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Arts & Culture

We the People of India: Republic of Sycophancy?

By DU Beat January 26, 2022

As India celebrates its 73rd Republic day this year, it marks more than seventy decades of the enforcement of India’s constitution. How are we as a Republic functioning? Are we citizens exercising our power or are we forming ourselves into a ‘cult of sycophants’? Read to find out more.

India celebrates her 73rd Republic Day this year. Overcoming all the challenges and obstacles coming on her way, India has completed more than seventy decades of being a Republic. But, what does being a Republic mean? It refers to the country where it is the citizens who hold supreme power and choose the elected representatives.

As stated in the Preamble, it is “We, the people of India” that holds immense power and signifies the essence of India as a Democratic Republic. However, in recent times, the term Republic can be seen challenged and diluted by ‘sycophancy’. So, what does sycophancy mean?

The Cambridge dictionary defines it as the “behaviour in which someone praises powerful or rich people in a way that is not sincere, usually in order to get some advantage from them”.

Back in 1974, the Congress leader from Assam, Dev Kant Barooah told the country,

Indira tere subah ki jai, Indira tere sham ki jai, Indira tere kaam ki jai, Indira tere naam ki jai, Indira is India, India is Indira”.

This sounds poetic indeed, but isn’t it too much? While Tamil Nadu leader Jayalalithaa’s arrest in 2014 led to the largest number of suicides. Besides, several other ‘followers’ depilated their heads. This is undoubtedly a pathetic level of sycophancy! On the other hand, the era of BJP is also not lagging behind in this race of rising sycophants in the political ground of the country. In 2018, Maharashtra’s BJP spokesperson Avadhut Wagh tweeted, “Hon PM Narendra Modiji is the 11th Avatar of Lord Vishnu. Yada Yada hi Dharmasya”.

Hon PM @narendramodi ji is the 11th #Avatar of Lord Vishnu
??? ??? ?? ???????…

— Avadhut Wagh ????? ??? (@Avadhutwaghbjp) October 12, 2018

This reminds me of what Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar said,

Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship.”

It rightly reflects the current political state of India. There is nothing wrong in admiring a political leader, but extreme admiration leading to sycophancy and idolization is detrimental to the nation.

The rise of “Bhakts” in the era of BJP has ushered a new generation of sycophants in India. Moreover, this rise of “cult” associated with any political leader or party is disastrous. It makes one become unseeing of the faults of the leader or the party. One should question oneself: Is it the responsibility of citizens to hold the government accountable or to defend them at all times like minions?

It is indeed essential to question our idolatry of political leaders. We, the people of India, elected our representatives to run the country in order to fulfil our needs and desires. Any action taken by the government for its citizens can either be their duty if it is beneficial to all the citizens or dereliction of duty if it harms the citizens. But, whatever a government or the elected representatives do can never be a “favour” or “blessing” for us to ‘worship’ them in a way that makes us unsee their wrongs.

As we celebrate this day when the Constitution of India was enforced, let us remember the words with which the Preamble begins: “We, the people of India”.

Featured Image Credits: Kaypius

Republic and Dissent: The R&D of Our Nation

Namrata Kalita

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Arts & Culture

High Heels: Dreams, Taunts and What nots

By DU Beat January 15, 2022

To the heels I bought with my limited savings from last month, as the perpetually broke college student that I am, I wish I knew that visiblising queerness comes at a social price.

Manifesting queerness had always been on my list of things I had to do in college. When things, without any notice, went online, it bothered me because in my head college was going to be only a little more than me strutting in with the trendiest indie fashion pieces, a feminist poetry collection in hand, and a Matisse or New Yorker tote in the other. But fashion statements come at a cost and this time there was the added interest of a pandemic too.

Upon hearing the news of the much-awaited re-opening, I rushed with two friends to Hudson Lane and walked into three different shops – before buying a comfortable heel that not only matched the image in my head but also fit.. Even as I tried out the shoes, I could feel the eyes of the shopkeeper on me. It is for a friend who is flying in, I remember saying to just avoid being value judged by an abject stranger.

But if the shopkeeper was a stranger I was willing to lie to, people in my college were too large in numbers to even respond. And, being a dream that I had nurtured for the longest while, this was a question I was more than willing to engage with. The online college had limited my interactions with a select few people scattered across the college, people who I thought would point towards my heels and say, Oh my god! You did it? or with an air of abject sympathy say, Aren’t those hurting? Do you have band-aids?

Appraisal and sympathy are west winds that comfort the length and breadth of your skin upon touch. But what I was unprepared for was walking into my canteen quarters and being faced with groups of bulked up men from the northern quarters of our country, taking stalk of my heels coupled with my ajrak shirts and small rainbow pendants – just to turn back and initiate a pungent and viral smirk that would birth a sense of hateful sense of directed towards my end.

