THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Higher education minister K T Jaleel defended his PhD thesis by saying that his work was published by DC Books and Chintha Publications and that he had even received an award for the thesis on Malabar Rebellion.
Reacting to the reports on the complaint submitted to the governor questioning the academic merit of his thesis, Jaleel wrote on his Facebook page that the book ‘Revisiting Malabar Rebellion 1921’ – based on his PhD thesis – had nine reprints. Two of them were by DC Books while Chintha publications published translated version seven more times.
“I haven’t kept my work in the attic. It’s available in the public domain. Anybody who is interested to evaluate its value may buy the book and read,” he said.
According to Jaleel, the complaint that the researcher approached the topic with a biased mind and hadn’t bothered to point out the most unfortunate fallout of Mappila Rebellion exposed the real intention behind such a complaint. “Through extensive quotations, I tried to expose the hollowness of Congress-Sanghi arguments that Malabar rebellion was a communal riot and its leaders Variankunnath and Ali Musliar were bigots,” Jaleel added.
“It is possible to find drawbacks in a books if it’s read with the utmost critical mindset and a communal heart. It’s for the academicians and readers to tell whether my thesis has originality. If the petitioners want to paint the valiant freedom struggle in Malabar as a communal riot, I would be there to prove it wrong with valid proof,” he said.
Based on a complaint filed by Save University Campaign Committee, challenging the authenticity and academic quality of Jaleel’s PhD thesis, governor Arif Mohammed Khan — who is also the chancellor of the university — referred the matter to Kerala University vice-chancellor VP Mahadevan Pillai for further action.