Latest
DU Beat – Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper
Author

DU Beat

Browsing
Arts & Culture

Sixty Ninth Prime time Emmy Awards

By

Hollywood hosted one of the most prestigious awards for the small screen the ‘69th Primetime Emmy Awards’ September 17, 2017. It attracted a lot of big names and some of the TV’S best actors. While a lot of deserving TV series were nominated, only a few managed to take the prestigious award home. Here are three TV series that won big in the Emmy’s and why they are a must watch.
1) Big Little Lies
‘Big Little Lies’ emerged as a major winner in the awards. Laura Dern won the award for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie’ for her portrayal of the character Renata Klien. Alexander Skarsgard won the award for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie’ while Nicole Kidman won the award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series’. The series also won the award for ‘Outstanding Limited Series’.

Based on the novel of the same name by the Australian author Liane Moriarty, the series rightfully deserves the hype and praise that it is receiving. Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley portray the roles of troubled mothers with complex relationships brilliantly. They showcase the real struggles of real women and leave an impression behind. Nicole Kidman deserves the award because she remarkably portrays a domestic abuse victim while remaining sensitive to the subtleties that the character demanded. Shailene Woodley’s portrayal of a rape victim is quite commendable. Laura Dern played a character that is successful in the work front but is always guilty as she feels she does not pay enough attention to her children. The conflict of being successful and being remiss at home is brilliantly portrayed by her. Thus the series is able to capture one’s attention because of the small details in the characters to which it pays a lot of attention. Hence the end result is beautiful.

2) The Handmaid’s Tale
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ won the award for the ‘Outstanding Drama Series’. Apart from that Elisabeth Moss won the ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series’. Ann Dowd won the ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress- Drama Series’ and Bruce Miller won the ‘Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series’.

Set in a dystopian near future this series got everyone talking about having a chilling relevance to the contemporary times. It is an adaptation of the novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood. It is set in times where women are stripped of their rights, identity, names and family and are left to subjugation by men. Any hope for a bright future appears to be bleak as Offred, the protagonist struggles with her new life. Elisabeth Moss who already established herself as a brilliant actor in the ‘Mad Men’ takes her acting skills to another level in this series. No words are enough to appreciate the mastery and expertise with which she plays Offred. Seldom are the cinematic adaptations of a book able to serve justice, however, this series stands apart as every scene is beautiful and refreshing.

3) This is Us
Nominated for eleven awards, ‘This is Us’ managed to win two Emmy’s. Sterling K. Brown won the award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series’. The last time a black actor won this award was in 1998. Thus his win deserves a special mention. Apart from that Gerald McRaney won the award for ‘Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series’.

The series brings to light Leo Tolstoy’s quote “happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. It has a lot of quick witty dialogues and emotional scenes that it will tug your heartstrings and leave you grabbing your tissues. The show resonates with its audience on a deep emotional level. This show deserves a special mention because of its brilliantly crafted out characters and top-notch level acting.

Image Credits: Lainey Gossip

Anukriti Mishra

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Events

Hindu College hosts Tale Talk with Imtiaz Ali

By

Imtiaz Ali, an alumnus of Hindu College, was seen interacting with the students of the English department on Monday, 20th September. He was there to talk about his life and career, his passions, film-making, and theatre.

The event, which was named Tale Talk with Imtiaz Ali was organised by the English department, Hindu College, where one of the senior-most professors, Mrs. Swaroopa Mukherjee, who also happened to have known Ali from his college days, took the role of the speaker. This event was able to draw out from Ali a lot of his adventures during his college days, some of which even led to inspirations for the plot of his films such as Rockstar. When asked about the sources of ideas for his films, Imtiaz said, ‘Stories have just been in side me. For the ones like Highway, I didn’t have to think out of the box. It is the story of a simple girl in the most ordinary situations that anyone can be caught in. For the ones like Rockstar, I never needed to have an idea. I guess I’ve had enough idea about Hindu and Stephen’s during my time here!’