There would of course be the whispers – annoying to an extent that you know you are being spoken of but you hardly have the courage in your system to walk up to them and ask, in absolute De Niro style, are you talking to me? The first few days of offline college makes you realise that truly the online space is a created bubble wrap of people who are tailored to be decent to you, as opposed to the offline front which throws open the possibilities of being sucked into a whirlwind of heterogeneous socio-cultural capital holders where being the other comes at the cost of scrutiny on the altar of toxic masculinity.

The North campus too, with all its red bell towers and granite pillars, is a divided world in itself. The world of Ramjas is characterised by muted warm colours and gazes that make you hit home the realisation that you’re abjectly out of place – that you don’t belong and you never will. Cross the road and on the other side, outside JP Stall you’ll find a queer visual haven where wearing H&M and carrying Starbucks with neon painted into your hair – makes you no longer an object to be stared at but rather something desirous and aspirational.

Anwesh Banerjee

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Arts & Culture

How To Kill Time Until Reopening

By DU Beat January 4, 2022

Brace yourselves for a mocktickle upon the grief that has swallowed our dreams and continues to haunt us- reopening of colleges. Read ahead to know what mocktickle actually means.

As reopening feels like a distant dream, the only thing left for us to do is feel hopeless. But for how long? This was supposed to be a phase, a time period that was supposed to end but has become an ever going dream, nightmare perhaps.

Apart from being sad and angry on a regular basis, this time and age of learning demands tons of things to be learnt but are we in any position to learn when our dreams have been made into torn papers that can never be in their original shape. Thus to lighten your hearts we present a mocktickle (yes I came up with that word, getting it registered soon, say hi to the Tharoor in me!) – an article to tickle you while mocking the situation we live in.

Visualise, Imagine, Dream

The perfect way to kill time until reopening is to stalk all your seniors and gaze at their fest photos. Try imagining yourself in their place and derive pleasure from this dreamy scrolling of Instagram. If you are a part of any society or aspire to be one, provoke the stalker inside you and search the entire history of your society. Watch every youtube playlist, every performance, every Facebook post that ever existed about them. (This actually gets you brownie points during auditions just don’t overspeak)

Learn, Learn and Do it!

Learn those skills that your parents have been shouting for at the top of their voices for two years now. Just in case if reopening actually ever happens how will you survive it? The hopelessness won’t cook your meals nor will the excitement clean your clothes. (There are actually tons of tricks that can come in handy if you are an outstation student so listen to what your parents say closely)

Have a Tissue for this Point!

Let’s accept how lucky are those who have already got the chance to stay in Delhi. To push yourself further towards being a Nihilist watch those photos clicked in front of red walls. Cry over those group photos of societies who are practising while leaving outstation students and understand the depth of sadness.

Be Social

It’s about time that you finally take out some time to get to know your classmates. The best way to do this is to scroll over the DPs in WhatsApp groups to actually know your classmates. (If you can make an effort to socialise, even a small birthday wish or a ‘good luck’ before exams can bring smiles.)

Thoda Dukh Thoda Productive

In spite of all the hardships we are going through owing to Covid, we can’t deny that this is one of the most crucial times of our life. Owing to the availability of time and resources one can easily manage 2-3 commitments together. If you can gather the courage to actually work in these gloomy times we salute you! And if you are the brave one who chose to prioritise their mental health over running in a rat race, then we bow to you for that is equally productive.

Featured Image Credits: Grindfiti

Kashish Shivani

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Arts & Culture

DU Societies: Online or Offline

By DU Beat November 30, 2021

As a semblance of normalcy begins to return to functioning around us, Delhi University performance-based societies choose to go offline with their workings – a decision that risks alienating outstation students who are still hesitant to return to campus. Read on to find more.

Delhi University sees a diverse crowd in all terms. The play of privilege has come to the forefront in the era of the digital divide. We witnessed students committing suicide, leaving education, and going to all ends to just afford a phone or laptop for studies. In this phase, where do the cultural societies of Delhi University stand?

In the online scenario, all the performing societies were forced to operate in the online space, as a result of which we saw many online productions, audio plays, and virtual open mics. But the transition phase in DU societies has begun even before the colleges are officially reopened. A few months back a lot of performing societies started functioning offline, some with or without permission from the college authorities.

These mainly comprise drama societies, music and dance societies which need offline spaces to carry on with their operations smoothly. But since DU is not a university of Delhi students only, the question that ‘Do DU societies belong only to Delhi people?’ seems pretty valid in a scenario where outstation students are being repeatedly sidelined by the indiscriminate move to go offline with functioning.

Just a few days back Mood Indigo, the fest of IIT Bombay, organized the prelims for its street theatre competition, where some of the prominent societies performed with their productions like Ibitida, Hindu College, Hansraj Dram Soc, Kahkasha JMC, Lakshya, Kamla Nehru College, Anubhuti, Sri Venkateswara College, and many others. DU Beat talked to Simran from Hansraj Dram Soc to understand their take on conducting offline practices and workshops in collaboration with other societies.

