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St Stephen’s College Chapel Vandalised: ‘Mandir Yahin Banega’

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St Stephen’s College chapel door along with the cross outside it was found defaced with a Hindutva slogan on Friday. While the perpetrator of this inflammatory act remains unknown, the incident has caused a momentous uproar.

Reportedly, some students had noticed the graffiti with the words ‘mandir yahin banega’ (a temple will be constructed here) written on it with black ink on Friday. Moreover, the cross outside the chapel, on the grave of college founder Samuel Scott Allnut, was also said to have been defaced — with an ‘Om’ symbol drawn on it, along with the words ‘I’m going to hell’. However, by Saturday afternoon, everything was cleaned up by the college staff.

College officials deny the incident
When the officiating principal of the college was sought for an enquiry regarding this act, he denied the claims of such vandalisation. “I did not see anything written on the chapel door; there was no such incident,” Bursar Renish Abraham reported to The Indian Express. The pictures below prove otherwise.

College unions issue statements

Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) President Rocky Tusseed expressed his anger over the disheartening act. “There is an attempt to divide students of the country along religious lines. The same script of Aligarh Muslim University (where an 80-year-old portrait of Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah created a controversy) is playing out here as well,” Tusseed said to News18. No police report has been filed against the act and Tuseed affirmed that DUSU would raise the issue with the concerned authorities.

The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) issued the following statement. With a demand to maintain peace and calm, NSUI officials said: “They have tried to polarise the student community on the basis of religion and fake nationalism several times but have failed on every attempt,”. 

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) state secretary Bharat Khatana told The Indian Express, “The college should investigate who was involved in this condemnable incident. There must be CCTV cameras installed, which will help identify the culprits.”

The case of vandalism continues

Today morning, another act of defacement was observed on the Hindu College bus stop. The vandal had written in opposition to the comments written on St Stephen’s College Chapel. It read, “Mandir nahi banega, college yehi rahega.”

Hindu College bus stop vandalised in response
Hindu College bus stop vandalised in response

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Image Credits: India Today

Raabiya
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The Need for Gender Neutral Washrooms in Colleges

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At first, the idea of having gender-neutral washrooms in a university space may seem drastic; however,  we cannot let this kind of conservatism become an excuse for the administration to keep wearing the cloak of queer-invisibility and remain conveniently ignorant.

Any transgender person usually experiences their first episode of invisibility in deciding which washroom to use. While they may not overtly fit in to use the gender-aligning washroom, using the other washroom can feel violating and uncomfortable.

When a person transitions gender, it is not a quick process. It takes months if not years before the secondary sex characteristics of the person’s correct gender start to appear. While we wish for a better society where open-acceptance and inclusion of queer people exists, it undeniably will take us some time. Using gender-confirming bathrooms can possibly lead to abuse, humiliation, and assault. Imagine being laughed at, questioned or beaten up for attempting to meet a very basic need. Such a situation demands universities to build gender-neutral washrooms, at-least one if not many.

Jody L. Herman, Williams Institute Manager of Transgender Research conducted a study on “Gendered Restrooms and Minority Stress: The Public Regulation of Gender and Its Impact on Transgender People’s Lives.” This scientific study found that 70 percent of transgender and gender-nonconforming respondents experienced problems in gender-specific restrooms in Washington, D.C., with people of colour and people who have not medically transitioned often faring worse than others.

Following the lead of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in their celebrated decision of building gender-neutral hostels, the University of Delhi (DU)  can do the same. Keeping the binary washrooms intact, a gender-neutral washroom could be installed so as to avoid any confusion and possible abuse. While the administration might think that the transgender and non-binary population is “minuscule”, it is not the case. Many transgender people stay in the closet in fear of societal and parental rejection. Not only would building gender-neutral washrooms ensure that a significant amount of fear and discomfort that they experienced using the non-aligning washroom went away, it would ensure that the needs of transgender people are recognised and acknowledged.

Feature Image Credits: BlogTO

Raabiya Tuteja

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Free Choice: Feminist or not?

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In its new phase, feminism has become a movement based on right to make choices. But, as it so happens, that at time our choices are inherently patriarchal.

Choice Feminism is termed coined by Linda Hirshmanin in her 2007 manifesto “Get to Work,” that a woman’s freedom to choose trumps her right to equality. Ever since then, the concept of ‘bad feminist’ has become too related to decisions of marriage, children, and beauty standards. But first, we must ask whether ‘free choice’ is really ‘feminist’?