What was interesting was the fact that he revealed how he never really liked most of the titles of his movies. ‘I never wanted Jab We Met to be Jab We Met’, he said. ‘As a matter of fact, Jab Harry met Sejal was suggested by Ranbir to Anushka and neither Shahrukh nor I liked it. But I still approved these titles because I want to keep myself away from the naming business. I feel I’m not great at it.’

He was also very excited to meet Ibtida, the Dramatics Society of Hindu College, of which he happens to be the founder. He narrated tales of how even before coming to college he had planned on joining the Dramatics Society. The dilemma after coming was that there wasn’t any such society in Hindu at that time. ‘It was time that Ibtiba needed to come into being. And it did.’, he said.

The students seemed really delighted to meet him. One of the third years said, ‘He is so relatable. He is still as clueless about what he is going to do next as we are!’

Keep Reading
By
Bazinga

Bazinga: Faulty Voting Machines in Few Colleges: Biased Results?

By

Elections in colleges and universities are valued by every student.  The candidates for the post have lead to the need of more advanced and automated voting systems. However, the design, construction, implementation, effectiveness and security of electronic voting systems have proven to be problematic. The results to DUSU polls were released last Wednesday. Outflow of freebies, goodies, movie tickets came to a fruitful end. But insiders have revealed that the making of the voting machines were faulty and were used in a few colleges. So do we assume the results were biased? Vote flipping? And now, the stories and conspiracy theories have begun.

Sources have informed that there have been reports of voters pressing one candidate’s name, only to have the opponent’s name light up instead. It is unnerving for the students. Have our votes got no value? After all the buzz in the University in the former half of the year, now we get to hear of alleged ‘rigging’ of machines. The colleges which got faulty machines are demanding for another round of elections due to tampering of the ballot boxes. There is a popular demand to scrap the machines. The Chancellor has requested for a probe to look into this matter and the role of the officers involved in the entire process. It said that the machines were tested before the election and are recaliberated each day before voting begins.

But, the upheaval of students regarding justice in this issue has lead to a settlement: Now the winning party will be decided by a popular support rally, which is to be scheduled by the end of this month in DU, north campus. The working mechanism of this rally is described as follows: you have to register yourself under a party as their supporter, and then you have to join their rally-walk from the prescribed time. The party with highest number of supporters will take a win.

Statistics say that more students came out to vote in DU this year as compared to last year.  In 32 of the 41 morning colleges, the voter turnout stood at 44% — a sizeable jump, when the overall voter turnout last year was 36.9%. But, in a university like ours, we expect a higher number of voters. And if you could not vote this year, now you have another chance to have a say in the elections of your very own university. Also, increasing support implies another round of incentives to enjoy! Goodies are on their way, let’s walk a rally.

 

Feature Image Credits: Times of India

Radhika Boruah

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Tips To Navigate Through Internals

By

With the internals’ season here, we present to you the various sources to gather in-depth, reliable information related to your papers.

It’s the internals’ season! I must point out that the exclamation mark is sarcastic because this season comes with non-stop projects, assignments, tests, and presentations, thereby creating a very big Yang to the week-long Yin of the mid-semester relaxation. Still, certain resources can help you get through this period with minimum amount of cursing and frustration. Often, readings and course material aren’t enough to form a detailed project or presentation and gain information for that class which you only attended thrice. So, here are some sources that will help you get the extra information you require:

  1. Current Affairs

Gone are the days when you were in 7th grade and ripped off of Wikipedia without any shame. Researching topics is tough not only because of the depth of material available online and elsewhere, but also because it’s difficult to find accurate sources. When looking for news items, it is preferable to look for renowned sites like the BBC and Al-Jazeera for international news, and The Hindu and India Today for Indian news, as they boast of well-researched information.

  1. Researching Facts

In the realm of subjects like History and Political Science, there often arises a need to find the compact history of a particular country or area. The BBC website has a timeline feature that does exactly that. CIA’s World Factbook also provides the economic, social, geographical and other kinds of data for countries, in a brief manner. Britannica, too, is a good source and a trustworthy online encyclopaedia which gives information on most topics.