We first years came into the society to perform and sadly it was not happening. Offline practices were essential for us to learn how DCTC worked as we will soon become seniors and the onus of training others will be on us.”

An outstation member of Kshitij, the street play society of Gargi College which organised an offline workshop in collaboration with Hansraj Dram Soc, on grounds of anonymity, shared their views with DU Beat,

If we talk about outstation students, someone who has never seen their college, for them, online meets are everything, that screen becomes more than just a screen. Offline meets are not fair to them, and they cannot be expected to travel long distances to attend, it is just not fair. They are missing out on experiences and lessons because of the circumstances. In the end, it comes down to whose perspective you choose to see – that of the helpless first year or the third year who will choose the offline mode due to the sheer rigour and space it allows one to work in.”

The culture of performing societies is surely a source of pride for the University of Delhi but another thing that the nukkad nataks propagate is the call for equality. In such a situation, when being in Delhi means being able to experience the societies, aren’t these societies becoming elite spaces? Various outstation students, who can afford to be in the city for internships or societies have moved here already, so who is actually being left behind? For these answers, we talked to Jai Mahajan from Shunya, Ramjas who shared his society experience.

Being in an online space has affected theatre but we are trying our best to level the playfield. Shunya is trying to come up with a fusion of both online and offline work. Surely people in the offline mode are learning and adapting quickly, but it’s up to seniors how they balance the collaboration.” – Jai, a member of Shunya, Ramjas

In the month of November, Shunya conducted its first series of month-long offline workshops. Students across departments and years from the college attended the workshops, which were conducted by incumbent and erstwhile members of the society on a wide range of topics relating to theatre. But the attendees also included a large number of outstation students who flew down to the city specifically to attend these workshops. Although safety precautions were adequately taken for the same, the decision to conduct these workshops in the offline mode, which many society members too could not attend, still remains under question.

As the auditions of performing societies were conducted in the online mode in the time of the digital divide, it already pushed out students from backward sections of societies. Several talented students could not audition due to unstable internet, and some had to travel elsewhere just for the sake of giving their auditions. And after that exclusion, the dispersion of outstation and Delhi students brings forth the question of representation. Performances talking about the evils of caste and class while propagating on those same foundations are making a farce of the art form.

We can’t lose out on practice just because the colleges are online now. To get on the stage and win awards and experience that feeling of dancing in front of people cheering for you hoping that you win. To learn things online is really difficult, offline practice is of the utmost necessity if you want to bring the best out of your crew. There is no formal permission as such but socs have never totally depended on college to practice even when it was offline.” – A member of a dance society

DU performing societies have been known for their rigorous working, but the entire working process changed owing to the prevailing conditions. Talking about how his society operates, Tushar, a member of The Dramatics Society of Dyal Singh Evening College, Junoon said,

Most of the members of our society are from Delhi, offline meets are recorded, and activities are discussed in the online meets. The same activities are done in the online mode with some tweaks to make them feasible.”

Meanwhile, Jai from Shunya, Ramjas shared how audio plays helped them bridge the gap to some extent.

Some of our members are from Kashmir and places where there is low connectivity; for them, we practiced and explored auditory drama on phone calls.”

Shruti, the President of Lakshya, KNC, shared her society experience of working in the online mode. For better functioning, they divided the team into two where outstation members worked on the stage production, working with characters, while the Delhi students worked on street play.

At least some of the students would learn and know something; this year we are focusing more on learning and teaching.”

There are also various societies that chose not to function in the offline space. Siddhi from LSR Dramsoc shared her take on the issue,

Even though the offline experience was beautiful, we chose not to practice in offline mode since we have people from other cities as well in our society. We need to adapt to the times, and to pass on the culture, we talk about our past experiences and activities, so our juniors know about the working. DCTC as a group needs to think and engage in dialogue to come to a better and more feasible conclusion.”

While sharing her experience of being an outstation student, a member of a drama society said in a conversation with DU Beat,

It doesn’t feel like a team anymore; the production doesn’t feel ours. If offline working brings back the culture of theatre it also breaks the team apart in two. It’s a sort of slow coercion over outstation students to leave since we don’t play any active part. We feel like outsiders instead of outstation students, where we realize being in Delhi is a privilege that we can’t afford.”

Despite the brouhaha surrounding the debate around offline and online functioning, there are societies that have accepted the online mode and have gone ahead with annua productions; for example, the Shakespeare Society of St. Stephens College performed their annual production for the year Chateau Manor House on Zoom a few weeks back. The reluctance of many societies to adapt to the same mode is, on one hand preserving the physical essence of these performance societies. At the same time, it risks non-functioning and becomes largely emblematic of the larger hegemony present in these societies to refuse to adapt to changing times and tweak and challenge procedural functionings that have been set in stone for years now.

Image Credits: Sabha, the dramatics society of St. Stephens College

Kashish Shivani ([email protected])

Anwesh Banerjee ([email protected])

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DUB News

Increasing Seats in DU: Wandering over Possibilities

By DU Beat November 17, 2021

In their recent memorandum to the Executive Council, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) put forth a demand for the increment of 10% seats in all courses. Wandering over the possibilities, if they are feasible on the ground or is this just a demand to be said on paper?

