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Course Profile: B.A. (Honours) Political Science

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Here’s more insight on the course offered at the University of Delhi (DU).

  • What is the course about?

Another very popular course for students of humanities, Political Science is offered at some very prestigious colleges and is sought by some non-humanities students as well.

The curriculum includes various aspects of political theory, contemporary political processes, public policy, and others. With core papers like Political Process in India, Global Politics, Perspectives on Public Administration, Modern Political Philosophy, Indian Political Thought, and electives such as Feminism: Theory and Practice, India’s Foreign Policy in a Globalizing World, Human Rights in a Comparative Perspective and others, the course is a vast one encompassing elements of both theory and practice.

  • What are some top colleges for this course?

 Some of the best colleges that offer Political Science Honours are Hindu College, Miranda House, Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College, Sri Venkateswara College, Gargi College and so on.

  • What are some good career options?

 Similar to History Honours, many students opt for Political Science in their undergraduate studies to aim for civil services as it is considered a scoring paper and helps in the General Studies paper for UPSC.

Many students who wish to get involved in fields like politics, policymaking, international relations, law, journalism, social service, and academia also choose Political Science as their course.

  • Are there any notable alumni?

DU has produced some very popular and accomplished alumni in a variety of different professions. Many of them studied Political Science as undergraduate students. Following is a small glimpse of such notable alumni:

  1. Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of Myanmar and Nobel Laureate
  2. Indu Malhotra, Supreme Court Judge
  3. Meenakshi Gopinath, Political Scientist and Academic
  • What do students say about this course?

“I became more aware of my rights as a citizen, understood the functioning of various government institutions, learned what my constitution stands for and by doing so, got an insight regarding what democracy in my nation stands for, realised the significance of diplomatic relationships and international treaties, analyzed the methods and impacts of policy making and decision making”, says Nikita Bhatia, a first-year student at Jesus and Mary College about the impacts of this course.

The 2018 cut-off lists for different colleges can be viewed here: Click

 

Feature Image Credits: Sciencespo

 

Prateek Pankaj 

[email protected]

 

 

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Admissions

Course Profile: B.A. (Honours) History

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With 90 colleges and 87 departments, the Delhi University (DU) provides a plethora of courses. Some of these are constantly in high demand by students. In this series, DU Beat looks at some of these courses.

B.A. (Honours) History

What is the course about?

A highly popular course, History Honours is constantly in demand across colleges.

Its curriculum covers various aspects of both Indian and world histories in with respect to chronology, with core papers including History of India, Social Formations and Cultural Patterns of the Ancient and Medieval World, Rise of the Modern West, History of Modern Europe among others. The electives including History of the USA, History of the USSR, Gender in Indian History, Modern Southeast Asia and so on.

What are some top colleges for this course?

History Honours is offered at many colleges. Some of the most sought after ones include St. Stephen’s College, Ramjas College, Hindu College, Hansraj College, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Miranda House, among others.

What are some good career options?

Many students choose History as their undergraduate course with an aim to clear civil service examinations. History is considered a very important and scoring paper for the highly coveted Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams.

Others who are interested in the subject take it up to pursue museology, archaeology, academia and the like. Yet other options include law, journalism and media, art history, social service and policy making.

Are there any notable alumni?

Many former students who had studied History at DU have gone on to become accomplished personalities in multiple fields. Some of them include:

  • Atishi, Politician
  • Huma Qureshi, Actor
  • Ranjan Gogoi, Chief Justice of India
  • Ravish Kumar, Journalist
  • Shashi Tharoor, Lok Sabha MP and former diplomat

What do students say about this course?

According to Nandini Pillai, a first-year History Honours student at Hindu College, “If you’re keenly devoted to the subject, it is one of those subjects that will make you an excellent researcher. Considering how we live in an era of fake news, gaslighting, post-truth politics, the significance of the skills that history as a subject equips you with, has increased.”
Sharvi Maheshwari, an outgoing student of Miranda House says, “The way the course is structured not only teaches us about what happened at a certain point in time, but also makes us understand why it is relevant in today’s times. Furthermore, History Honours in DU is a veritable multi-disciplinary course which combines principles of Sociology, Political Science, etc., and has non-generic papers to make the study more holistic.” Maheshwari also adds that the faculty takes special care to organise field trips and is very informed in their subject.

 

The 2018 cut-off lists for different colleges can be viewed here: Cut-offs 2018

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

 

Prateek Pankaj
[email protected] 

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Campus Central

Sexual Harassment at SSCBS’s Students’ Farewell Party

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Under heavy alcohol influence, a third-year student, Moksh Nair, was accused of harassing seven third-year girls at a farewell party. Their college took a swift decision, ensuring that action was taken.

On the night of 16th April, around 70 students of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS) gathered to celebrate the end of their college life. This unofficial graduation party took place near Gurgaon and involved alcohol. This celebration turned sour when Moksh Nair, a third-year student from the college, under heavy alcohol influence, harassed around seven third-year girls at the party, according to the sources.

The Instagram stories of one of the victims brought to light the occurrences of the night. A statement issued by the Students’ Council, SSCBS, revealed the same in an unofficial meeting. The Council briefed the teachers and administration regarding the matter and how it was to be dealt with. From thereon, Poonam Verma, the Principal, herself headed the committee which handled the matter.