  1. Multi-Media Sources

YouTube has a treasure trove of videos on various topics. The problem with these, however, is that their quantity doesn’t translate to quality – especially when there’s no authority verifying these videos. Certain channels, however, have large fan-bases due to their high quality content. ASAPScience, HowStuffWorks, and VSauce make easily understandable videos on Science, while Vox, School of Life, and Crash Course have videos explaining various facets of the social sciences, including Philosophy and Psychology.

  1. Previous Years’ Question Papers

For tests, there is always a set pattern of achieving high scores. It can also depend on the grading style of your particular professor (Yay for the Humanities!). The best way to navigate through their tests is to pester your seniors for their question papers and answer scripts. Resurrect the confidence of your 7th-grade-Wikipedia-thief self while doing so. Additionally, old question papers are available in college libraries and in the School of Open Learning’s  (SOL) web archives.

 

 

Feature image credits: DU Beat

 

Rishika Singh

[email protected]

 

 

 

 

Keep Reading
By
Guest Post

TRIPLE TALAQ: A Battle Against Three Words

By

On 22nd August 2017 came a historic 395-page judgment which was not only a victory for Muslim women who lived for centuries in a constant sense of fear and pressure of this immoral practice, but also a new milestone to women’s right and religion in India.

DIVORCE UNDER MUSLIM LAW AND TRIPLE TALAQ                                                                          Under Muslim law, marriage is a civil contract where the husband enjoys special privileges and the wife suffers certain disabilities as compared to the husband. The husband is given an unchecked power of divorce except for the restraint of the law of dower and his own moral sense. On the other hand, Muslim women must prove the grounds or get the consent of the husband to get the divorce, in which case the husband can escape the liability of paying dower.

There are different modes of talaq under Muslim law such as implied, contingent, constructive, delegated, or express. Sunni Muslims recognise all of these modes of talaq whereas Shia Muslims recognise only express and delegated divorce.

The express mode of divorce has two forms: Talaq-ul-Sunnat and Talaq-ul-Biddat, also known as triple talaq. It is the second form which has been a point of contention for decades.  Talaq-ul-Biddat is the practice under which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by simply uttering “talaq” three times. Interestingly, those who hold this decision as an attack on personal religion should know that Allah never approved this mode of talaq. Even the Shias do not recognise triple talaq.

FROM SHAH BANO TO SHAYARA BANO

The journey of the Supreme Court’s milestone verdicts in regard to religious reform is as old as independence. With regard to Muslim law, a few cases in which the Supreme Court observed such landmark decisions are the Shah Bano Case (1985), Danial Latifi Case (2001), Shamim Ara Case (2002), and Masroor Ahmed Case (2008). It was the case of Shah Bano in which the Supreme Court not only delivered a landmark judgment on rights of Muslim women but also brought the issue into mainstream media.  The judgment faced huge criticism by conservative Muslim groups who presented the verdict as an attack on Muslim personal law. Consequently, vote bank politics and appeasement led to the enactment of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights in Divorce) Act, 1986. This act negated the far-reaching effects of the Shah Bano judgment, which led to strong feminist movements against the state. Finally, the constitutional validity of the act was challenged in the Daniel Latifi Case (2001), where the Supreme Court showed an act of restraint and diplomacy. It rejected the challenge but re-interpreted Section 3 of the Act to solve the issue of the right of maintenance of Muslim women.

In the Shamim Ara Case (2002) and Masoor Ahmed Case (2008), the apex Court acknowledged the issues with regard to talaq. The jurisprudence of talaq has since undergone a vast improvement. The court observed the importance of communication of pronouncement and attempt of reconciliation before the finalisation of dissolution of marriage. Finally, last month, the Court gave its judgment on the Shayara Bano case, branding triple talaq as unconstitutional once and for all.

WHY IS THIS VERDICT IMPORTANT?