An acceptable — yet slightly premature — definition of feminism would be the structural and systematic equality of all sexes. Feminism at its core remains a relevant political and social identity. A movement fighting for the issues of women, if put at large. While we must combat a system based on male supremacy, the current threat to feminism rouses from ‘choice feminism’. It is a general belief that ‘free will’ is never truly free. It’s based on prevailing contexts, conditions, and circumstances and yet, being a feminist inhibits any limitations on free choice, somehow.

It is choice feminism that has gotten us to a place whereby one woman can be both a super-feminist and a traitor to feminism for choosing to, say, get a boob job or become a housewife. Here, we don’t discredit the right to bodily autonomy, yet, we say that it must be done with the feminist intention, if at all. We do not ask you to thrash everything patriarchal, rather we can’t. Given how deep patriarchy has seeped, that would mean abandoning your life altogether. But, “if, say, wearing high heels or having short hair or feeling flattered by catcalls is what makes or breaks your feminism, perhaps it’s more fragile than you think.” (Andi Zeisler).

The fact that you might enjoy putting lots of makeup or high heels does not impact status of gender equality. There is nothing inherently feminist in making decisions, but if your actions go against the basic clause of equality, we’d not call it feminist. For example, the ‘free choice’ for a woman to change her maiden name and perhaps, middle name after marriage IS NOT feminist. Not only does it age back us to the time when such a ritual was undertaken to show ownership but, if it’s done with the intent to make ‘your man’ happy, it might be even more damaging.

‘Choice feminism’, has limitations and must be done with said intentions. If your actions — intentionally or accidentally — harm bodily autonomy or perpetuates the patriarchal tradition between men and women, then such a free choice is not feminist.

 

Feature Image Credits:

Raabiya Tuteja
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The Orthodox Practice of Over-disciplining in Indian Schools

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Indian Schools have been using age-old techniques to discipline students and no one dares to challenge their authority. This has allowed teachers and supervisors to be authoritarian, thereby harming a child’s personality growth in serious ways.

 

In 2017, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued a recommendation to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), advising the introduction of  certain elements of military school training in regular schools. In addition, aspects like rigorous physical training and ‘patriotic sentiments’ were also meant to be introduced. But, in reality, such an advice is futile since such a structure is already in place.

Most schools and parents want their children to be ‘polite’, but such politeness is manifested in webbing a ‘culture of silence’. Young children are asked to ‘put finger on your lips’, subjecting them to a sense of eternal silence in presence of authority. Instead, students should be taught the sense of ‘internal discipline’. They should be placed in an environment where they can challenge authority, ask questions, and be heard. Quoting Paulo Freire from ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, “Without dialogue there is no communication, and without communication there can be no true education.”

From personal experience, I have seen teachers cutting boys’ hair and braiding girls’ hair in between classes. Why does a student’s physical appearance come before their education? It must be understood that uniform checks must be done before or after class, in a way where ‘bodily autonomy’ of the student is not harmed. Indian schools follow an oppressor-oppressed system between teachers and students. Corporal punishment — though may be illegal — is still practised in every school in this country, unfortunately. One could reason that Indians have a low perception of bodily autonomy due to such a regime, emerging due to the importance given to sociability over individuality.

Most schools push boys and girls away from each other, since a very young age. They are made to sit with another student of the same sex, probably to inhibit any sexual interference during the time of learning (completely ignoring queer students). Yet, it must be argued that after a certain point it manifests into a lack of understanding and inability to talk to the opposite sex. Schools are a place where students are under constant watch, either through monitors, teachers, coaches, or supervisors. It is a shame that such an environment is not used for students to let them explore their bodies and sexuality. Due to this, teenagers find them in a spot where they fail to understand their own bodies and mind. They explore love, sex, and dating in ways that could potentially be disastrous to them – physically and/or emotionally.

While discipline is important, it should not mean non-reflexive obedience, nor should it mean non-critical acceptance of everything that is projected as ‘national’ or ‘collective’, or even ‘sacred’. It should arouse from the child’s sense of self, intrinsically. Schools must be mere guides and consultants in that process.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Times of India

Raabiya Tuteja
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DU Student Murdered, Abductors Demanded 50 lakhs

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Ayush Nautiyal, a final year student at Ram Lal Anand College was found murdered last night, after he went missing on 21 March. His body was recovered from the drains in Sector 13, Dwarka.