In a memorandum asking for the reopening of campus, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) included a demand to increase seats for all courses by 10%. With more and more students applying at the university every year, such a demand might look like a problem solver. But this ajooba can’t be done just like that (finger snapping). We wondered if this could really be possible, and there are various odds standing in the way of the expansion of DU.

Year after year, the cut-offs of the University of Delhi have been soaring high. This year as well 4,38,696 students have applied for the Undergraduate courses. Last year, in 2020 this number stood at 3,53,919. In the wake of a 20% increase in applicants, this year and a significant rise in this number each year might make this prospect appear wonderful. But after taking a closer look at the plethora of problems that the University has hurled upon itself it might appear as a not-so-wonderful idea.

As we know since last year, some colleges of the University have been struggling with a financial crisis. Lack of funds, non-payment of salaries, and problems faced by Ad-hoc teachers form the avalanche of problems that colleges have been facing lately. The introduction of new seats would put more pressure on the existing funds and infrastructure. This increment would also mean a change in the faculty and student ratio. According to a report in July, out of 1076 sanctioned posts, 846 teaching posts were lying vacant.

After the introduction of the EWS quota back in 2019, the varsity had various seats lying vacant in the category. Even in 2020, the EWS category had more vacant seats than in 2019. As reported by the Times of India, despite special drives and several cut-offs about 5.6% of seats of the EWS quota were still vacant. When DU hasn’t been able to work its way around an increment of seats within a quota, how will it be feasible for the entire university? Shouldn’t our first focus of attention be on filling all the seats in the existing seat count? About 1.5% of seats were left vacant under the OBC quota in 2020, 0.6% were vacant seats under the SC quota and even the ST seats saw the most vacancy in the year 2020.

Already under the plethora of problems, our beloved Delhi University has also implemented the New Education Policy starting from the year 2022. No talks around extra funds for the same have begun and teacher’s resistance against it continues. Under the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), students will have the choice of studying at the university for the fourth year as well, irrespective of what number of students who opt for it, it will lay force on the existing resources. The varsity will have to be prepared to host students for one more year.

Professor Abha Habib, the Treasurer of DUTA said in a conversation with DU Beat,

“It is an insignificant demand, a long and due process is followed after sanctions from various committees and UGC. Instead of putting more load on the same University, more attention should be laid on state universities. Why should students be forced to move out of their states for education, premier institutes should be established within states or the existing ones should be improved. There is no scope for expansion in various colleges.”

Outstation students have to spend a lot on travel and stay for being in Delhi University. Costly PGs and barely cooked food are complementaries to the problems of staying outside your city or state. To understand such a plight DU Beat talked to a parent, Monika Sethi, mother of Ananya Sethi who is a second-year student.

“ Kids from tier-1 cities get to study in their own state but people from Uttar Pradesh and other states have to send their kids outside because of the dearth of opportunities here. The situation then becomes like there are two households to be taken care of including all the travel costs.”

Just to accommodate the growing number of students, the existing quality of education (which in itself consists of loads of unsolved problems) can’t be compromised. A lot of questions will have to be answered and a lot more issues to be resolved before the University can even think about the increment of seats.

Feature Image Source: Times Of India

Kashish Shivani

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Arts & Culture

Dear Freshers, This is Your Reality Check on DU Societies

By DU Beat September 30, 2021

With the rosy season of auditions going on, this is an introduction for freshers to the dark side of DU Societies.

As the audition season approaches, one could have seen the college areas buzzing with auditions. On the online campus, it’s a bit different; the society’s social media pages, which have been abandoned for long, now become the main agenda of society meetings. All of a sudden, reels are being posted, and you see clips of happy members of societies playing along, some on screens while some on the ground, and a Ritviz song playing in the background. The usual words that will be used in these videos are “family”, “creative community” and every adjective you can imagine for a bunch of happy undergrads. But are societies really this happy, or is it just the poster happiness to lure in freshers?

(Obviously, not all societies fall into this category, the main aim is to introduce freshers to the toxic side of DU societies.) A lot of societies are run by seniors who exercise control over all the functioning. At some colleges, administration or the teacher or convenor intervene, but at some, they don’t pay any heed. Some societies have also faced such extreme obstruction of administration that even their performances have been canceled, whereas the bullying by many societies goes unchecked due to no surveillance. (Societies should ideally lie between this tussle of control, where admin maintains minimum control but a required check, but hey, we are in DU!)

A hierarchy is maintained among all the members to maintain ‘discipline’. But this setup often leads to toxicity as seniors in positions of responsibility take undue advantage of their power. The societies that should act as communities housing creative talent become a powerhouse of trashy politics and toxicity, where bullying and ragging houses.