As Virginia Saldanha, a Mumbai-based theologian stated, we need to accept the fact that all religions have promoted a patriarchal mindset where “men are dominant as recipients, interpreters, and transmitter of divine messages, while women have largely remained passive receivers of teachings and ardent practitioners of religious rituals”. The judiciary of India has shown a progressive approach towards women’s rights, be it Muslim or Hindu Women. The problem arises when these decisions are taken as an attack on one’s religion rather than progressive reforms in religion. We need to take discriminatory practices and notions out of our religion to create an environment of equality and abolish the existing gender bias. This judgment is illuminating and needs to be cherished by people around the country; we need to reform our religions and its practices so that they do not threaten the constitutionally enshrined principles of equality and justice.

 

Feature Image Credits: Olive Green Institute

Guest Post by Krishna Sharma, Third-Year Student at Faculty of Law, University of Delhi

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Let’s Make Our Schools Safe Again

By

Recent incidents of atrocities in schools, such as the heinous murder in Ryan International School, Gurugram, is the wakeup call our society desperately needs in terms of safety.

 

The concepts of trust and safety are complex, just as human emotions are. When children are admitted into a school, they spend a substantial number of hours of the day, in a place away from home. The first stage of a child’s education is the school. Children are absolutely naïve when they enter schools and leaving the confines of their homes is the biggest challenge for them. They whole heartedly embrace the world and the new people in it. All this while, they are trust their teachers and their elders in the school for their safety. But these days, the schools are letting them down.

Schooling is not merely an establishment to impart knowledge, but forges a place where the future of the child is determined. Children learn simple things like basic manners and etiquettes in their primary education. The parents impart massive trust in the institution. The same is expected to hone the talents of their children and develop theminto good human beings. Adults are willing to shell out a lot of money just so their child can become successful in life.

The recent incident of Ryan International School, Gurugram, sent shivers all across the country. The brutal murder of the 7-year-old boy has left his parents as well as the parents of children across the Delhi-NCR region utterly petrified. The students of the school confirmed that the specific branch was always neglected by the main administration and that the principals were puppets, acting according to the bizarre rules of the “central office”. Despite having a beautiful and big campus, the school faced severe shortcomings in logistics. The buses of the school were rejects by the other branches, and the condition of the musical instruments was very poor. Whenever a principal tried to obtain funds by sending a list of improvements required to the main administration, the list would come back with cross marks all over it, completely denying any sanctions. Else, the school was asked to revert with substantial trims made in the list.

Numerous instances all across the country have surfaced in the past 4-5 years where children are sexually exploited by school staff. Half the children are unaware of the sexual harassment they go through and the number of boys to girls in this ratio of students is staggeringly high too. A number of such instances have left young girls pregnant.

CBSE has recently passed an order to conduct psychometric tests of all the teaching staff, non-teaching staff, sweepers, peons and bus conductors. The move has come after the death of Ryan International School’s student, but the procedure is lengthy. A single test takes anywhere between half an hour to an hour, and CBSE has more than 200 schools in India and abroad. The schools can also not be fully trusted with the authenticity of the test results. As a response to the present situation at Ryan’s, Haryana Police has issued a guide to safety for the schools located in NCR.

The need of the hour is for schools all across India to implement strict safety measures. CCTV cameras should be installed in all corners. Teacher attendants must be present in the buses in the morning as well as the afternoons. A teacher attendant or a guard outside washrooms must be present. Separate washrooms for students, teaching staff and non-teaching staff should be provided. No student should be allowed to enter the class alone before all students have arrived. All students’ ID cards should be checked by the guards at the gate and each student’s arrival and departure be monitored.

The school is a child’s second abode, so the onus lies on the schools to ensure the safety of our children, because we cannot endure such atrocities against them anymore.

