Protests after President’s approval of honorary D.Litt to Rambhadracharya

The only Central university in Madhya Pradesh has announced that it will confer an honorary D.Litt degree on controversial Hindu seer Jagadguru Swami Rambhadracharya at its 33rd convocation. Harisingh Gaur Central University in Sagar claims to have made the announcement after receiving the go ahead from President Droupadi Murmu.

The announcement has triggered protests by students, faculty and members of civil society. The said Swami Rambhadracharya, they point out, is a highly polarising figure who is known more for his derogatory remarks against Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Buddhism, and Dalit communities than anything else.

This is the first time that the 79-year-old university will be conferring an honorary D.Litt. Sources in the university said vice-chancellor Neelima Gupta had sought permission from the President a month-and-a-half back. The date of the convocation is yet to be announced.

A Sanskrit scholar, poet, author and a kathavachak, the visually impaired Swami was honoured in 2015 with a Padma Vibhushan but has often found himself in the centre of controversy. A letter to the President of India opposing the honorary degree states, “approving an award for a figure with a history of caste-insensitive remarks undermines the academic integrity of one of India’s oldest and most respected universities”.

Counting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and another controversial godman Dhirendra Shashtri of Bageshwardham among his followers, Rambhadracharya is also the founder of a university for people with disabilities and the Tulsi Peeth ashram. Despite losing his eyesight when he was just two months old, he is said to be a polyglot conversant in 22 languages, and credited with writing four epics. 

The protesting students, teachers and members of civil society, however, claim that his rhetoric is divisive, casteist, and humiliating to large sections of Indian society. They refer to his alleged statement that those who do not pray to lord Ram are 'chamars', calling it a casteist slur. 

Responding to the statement made by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat not to look for a temple under every mosque, Rambhadracharya had allegedly quipped, “When he did not have power, he was looking for temples everywhere, and after getting power he is advising not to look for temples.” 

Pointing out that the founder of the university Dr Harsingh Gaur was a progressive thinker, a legal luminary who championed the rights of the downtrodden and promoted rationalism, gender equality, and social upliftment, the protestors say it was an affront to his memory to honour someone opposed to these foundational ethos.