Recently, such a situation came to light during the auditions of Finance Investment Cell of Hansraj College, about which a first-year student said,

During our Finance Investment Cell interviews, the core team members made us dance against our will, I felt uncomfortable but since I wanted to get into the soc, I had to go with the flow. Later on, they were boasting about the fact that they made us do squats, dance, and sing in the interviews during our induction meeting.”

First Years who are already ridden with anxiety get pushed underneath the wish of being in the cool circles of college and fail to report such behaviors, and the cycle of toxicity continues. Another student from a dance society shared their experience in a conversation with DU Beat.

This certain level of hierarchy restricts our freedom as an artist and as a person. The role of unions should be to represent the members of the society and to guide us, but it feels like someone has given them authority and they just want to show it off.”

Even in the online mode, several students have suffered terrible things at the hands of societies. With the second batch moving into the online campus, we need to configure our thinking accordingly. If the cultural front of the university keeps on reeking privilege and toxicity, the development of the individual would be a far-gone concept here. It’s high time proper redressal forums (talking about Cultural Secretaries) work in every college to respond to all grievances and dismantle these toxic hierarchies.

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Kashish Shivani

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Campus Central

Teacher’s Day Without Teachers

By DU Beat September 5, 2021

Thinking about teacher’s day while going through the nostalgia of what the relationship with a teacher meant back in school and what it means now on screen.

When I think of teachers, my mind doesn’t think of the last class I attended yesterday when I was listening to my mom from one ear and the other one had an earphone plugged in. My mind takes me to one or two years back when my Commerce teacher asked us how would we eat an elephant (not literally). This is how he taught us some most important lessons. You should eat an elephant slowly and steadily, which means you should study your vast syllabus slowly, you can’t swallow it all at once.

I think of my English Teacher who lent me his books (they were hardcovers) for about six months and never really asked them back but obviously, I returned them. I think of my 12th standard class teacher who was more of my only friend in the class or maybe my Accounts teacher whose determined attitude never stops inspiring me. When I think about it, I don’t feel like I have had a teacher since I left school.

Maybe more than just teaching, a teacher to me means all other things they do. Like how my Accounts teacher still called up on a random day to ask how I was doing. I never have an answer to the question that followed. How is College? I can rant about online teaching mode for hours but maybe I have done a lot of it already and now silence seems to be a good answer.

I can think of my seniors telling me how college life used to be, teaching me hacks of not just internships or projects but of life as well. How Swati didi would be present at every open mic (yes online events) where I ever performed and ask for the recording if she ever missed one. How Akshat would always pat my back whenever I wrote something good and provided me with the ‘DU culture’ as much as he could.

My seniors often tell me how some Professors would join them in protests, how the class would start from a random topic and drift away to revolutionary art or some other topic of political significance. There are a few Professors who are very active on social media. At the hours of utmost missing, I can be found on their profiles, dangling between their highlights. I have saved those posts where they mention even the minutest detail about college so that I don’t feel completely alien when I step on campus.

I try to know as much as I can, from listening to anecdotes from seniors to watching that 2-hour long seminar whose video lies at the end of a playlist with only 25 views. When the administration made it compulsory for teachers to take classes from the college itself, I heard a Professor from another class took his laptop and walked through the entire college, to show students where they actually belong.

During the same time, I heard a Professor took his classes from the parking area because there’s a network issue in my college (Yes I am from Gargi). I wish I could see the problems they go through just to be on the screen for 88 students who have never seen them, all they know is just an email Id and a link that arrives daily.

The number of add-on recharges I have done many times just logging into a class and putting it on mute has pushed me away from having teachers at college. Many of us try but don’t have the ample resources, some have all they need for online classes but that is not what they want.

So I am a college student, who doesn’t know the names of some of her Professors and haven’t seen a lot of them. Better than hearing a voice that is repeatedly cracked by network errors from both sides, I prefer downloaded lectures from a Youtube channel. I don’t know if I can say I have had teachers or not, but I am sure I haven’t felt what learning actually meant. I don’t blame any side, maybe time and circumstances can bear that pain.

So maybe Happy Teacher’s day to YouTube, Udemy, PDFs and Google Meet. And also to those people who are my designated teachers right now, I hope we can discuss a variety of things someday in classes, whose window sees the lush lawns and red walls and no link or network error exists in between.

Featured Image Credits: Adobe Stock

Kashish Shivani

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Campus Central

Casteist Censorship or Academic Healing?

By DU Beat August 21, 2021

The Oversight Committee removed a story by Mahasweta Devi and two texts by Dalit Writers in the name of not hurting any sentiments. 15 members of the Academic Council have been dissenting still the varsity has backed its decision. Is it academic healing or casteist censorship to uphold the dogmas of some?

After a 12-hour-long meeting on Tuesday, the University’s Academic Council brought in some changes in the syllabus of the BA (Hons) English course. ‘Draupadi’, a celebrated story by Mahasweta Devi was removed without citing any academic reasons. Apart from this, two Dalit authors, Bama and Sukirtharini were arbitrarily removed and replaced with Ramabai without any academic reason being stated.

