’s sociology department, the Malthusian perspective remains essential to studying population growth. “Malthus’s theory posits that while resources grow in arithmetic progression, population grows geometrically, which leads to a scarcity of resources and a potential crisis,” the professor explained.

“We teach Marx in other semesters as well, so removing him from this paper is feasible. But Malthus is a classic in sociology, and we cannot study population without it,” the professor added.

In addition to removing Marx and Malthus, other recommendations for the sociology department include the exclusion of a unit on ‘Issues in the Sociology of Food’ in an elective paper called ‘Sociology of Food’ and the inclusion of more books by Indian authors in the paper ‘Sociology of Law’, particularly those that focus on religion.

The sociology syllabus revision is the latest in the ongoing academic restructuring at DU. Last Friday, significant changes were proposed for the psychology syllabus, including the removal of topics related to sexual orientation, caste, and religious identity, as well as the elimination of an elective titled ‘Psychology of Sexuality’.

At Tuesday’s meeting, syllabi for Philosophy, German, Sanskrit, BTech Electronics, and Tamil were cleared without major changes. In contrast, minor structural adjustments, such as merging certain units, were suggested to the History syllabus to make it more concise and manageable.

It is to be noted that while the committee can make recommendations, the final decision on their adoption rests with the academic council, a larger statutory body, which is scheduled to meet on May 10.

Monami Sinha, an associate professor at Kamala Nehru College and a member of both the standing committee and the academic council, provided insight into other areas under discussion. She said a reading by historian Prem Chowdhry on honour killings, included in the paper ‘Kinship and Marriage’, also came under scrutiny.

Sinha said the committee chair proposed excluding caste and gender themes from the paper ‘Sociology of Science’, despite the department head emphasising that examining science through these lenses is a standard pedagogical approach in sociology.

Objections were reportedly raised regarding the inclusion of peasant resistance and agrarian movements in the paper ‘Agrarian Sociology’. Additionally, in ‘Sociology of Childhood’, the chair recommended shifting the focus towards a more affirmative discourse centered on joy and happiness in childhood, suggesting the exclusion of topics such as child abuse in favour of a more positive portrayal of childhood experiences.

On the proposed removal of Marx and Malthus, Sinha mentioned that while the chair had recommended dropping Marxist perspectives from the curriculum, but the head of the department pointed out that Malthus’s theories cannot be effectively taught without reference to Marx, given their interdependent theoretical foundations. The department was asked to revisit the topics.