 

 

Feature image credits: DNA India

 

Bhavya Banerjee

[email protected]

Prachi Mehra

[email protected]

 

 

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Heading Towards Regression: Transgenders Derecognised From Labour Laws

By

The Law ministry has rejected amendments in the labour laws that were in direct benefit for transgenders, citing reasons from an act of 1897. Is the discrimination against them far deeper than we accept?

Heading towards sad regression, the Law ministry has reportedly derecognised transgenders from the country’s labour laws framework. This comes three years after the landmark judgement of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) vs The Union of India was passed by the Supreme Court of India, that recognised transgenders as the third gender for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under the Indian constitution, and urging the Centre and the State to provide for equitable opportunities for their education and skill enhancement.

This comes from the government’s decision to streamline 38 labour acts into four labour codes; namely the Code on Wages, Code on Industrial Relations, Code on Social Security and Code on occupational safety, health and working conditions, as part of its labour reforms. The purpose of implementing this code is to remove multiple definitions and pave way for compliance without undermining the importance of wage security and social security of the workers. When a senior official at the Ministry of Labour and Employment was questioned on the reported derecognisation of transgenders by The Hindu, he responded, “We had proposed inserting clauses for recognizing rights of transgender workers in all four codes. However, the law ministry objected citing the General clauses Act 1897, according to which transgenders fall into the definition of a “person”. It was then decided that there was no need to add a separate clause for them.” Even in the amendments that have been proposed for Factories Act of 1948, the inclusion of transgender rights has been shelved. The amendments could potentially have ensured dignity and respect for transgenders at all workplaces, and upheld constitutional freedom for the marginalised community.

Besides a few draft bills, no action has been taken to align the rights of transgenders with existing laws. Despite the NALSA verdict, most laws of the country which pertain to adoption, succession, and criminal offences have no mention of the third gender. Recently, a court ordered bail for four people who were accused of gang-raping a trans person. The law is still silent about transgenders, as section 376, that criminalises rape has no provisions for them. Similarly, section 377 regarding criminal offence of unnatural sex is also incomplete as it deals with crimes against a woman, man and animal, but doesn’t specify anything for the third gender.

The problem lies with failing to acknowledge ‘transgender’ and using gender neutral terms like “person” that invoke arbitrariness and are open to several interpretations, thus gauging on the vulnerability of transgender community. Using the term ‘eunuch’ in laws is also extremely derogatory, and it repeals them from the protective laws that are available for other genders. If the country’s legal frameworks can’t include separate clauses for the third gender, it means that discrimination against them is far deeper than we supposedly accept.

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Vijeata Balani
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Islamophobia: A Threat to Humankind?

By

How many times has the sight of men clad in skull caps instilled a sense of fear in you? What makes the recitation of Quran and the offering of Namaz in public places an astounding spectacle? To answer these questions well, retrospectively, it is important to understand what Islamophobia is.

Islamophobia, as the name suggests, is the irrational and unfounded fear of Muslims and/or Islam, often times used as a political rhetoric. The term surfaced in the late twentieth century, only to reach an unprecedented peak, post the 9/ 11 terrorist attacks. The perpetrators of the same were 19 men affiliated to Al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organisation. Having mentioned the involvement of an Islamist group in this dreadful act, it became all too inevitable for the Muslim community as a whole to not be viewed under the same radar as terrorists. Treated just as such since, their community has been under tremendous pressure from agencies all across the globe.

Their blatant ostracism from the mainstream affairs of the world is not a pleasant sight to behold. US President, Donald Trump, openly campaigning for an absolute ban on Muslims entering The States is a sickening ploy, more so because it was a political propaganda camouflaged as a mitigation measure against rebellion. He garnered an unbelievably huge response to his unlikely candidacy at the presidential elections by fanning the already seething flames of hostility towards Islam in the US.