As reported by the Indian Express, at least 15 members of the Academic Council gave a dissent note against such arbitrary removal of ‘Draupadi’ from the syllabus. “Mahasweta Devi’s story ‘Draupadi’ displays two forms of resistance–first resistance is in the form of tribal insurgencies and the second is acted out by Dopdi Mejhen, an active worker of the Naxalbari movement who is hunted down and raped in a bid to subjugate insurgent groups.”

–Dr K. Madhavarajan, Assistant Professor, NMSS Vellaichamy Nadar College

DU Beat talked to various students who have studied the highly acclaimed writer, one such student said,

“The text in itself has so much richness, it’s a shocking move. It perfectly displays the intersectionality of how women’s bodies are reduced to landscapes for political agendas. It was a text that would always stay with me.”

Mithuraj Dhusiya, a member of the Academic Council registered strong dissent in his opinion as quoted by the Indian Express. He said that it’s shocking that the Oversight Committee bypassed the statutory bodies like Faculties, Committee of Courses and Standing Committee and changed the prescribed texts.

Debraj Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Ramjas College brought forward his voice of dissent about the removal of ‘Draupadi’ and said in his opinion to DU Beat,

“The primary problem here is the absence of stated academic reasons for excluding certain texts. The rigour we expect from even our students, wherein they are encouraged to offer analysis over opinion, and investigation over prejudice, send absent in the offices that have led to such exclusion.”

No academic reason was stated earlier until yesterday when the varsity put out a press release where it accepted the recommendations regarding the removal of various contents from the syllabus of B.A Hons. English for the fifth semester.

The press release states that a careful analysis of the present syllabus shows it is diverse and inclusive already. The University also clarified that the contents of any language course should not hurt the sentiments of any individual.

There are various questions to be asked here, whose sentiments are being hurt when Dalit writers are reclaiming their space in the literary world? Whose sentiments are being hurt when a tribal woman holds the bravado and strength to rise above the societal fears put on women?

The society which thinks harming the modesty of a woman is the utmost terrible it can do, it is Draupadi who stands in the face of it and laughs at its nakedness with a voice that is ‘terrifying and sky splitting’. The action of standing up against Senanayak naked with her bruises is Draupadi asking what else can you do making both her abusers and the society powerless and that is when

“ for the first time, Senanayak is afraid to stand before an unarmed target, terribly afraid.”

According to some sources, there were objections against ‘Maniben alias Bibijan’ as it is based on the Gujarat riots and it allegedly showed Bajrang Dal and RSS in a “bad light” and as “murderers”. Even members of the Academic Council have stated prejudice and diktat of dominant Hindutva ideology behind the unacademic deletion of content as a move to suppress marginalised voices.

“Such teachers have been consistent in their opposition to the Dalit and tribal voices owing to their allegiance to the Hindutva ideology which is patently against the socially underprivileged segments.”

-Rudrashish Chakraborty in his statement to DU Beat

Another set of questions to be asked is about the Oversight Committee. It’s not been much time since the formation of the Oversight Committee in 2019. Talking about the issue, Abha Dev Habib, the Treasurer of DUTA said that the Committee was formed, ‘when ABVP tried to vandalise the Academic Council meeting and threatened Heads of Departments of English and History and many elected Academic Council members.’

The dissent note submitted by the members of the Academic Council clearly states that it has been formed in contravention of the University Calendar.

“The only competent to frame any syllabus for any course are the Committee of courses comprising teachers of the concerned Department.”

The next step in the procedure of syllabus revision is to get approval from statutory bodies like Faculties, The Standing Committee and the Academic Council. Such a committee is not a part of the process.

The press release on the other hand mandates the Oversight Committee and backs its actions in the name of recommendation from the Head, Department of English.

Whereas Rudrashish Chakraborty from the Department of English, KMC has said the press release to be ‘a blatant defence of the overreach of the Oversight Committee’. In his statement, he added,

“The claim of the press release that the Oversight Committee has followed all democratic processes is a blatant distortion of facts. Rather the Oversight Committee has undermined the democratic processes involved in the syllabus revision by issuing fiats to the English department to add/delete texts without giving any academic rationale.”

The dissent note on the other hand sheds light that no member of the concerned department was a part of the Oversight Committee. Even the heads of departments were not a part of the deliberations. How could a committee decide the required and not of a course without any expertise and competence in it? Was it merely out of choice or deliberate prejudice?

However, apart from the official release, ‘gruesome sexual content’ has been cited as the prime reason for the removal of the story as reported by The Print. The ‘problematic content’ as pointed out is the horrendous condition and description of Draupadi after being raped.

“I don’t know if the name and context regarding the perpetrators got lost in translation but this (Draupadi) shows the Indian military in a very poor light. We don’t want our students to hate them based on fictional stories,”

-DU Registrar Vikas Gupta said in his opinion to the Print.

