'Get exposed to every kind of thinking': Kerala Guv on row over Hindutva literature in KU syllabus

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: People should be ready to study new ideas even if they are repugnant to them, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has said. 

He was responding to the controversy over the inclusion of writings of Hindutva ideologues in the revised syllabus of MA Governance and Politics offered by the Kannur University.

Students must be exposed to every kind of thinking. Then only they will develop the capacity to think and come up with new innovative ideas. "Only those who have the capacity to come up with innovative ideas can progress in this world. People who feel uncomfortable with the study of diverse views are causing loss to themselves," he told reporters here on Saturday. 

The governor said he cannot respond to the specific issue as he was away for the past few days. "I came back to Thiruvananthapuram only yesterday. So I'm not fully familiar with it," he said.

The governor said knowledge would equip people to distinguish between right and wrong. He cited India's tradition and the case of Charvaka who rubbished everything which people considered sacred. "Despite saying things which are offensive to the religious belief of the people, nobody hit him even with a small stone. Instead, Indians called him Mahatma Charvaka. One of six books of Indian philosophy is named after him," Khan said.

On Friday, CM Pinarayi Vijayan had taken strong exception to the inclusion of the texts. He said the government did not want to glorify those who had turned their faces away from the Freedom Struggle. "Any regressive ideas should have to be critically studied and analysed. Even doing so, those who had held aloft such ideas should not be glorified," he said.