Prominent American Muslim, Edward Mitchell IV of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told Al Jazeera that it is one thing to read anti-Muslim rhetoric on the internet or to see it on Fox News and it is an other thing to hear it from the president of the United States. The same can be said about Theresa May, only she does not out rightly admit to racism. Theresa May, Prime Minister of The United Kingdom turned a deaf ear to the incessant wailing of Muslim worshippers, celebrating Ramdaan at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, when a white van swerved sharply off the road and slammed into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least eight others. However, earlier in the same year when jihadists orchestrated an attack on London, in which eight people were killed, May was infuriated and issued a statement saying that there was far too much tolerance of Islamist extremism in the UK and announced civil liberties restriction. What May did in the latter, was indeed the right thing to do to in order to safe guard the interests of her citizens, however, the lack of reciprocal prosecution in the former suggests bigoted sentiments of the Prime Minister towards Islam.

The present day plight of Rohingya Muslims, the most vexed ethnic Muslim community in the world, is nothing short of horrific. Having to flee away from Myanmar, their home land, they find themselves negotiating the terms of refuge in neighboring nations, having to live without an identity, for what seems like an indefinite period of time. Mob lynching cases in India have been on the rise since the BJP government attained power in 2014, not to mention, the categorical slaughter of Muslim men under the pretext of beef consumption and cow annihilation. Pehlu Khan, Mohammad Aklaq, and Junaid Khan, are a few names out of a couple hundred that resonate with indignation and lost pride.

World domination as against a particular community, based on the suspicion of radical ties of a few with certain established militant organisation, is an extremely poor choice, especially when we are living in a polar world, where the dissemination of information is the freehold of media houses, a privilege which ought to be exploited, like all others. “If I was not a Muslim and all I knew about Islam is what I saw in the evening news, I might be afraid of Muslims too,” says Mitchell to Al Jazeera, highlighting the deplorable state of moral policing in media and print stations.

It is important to separate religious affiliations from counter terrorism. Terrorism is not the sole propriety of a particular community. The sinful acts of a few radical extremists should not lead the remaining 1.6 billion into apologetic surrender. It is the job, not just of the government but also of the masses to scrutinise the current scenario and come up with a mechanism to weed out the rotten lot and save Islamism of religious defamation.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Express Tribune Blog

Lakshita Arora
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

The Plight of Students Not Fluent in English

By

Do students who are fluent in English have more resources available at their disposal and is there a linguistic bias prevalent in the University of Delhi?

The English bias is a very real phenomenon, especially in a country like ours, which hasn’t been able to completely break free from the chains of colonialism, even after 70 years of independence. In the University of Delhi (DU), an institute where the medium of communication is primarily English, this becomes especially problematic for a lot of students. An education in DU is not exclusive to private school students, and the teaching methods should reflect that, doing justice to the diverse student body.

While some professors try to accommodate students from a Hindi-medium background, this practise varies from college to college.  For instance, The Directorate of Hindi Medium Implementation publishes translations of various books from English to Hindi every year. But these translations are not enough to cover the curriculum’s width and depth. Supplementary readings and handouts that professors circulate in the classroom are majorly in English, and students who are not comfortable with the language miss out on them. For them, the only way to understand the syllabus and its contents is either to seek help from guides or helpful friends. They spend long hours looking up words in the English-to-Hindi dictionary in order to understand their curriculum better. This task is tedious and the language barrier and lack of resources leads them to spend immense energy on something as basic as having access to the study material in a language which they are comfortable with. Similarly, students fluent in other regional languages face a drawback too.

Rinki, a student of B.A. Programme, studying Psychology and English from Daulat Ram College, says, “Bohot Hindi-medium students class mein bolne mein hesitate karte hain. Yeh zaroori hai ki aise motivational programmes college mein hon jisse unka stress aur hesitation kam ho (A lot of students from the Hindi-medium backgrounds hesitate in speaking in their class. It is important that colleges organise motivational programmes to help students reduce their stress levels and hesitation.)”