After Ayush did not reach home from college, his family filed a report with the police, but allegedly, they adopted a careless and callous approach. Ayush’s father Dinesh Nautiyal was contacted by the abductors through the student’s Whatsapp. The message comprised of a photo of Ayush who had suffered injuries on his head and he appeared to be tied up. The abductors also demanded 50 lakhs as ransom.

Keeping close contact with the abductors, Ayush’s family was able to reduce the ransom amount to 10 lakhs. The police asked his family to avoid going to the media, for it could have been adverse to Ayush’s life, and his family followed their advice. After trying to find the abductors and hand over the ransom money for more than two days, Ayush’s body was found in Dwarka.

While the reason for his abduction and murder has been unclear, the police have yet to make any statement about the same. A student at Ram Lal Anand College reported to DU Beat that he reportedly “had gone on a Tinder date before he was abducted”. It is uncertain if this may have had any connection.

Given the number of cat-fishers and perpetrators that linger on such websites that prey on innocent people, such an angle must be appropriately investigated. It is vital that justice is served and the murderers are punished. The source also reported that “Ayush was also active on social media after he had gone missing”.

A candle light march in the victim’s memory will be held from Ram Lal Anand College to South Campus police station on 2nd April from 10 a.m. onwards by the students.

DU Beat will be following the case closely. This report will be updated with the relevant details as received.

 

 

Feature Image Credits: Ram Lal Anand College

Raabiya Tuteja

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Relatable moments if you use Tinder

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The reasons can be many, boredom, curiosity, peer pressure, or loneliness, but if you’ve ever signed up for an online dating service such as Tinder then there are some relatable moments you are bound to go through. Here is a list of a few of them!

1. Getting fixated on your own profile: You can call it narcissism, but we all do it. We stare at our own pictures and re-read our bio countless times to make sure every hot boy, girl, or person swipes right on us. Self-help books tell us to be the judge of our own worth and I guess we are doing just that.

2. Curing loneliness since forever: When none of your friends are free (or perhaps you don’t have friends) or you are bored in the metro, you’ll find yourself desperately scrounging through each profile to make sure you don’t miss a chance at finding the perfect lover, friend, or hook-up. You’ll assess and re-assess every profile before making the paramount decision on which side to swipe.

3. The wrong left swipes: Usually, when you have a tinder-aline rush happening on your fingers, and you’re swiping left and right like your life depends on it, you are bound to swipe left on the ‘perfect’ match for you. What then? Well, life becomes meaningless and you feel like you lost your chance at finding true love.

4. Not matching with your love-at-first-sight: Oh, and when the same person shows up again in your discovery and this time you swipe right, but you realise it’s not a match. I think that’s when you truly lose sight and probably decide on nunnery as your career goal.

5. Swiping right just for fun: Scrolling through the endless fellow desperate humans, you come across some profiles with headless-torsos, celebrities, Instagram models, or other such obvious cat-fishers and you swipe right just to feed yourself on their bait. Suddenly your guilty pleasure changes from chocolates to leading on random people and un-matching them.

6. People who come on too strong or too weak: When you find yourself in a match on Tinder and a person who approaches with a ‘send bobs and vagene’ or an equally creepy variant, your immediate reaction is to un-match the person before you die out of a cringe-attack. Or, when a person says ‘Hi’, ‘Hey’, ‘Hello’, or straight up forgets all the vowels and says ‘Hy’, you know you deserve more or at least all the vowels.

In all honesty, Tinder has made dating easier on one hand and tougher on the other. While we now have an endless pool of people to choose from and an option for queer people to date, but the curiosity of what else is out there prevents you from settling anywhere, if at all.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Verge

Raabiya Tuteja

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Experience of an Atheist in an Ashram

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When you put a non-believer in a religious environment, interesting things are bound to happen. For instance, the idea of praying for hours without an end will end with a cry for help.

Before I recount my trip to an ashram in south India, I must delve into some personal details. For the purpose of this experience, knowing that I am a transgender girl and an atheist is, perhaps, epochal. To live in the ashram meant subduing these parts of me. It started at the accommodation office. The person-in-charge would talk to me, rather than my mom. The idea of being perceived as a man and the ‘phallus’ attached to being a man is very discomforting to me. I nudged my mother to talk to him and he glanced at me with his under-the-breath judgement.