What’s ironic here is a country where there are innumerous records of rape cases met with blatant injustice, there the condition of a woman after being raped is called ‘problematic’. Moreover, will the committee expunge all such ‘problematic’ details present in every course throughout the University?

It’s not the first time that women writers have been withheld for crossing the set boundaries of ‘modesty’. Ismat Chughtai faced a trial in 1944 for her story ‘Lihaaf’ on the grounds of portraying obscenity, where thighs and women’s ‘bad’ character were told to be the point of objection. Ismat must be smiling with pity today at us for we surely have come a long way, backwards or forward, only Ismat can tell.

Even no other short story by Mahasweta Devi was accepted and a list of six short stories was forced upon the Department to accept. It shall be noted that these six stories again were not selected as per the process laid down.

The matter doesn’t end here, the Oversight Committee instructed the Department to replace ‘Chandrabati Ramayana (a feminist reading)’, with Tulsidas for the DSE paper, ‘Pre-colonial Indian Literature.’ A similar curtailing of content has been recommended for another DSE paper as mentioned in the dissent note.

“The Oversight Committee, instead of examining the rationale of the texts included in the syllabus, merely pandered to the political pressures and vested interests.”

-A collective statement from the Academic Council members

The statement further read that without any concrete evidence of any sentiments being hurt, the ignorance and prejudice against the marginal voices of the society are visible. It further added,

“To use hurt sentiments as an excuse to delete texts is a blatant attempt to impose thought control of the dominant and privileged social groups. By suggesting that the syllabus should merely uphold the status quo and not critique or question the same, the DU press release has actually undermined the very ethos of a University.”

Such removal of valuable pieces of literature without any academic reason puts the sanctity of academic rigour in question. Acceptance of the changes when 15 members of the Academic Council have expressed dissent against it is an aggravation of various problems which raises a question on the essence of education again.

Ayushi, a student of Literature, expressed her dissatisfaction over the arbitrary removal.

“Being a part of the DBA community, it feels like a setback in parallel to all other things we face. Literature can’t exist in a vacuum, it’s necessary to show the inequality and the domination existing on the ground. ”

Moreover changing the syllabus when it’s been five weeks since the course has been started shows severe carelessness on the part of the administration. Is academic planning just a play of whims to be altered and changed as per the moods of members of the Committee who in the first place are not even qualified members of the department?

The removal of such great portrayals of marginalised voices, deletion of texts by Dalit writers and vandalism of Women’s writing courses puts up a lot of questions on the Oversight Committee and the University that is backing it. In an attempt to censor these great texts, the Oversight Committee has brought them into the spotlight again which will contribute to their contrary goals.

Such academic censorship and forced revision of the syllabus which upholds the existing status quo might be deliberate silencing to align it with the dominant ideology. The voice of dissent being ignored by the University shows how much we value the quality of academics. The University has a lot to answer and a Press release with ambiguous reasons isn’t enough.

Photo Credits: Indian Express

Kashish Shivani

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DU Colleges to Start New Certificate Courses

By DU Beat August 12, 2021

Adding to the existing plethora of certificate courses, a few DU colleges have started new certificate courses at lower fees on topics ranging from Food Technology to Legal Literacy.

Some DU colleges have started a few new certificate courses on topics like Food Technology, Legal Literacy and Science Writing at a lower fee. Aimed at arming the students with the required knowledge, these new certificate courses cost less fee with the hope that this would attract more students towards these courses.

The Chemistry Department of Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi has started the industry-oriented, add-on course entitled “Food Science and Technology: From Farm to Fork”. With classes to be held on Saturdays and Sundays, the course is scheduled from 14th August to 9th November.

Sri Venkateswara College is the first college to start this type of course at Delhi University. Although few colleges of the DU have been offering B.Sc. or B.Tech. courses on basic Food Science but this course is entirely different as it is mainly focussing on industry requirements and new technologies employed there.
This course and training sessions lined up to blend well with the industry needs and thus guarantee to produce learned, well-informed, and efficient Food Science & Technology professionals to suit and complement role-specific responsibilities.

In this course, the industry professionals, eminent scientists, and Food technology experts across the country and even outside the country will do interactive sessions with the students to provide up-to-date information and training required to sustain and grow in the Food industry.

Today, with the growing challenges of climate change, global warming, disappearing natural resources, and the recent pandemic, the Food Processing Industry is still recognized as a dynamic and sunrise industry. Therefore, this niche course offers a unique blend of subjects that empowers the students with professional competence and expertise not only in food processing, packaging, food engineering but also hands-on training in various Food Technologies required in the Industry. So, I feel that this course adds an advantage to your BSc degree course of basic sciences with an essence of professional and applied course tag that garnishes your CV to make a career in the industry as well as in research.

Dr. Shikha Gulati, Convenor & Course Coordinator, Food Science and Technology.

Costing at Rupees 2500, the course is open to any student studying in courses of the science stream and e-certificates would be provided to students upon completion of the course.

