Such A Long Journey, the 1990 Booker-nominated novel by Rohinton Mistry, which has been part of the Bachelor of Arts (English) second year syllabus since 2007, has been dropped as per a notification issued by Bombay University’s recently appointed vice chancellor Rajan Welukar. Following complaints by some BA students about "anti Shiv Sena passages” in the novel, Aditya Thackeray, the 20-year-old grandson of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, convened a meeting of the student wing of his party at Sena Bhavan and, at his suggestion, the Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS) launched a protest by burning copies of the book. The BVS also gave 24 hours’ notice to the vice chancellor to drop the novel from the syllabus, reported Mumbai Mirror (MM) on October 2, 2010.
The University "cravenly bowed down” to this demand the very next day, notes MM, and issued notices to all colleges withdrawing the novel from the syllabus even though it was mid-term and question papers for the first semester were being set. According to Abhijit Panse, BVS chief, "This objectionable novel... uses extremely obscene and vulgar language... and also makes anti-Sena remarks. The vice chancellor understood our point and was very supportive. He immediately convened a meeting with his senior staff and by 1 p.m. the next day, he informed us that the book has been taken out of the curriculum.” The Sena’s ultimatum further stated, "Professors who selected this book for the prescribed syllabus should not be involved in any university work.”
Rohinton Mistry and his "superbly evocative” novel
However, the teachers have a different take. According to MM, a Maharashtrian professor said she had found nothing objectionable about the novel, but chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. A principal, again requesting anonymity, said, "How can this be done when we are already in the middle of the semester? The entire syllabus is executed in a systematic fashion... and once a book has been made part of the syllabus, how can it be withdrawn?” The book, which MM describes as "superbly evocative,” has been routinely listed as one of the best books on Bombay along with Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Earlier, it had been prescribed for postgraduate students taking the MA course and then for the third year BA syllabus of Bombay University.
The following day, in MM of October 3, 2010, veteran journalist Aroon Tikekar lashed out at the "unwise move” of the vice chancellor "just because Aditya Thackeray, still an undergraduate, but too eager to launch himself politically, demanded an immediate withdrawal.” He felt it was all the more shocking that "in his timidity, (the vice chancellor) did not feel the necessity of even going back to the Academic Council of the University or to find out the antecedents of the book... By succumbing to the pressure tactics of the BVS, the vice chancellor has embarrassed the state government and let down the entire academic community badly... Timidity has no room in academics.”