It is essential that we acknowledge that this emphasis on our education being imparted in English results in other students not comfortable with the language suffering immense academic losses. It is important that we establish this fact – having the ability to read and write in English is an additional skill, not a minimum requirement to have access to a good education. It is imperative that we remember that fluency in English should not be a prerequisite to be able to understand your professors.  Fluency in English is closely linked with education in private schools. It is a product of one’s privilege as much as it is the product of one’s dedication and hard work. It would be highly unfair if these criteria were allowed to determine and influence the quality of education imparted to students who don’t speak in English.  Colleges must actively seek out and encourage the faculty to bridge the gap between the resources available to English speakers and those more comfortable in regional languages.  Apart from ensuring that reading material and secondary readings are translated, they must also ensure that the faculty encourages all students to actively participate in class. The purpose of a language is to facilitate discussion, debate, learning and expression. But when language starts restricting people from actively seeking a good education, it becomes highly problematic. The first step in solving a problem is realizing that we have one.

September 8th was World Literacy Day, and it reminded us that education is the greatest gift mankind gave itself. Today, we are living in  times where we can see our mother tongue slowly fading out, both in terms of its relevance and common use.  And therefore, it is even more important that those who speak the language should be encouraged to pursue it further. If students who prefer regional languages over English keep encountering challenges while trying to pursue an education, it would lead to the slow demise of the language and would act as a deterrent for others wishing to pursue it.

 

Feature Image Credits: Pinterest

Kinjal Pandey
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Has Our Democracy Matured Enough Yet?

By

With the country’s top-notch universities going to polls, JNUSU on 8th September and DUSU on 12th September, we celebrate the International Day for Democracy on 15th September amidst intolerance for dissent and curbed free spaces in universities.

Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Since centuries, the disciplines of politics, philosophy, law, sociology etc. have revolved around the notions of power and rights – be it of the state or of the people. Questions of sovereignty, national interest, natural rights, freedom, legitimacy, coercion, rule of law etc. have been raised to, for, and against state power.  Many theorists and intellectuals of the liberal tradition  maintain that where the roots of democracy are not ingrained deeply and people’s civil liberties face threats constantly, societies soon fall into the trap of authoritarianism. They are then susceptible to radical change through social movements and rebellion. This happened once in India during the late 60s and early 70s, when people faced a serious crisis of inflation and drought in 1966-67, already draining resources, and a fragile economy due to the three wars fought in 1962, 1965 and 1971. With a corrupt government ready to stifle dissent and reward the supporters  of despotism, we saw the ascent of the Naxalbari Movement in Bengal and the JP movement in Gujarat. The government’s immediate response to such uprisings was the brutal suppression of the dissenters, finally giving way to the imposition of an internal Emergency in 1975, which is still commemorated as the darkest phase for democracy in India. Maybe, as the liberals put it, ‘our democracy had still not matured and we fell into trap of absolutism’, and thus Lord Acton’s remark for Indira’s India proved right.

In 2014, we saw the rise of another  party which won with a sweeping majority with the help of a charismatic demagogue. Issues of tolerance, or rather intolerance, jobless growth, majoritarianism, what to eat, or better, what not to eat, censorship of artistic freedom or the of teaching Indian values (#SANSKAAR), moral policing in the form Anti-Romeo squads etc. have resurfaced in the political scene. Cows are safer in this country than women.  Draconian, archaic sedition laws which were a part of British Raj are being used to infiltrate university spaces, army tanks are placed to instil nationalism when there  are already problems regarding hostels, a journalist who spoke her mind has been killed and a girl who raises her opinion is bombarded with rape threats. In this atmosphere, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) polls will happen. Whereas in one, debate and ideology play a crucial role for the winning party, in the other, caste and muscle-money power rule the results. Even after 70 years, we believe that holding an election is the crux of any democracy, both in the national scenario as well as at the university level. Though we may not be facing the dark times of Emergency again, with the judiciary being our knight-in-shining-armour (as the Triple Talaq case, right to privacy and other cases demonstrate), Modi’s “New India” is still treading upon the same path as Indira’s India. On this International Day for Democracy, let’s question whether our civil-political liberties and economic, social, and cultural rights are intact or not – whether our 70 year old democracy has matured or not.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Hindu

Oorja Tapan
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By