Food technology is a sought-after and useful course internationally. Such professionals are required in the food processing, beverages and packaged food industries and wine companies. This course on FST will provide an opportunity to the students to learn various aspects of food processing, food preservation and packaging, food analysis etc. This would also enlighten the students with vast application in industries at international level, related to packaged food, nutrition supplements, beverages, bakery, confectionery and wine etc. Students would be getting exposure of all kinds of technologies including nano technology used in the food industries. An industry visit will also be organised if situation permits.

Dr. Sanjay Batra, Head of Department of Chemistry, Sri Venkateswara College.

Daulat Ram College is starting an add-on course called ‘Legal Literacy, Awareness and Aid’. In collaboration with the Delhi Legal Services Authority, the course will be in online mode in the academic year 2021-22 and the following academic year, the diploma course will be conducted offline. The registration process started on August 10 and will continue till September 10 and the minimum eligibility criteria are senior secondary pass.

The aim is to educate learners from different disciplines and backgrounds, specifically from the non-law field, about the theoretical and practical aspects of the legal framework.

Savita Roy, Principal of Daulat Ram College.

I was on the hunt for a good add on course since the first semester. I was really happy when I came to know the chemistry dept SVC is offering one of FST. It is a field I’m very much interested in and I’m hoping for a fun and productive learning experience. The course structure and timings also look comfortable as it is on Saturdays and holidays only.

Bharath Harikumar, a student attending one of these add on courses.

A certificate course on introduction to forensic sciences is already being conducted by the Hansraj College, for which the classes are being conducted on weekends. In addition to this, the college has also started another certificate course on science writing and communication. This particular course aims to enable students with the required skills for report creation and discrete writing on topics of medicine, science and technology.

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Feature Image Credits: The Economic Times

Harish Neela Lingam B

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Campus Central

Increasing Hatred towards Students from Kerala among Freshers

By DU Beat August 11, 2021

Several students from colleges in North Campus have been abusing and harassing their peers from Kerala with highly discriminatory remarks in the classes and groups.

Note: The following article contains mentions of threats and sexual harassment.

The First Years have come forth with their first impression on the campus which with no doubt appears to be extremely sexist, bigoted and discriminatory. Reportedly students of various colleges of North Campus have made extremely discriminatory and insensitive marks towards students from Kerala Board.

Following is a text sent in the Fresher’s class of B.com Honours where the student can be seen accusing their peers from Kerala as ‘frauds’

The student even went further and asked the Teacher to “throw them out” of the North Campus. The comments don’t just bring forward the indecency of students but also their blatant racism. The language used here shows the ingrained biases of merit among students. SFI unit of Ramjas College has openly protested against such behaviour and asked for appropriate action to be taken against those responsible for harming the college space that is deemed to be a safe and inclusive one for all. The unit has mailed the Principal regarding this issue and urged them to take stern action as soon as possible.

“In recent times we have been seeing an increased level of intolerance among the larger society from the standpoint of Religion, Caste, Region, Gender and Race. As a student community, we must resist these sort of narrow narratives to maintain the inclusiveness of the Campus spaces.”

-SFI Ramjas in its Press Release

The xenophobic comments didn’t end there, Freshers have been harassing others in the unofficial groups to no extent. In its investigation, DU Beat found several such remarks made on other students that are highly offensive and discriminatory.

“In the unofficial group for Ramjas students, some people started bullying and abusing. First, they went on with verbally harassing the female students but further, they started with their bigoted remarks that Keralites are ‘black’, and started blaming us(students from Kerala) that we have stolen their college seats.”

-A First-Year student from Ramjas College

“Then the people targeting kept on saying that Keralites should move to the South Campus, mocking us again. Blatantly saying that students from Kerala got 100% marks through unfair means occupying good colleges such as Hindu and ‘jeopardizing his friends’ seats’.

-Shabeeb Areekode, a First-Year student from Ramjas College

Expressing his concern the CPI Rajya Sabha MP, Binoy Viswam has written a letter to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu about the increasing hostility and hatred against students from Kerala and sought his intervention in the matter.

“Such remarks bring great dishonour and discredit to the students of Kerala who have worked hard to gain admission into reputed institutions of high rank. It further stigmatises students from applying and enrolling in these institutions,”

-Binoy Viswam in his letter to the Vice President

The entire focus shifted to students from Kerala when the ever scoring cut-offs dropped and about 2000 students from Kerala who scored a perfect 100 per cent secured their seats in North Campus colleges. Earlier Rakesh Pandey, a Professor from Kirorimal college also made some discriminatory and Islamophobic remarks against the students from Kerala where he termed it as “Marks Jihad”.

The issue at hand is of grave concern. In such a discriminatory environment how will the students from Kerala receive equal treatment in their very own University Campus? The session for this year just began and this is the first impression that a student is receiving who hasn’t even visited the campus in offline space. This portrays the true image of the University that is considered to be among the top ones in our country and blurs the delusional sparkly image.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Kashish Shivani

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