No Overseas Scholarship For Studying Indian History Abroad, Govt Says Repository Available Within India

Students seeking National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) scheme for pursuing humanities subjects abroad, including Indian history, culture and heritage, will now be barred from applying for the scholarship. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has issued new guidelines earlier this month for 2022-23, The Indian Express reported.

For this year, the last date to apply for the scheme is March 31.

Indian Culture, History Topics Not Covered

As per the new norms, the scholarship will not cover Indian culture, heritage, history, and other social studies courses on India-based topics. However, the final decision of listing the topics to be covered under such category rests with election-cum-screening committee of NOS.

Making Use Of Resourced Within India

Social Justice and Empowerment Department Secretary R Subrahmanyam said the decision was taken after several considerations. Subrahmanyam said the country had more than the required resources and excellent universities and courses covering Indian subjects.

Such works also require fieldwork, so the students had to spend most of their research time within India. Hence, a scholarship to study the country outside the country was unnecessary.

"We have estimated the capabilities of guiding high-quality research within India within the ministry. So, we felt that the resources could be better spent on gaining expertise in other fields in foreign universities," the Secretary said.

Applying For Fellowships For Indian Universities

The department has not extracted social studies entirely from the NOS. Subrahmanyam informed that students seeking to study particular subjects could apply for fellowships provided for Indian universities. Reportedly, there are about 4,000 full fellowships for students.

Criticism

Several people, including politicians, have condemned the government's move. Senior Congress Dalit leader PL Punia called it objectionable and said it restricted the opportunities for students, especially an individual from a Scheduled Caste community. Punia alleged the government of excluding the minority community students from the higher education system.

"Suppose a Scheduled Caste student wants to pursue super-specialisation in a particular field in a foreign university. In that case, they should be encouraged and allowed to do so," TIE quoted him as saying.

Decision Ineffective On Minorities

Contradicting Punia, GB Pant Social Science Institute Director Prof Badri Narayan said the decision would not affect such students negatively. He said that the universities in India had a robust stock of literature that was unnoticed.

The archival research or fieldwork on social subjects needed to be carried out in the country itself. The government will utilise the funds in other subjects, he added.

Also Read: Haridwar Hate Speech Accused Yati Narsinghanand Giri Out On Bail In Two Cases