The whole ashram was based around Sai Baba and, for some, life ceased to exist after that. Life meant praying to their god and participating in his discourse. You can choose to call it either dedication or obsession. Though this isn’t necessarily bad, this isn’t my choice of a lifestyle.

Everything at the ashram was divided on the basis of gender,  be it the canteen queues, the prayer hall seating arrangement, or the shopping centre timings. While this was done to bring a sense of discipline in the environment, I found myself sitting in  my room, dreading to go outside. Interestingly, the library was not restricted on the basis of gender and I tried finding my solace there. Eventually, I realised all the books are based on praying or religious commandments. Soon it became very monotonous to read how you should live and how you should not.

What I thoroughly enjoyed during my stay at the ashram was the cheap yet tasty food. It was prepared with clean hands. The ratios of spices were just perfect and the fact that I was eating my lunch for less thanINR 30, made me a happy woman. The canteen timings were definitely odd for a person from Delhi. Breakfast from 6:30 a.m. – 8 a.m., lunch at 11:30 a.m., and dinner at 6:30 p.m., were unknown concepts for me.

Some of the most cherished memories I had were when I experienced the Chinese New Year celebration where classical Chinese music and dances were performed. The next day, I sat through a set of plays based on family values and a choir performing upbeat spiritual songs. These moments were truly beautiful. Such extravaganzas made me change my perception towards spirituality, which no longer seemed to be a boring concept.

While throwing myself back into the ‘closet’ brought immense pain to my mental state, so much so that passing each day felt like a huge task, I still took away some sweet memories and learned a lot about myself and the kinds of people around me.

 

Feature Image Credits: Holidify

Raabiya Tuteja

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The Experience of a Transgender Woman in University of Delhi

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The society has built walls of non-acceptance, invisibility, and harassing transgender people. Studying at the University of Delhi while being myself openly, I recount my own experiences.

After much introspection, when I finally understood and identified myself with the “label” of a transgender woman, I realised that life is going to be tough. While you can hide your sexuality, it is hard to hide your gender expression. Gender expression is overt and apparent. Even though medicine and the legal system have developed in this matter, transitioning from male to female is not a cake walk.

Gender dysphoria is emotionally and mentally debilitating. Very simply put, it is the discomfort due in “phallic” circumstances. Beginning with, using the “male” washroom in college feels wrong and almost unsafe to use. Moreover, at the metro station, I have to be body-checked at the “male” security check. To experience this before coming to college every day becomes difficult and often prevents me from attending classes. Once I was wearing a  kurti and churidar along with a dupatta and the security guard asked me if I’m male or female, after which he proceeded to touch my genitals. I felt numb, angry, and violated.

After I found the right name for myself and became comfortable in my identity, I came out to my friends on Instagram. Visibility is important and telling everyone proudly and unashamedly, certainly made things better. The initial reaction was largely and overwhelmingly positive. My friends started using my preferred name and pronouns. After coming out, I encountered a series of ignorant questions like “Are you male or female?”, “Since you’re biologically male, that means you’re a trans-man, right?”, “Why do you have to be extremely feminine all the time?”, or “Have you tried being masculine or being with a girl? There is still time and maybe you’ll change.” I try my best to explain to those who genuinely ask but, often the sheer ignorance puts me off. For a generation that spends most of its time on the internet, this level of obliviousness cannot be expected, especially within the age demographic I spend most of my time with.

People everywhere face prejudices and stereotypes. A blonde woman has to prove she’s not dumb, a brown-skinned woman ought to prove she’s beautiful, but, as a transwoman, I have to prove that I am, in fact, a woman. Since I am not medically transitioning yet, people “misgender” me, and often perceive me as male which is extremely discomforting. The general understanding on transwomen is that “She is about to become a woman”. While I may not be physically female yet, I am a woman, naari , and larki through and through.

While I’m very comfortable in my womanhood, validating moments like being gendered correctly by strangers, being referred to as “ma’am”, or when someone approaches my friends with my birth name and surprisingly they don’t remember it, fills my heart with happy blood and I feel at peace.

Raabiya Tuteja

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