Contacted by DU Beat, the Principal said, “It’s a sad affair. We have been discouraging the students to go out and have such parties. Though as an institution we are not truly responsible as students do turn out and say that ‘they are all adults’, and also (because) these incidents take place outside the college premises.” She added that despite all this, they will always be protective of their students just as parents are in a family; however old the children might get. “In any case, these issues need to be handled at the family level as well.”

Screenshot_20190524-224019
Image Credits: Students’ Council, SSCBS

The girls involved decided to drop any legal charges and consented the committee, including the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), to decide the fate of Nair. It was allegedly decided that the accused would not graduate along with his batch and would have to repeat the year; however, the same has not been confirmed by the admin. Further, his placement was also evoked reportedly. Although the steps taken remain subject to confirmation, it reflects how the college authorities were willing to take apt decisions and handled such a matter with sensitivity.

In a study it was revealed that one in every four women have faced harassment in Delhi University, it further went on to reveal how not even half of the students are aware of the ICC. A senior officer from Maurice Nagar police station, on speaking to a national daily said, “We receive a lot of written complaints. However, due to pressure from the college administration, the students end up taking back their complaints most of the time.”

 

DU Beat tried contacting Moksh for a comment, but he was unavailable for the same.

Measures should be taken to prevent such acts from happening. Colleges should make students aware of the repercussions of such behaviour. They should also spread awareness about the bodies and authorities responsible for such cases, along with an approachable environment to encourage students to step forward. Bystanders or fellow students aware of such happenings should not view this as a ‘personal matter’ and speak up for the person suffering. Such issues should not be viewed as a matter of reputation but an individual matter to be handled with utmost sensitivity and care.

 

Feature Image Credits: Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

 

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Arts & Culture

Tu: A Stupendous Specimen of Film-making

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Here is my review of Tu (you), a short film by Royals Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films starring Sayani Gupta and Arjun Radhakrishnan.

Tu, a short film directed by Rahul Nangia, is a meticulously crafted tale of two ill-fated lovers told in under eight minutes. In its run time, it successfully establishes the relationship and its conflict. The tonality and lighting are dark, their space seems claustrophobic, the blatant intimacy between the two leading characters in the opening shot itself makes you uncomfortable, and ever since the beginning, the audience understands that their relationship is doomed.

The film runs on a single string conversation between the two lovers where the writers have brilliantly woven their love story which unfolds in front of your eyes. Over the course of this conversation, you realise that her name is Supriya, while he is a Murtaza; that their inconspicuous meetings are going on for a long time now; that she is the one who is rebellious (because she arranges the rooms for their meetings); that he is utterly scared of his father and works at his shop; that she is engaged to another person; that he is still economically dependent on his father (his phone is taken away because the bill was INR 3,000) and even though all this is an age-old, monotonous, repetitive conflict you still become completely invested in their story.

Visually, the short film aims at making you aware of the couple’s comfortable relationship. Throughout the film, we only see the two characters totally invested into each other, giving us a closer look at their bond which further fuels our pity for them. In the midst of this, using the narrative of them watching their old video at Mumbai’s Lover’s Point, out in the open, under the blue sky, near the uncontrollable waves of the sea and away from their present situation works wonders for the film. It symbolises the naivety of love, which transforms into a complex cacophony when it transcends the societal demands and rules.

The ending is ambiguous, but anyone can complete the story without any faults because it is a story which has been told a million times, one which we all have heard, read or watched. The last sequence leading up to the end shows the two characters panic-stricken, running around in their limited space, the rebellious girl finding an escape while the scared boy all set to face the reality, with their wobbly voices running in the background. You can hear the tears in their voices and the rawness of their fear. Herein, again, the screen miraculously cuts back to that happy video, making our heart sore for the hopeless lovers. The video has a cinematic zoom-in and out between timelines.

In its short run time, Tu is successful at making you feel things for the poor couple, a feat that many-a-times even 3-hour long Bollywood Romances are unable to achieve. Watch it for its simplicity in storytelling, sincere and honest filmmaking and utterly graceful performances by the lead characters.

 

Image Credits: Film Companion

 

 

Sakshi Arora

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

How real is virtual reality?

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With new developments in technology, there are lot of speculations and hype surrounding immersive reality and artificial intelligence considering these were the highly sophisticated tech that we used to see in sci-fi movies and now are becoming quite real.

Virtual reality uses all of our senses to create a perception of real world. It engages all our senses in a computer generated simulation which feels quite real. The amount of money that people are investing on this upcoming technology confirms that virtual reality would define the way we perceive our future world. In gaming and entertainment world, virtual reality gives the user a more immersive experience of being part of the simulation. It can provide even an inanimate object life and a world of its own.

Even Facebook is developing Facebook Reality Labs which utilizes virtual reality to create lifelike avatars that will help the users to establish social connections with other people. They give the argument that VR would help people to establish meaningful connections with people living far away from each other.

For someone who wants to recreate a particular nostalgic childhood moment, hang out with friends that are in different parts of world, take virtual tours of cities that you plan to visit and virtually construct buildings, monuments or houses virtual reality would help you to do all this and more.

Technology is fascinating and it has not only captured our imagination but also given us an escape. You can be present in one place physically but mentally you might be immersed in your phone and your own virtual world. This escapist tendencies are highlighted by VR which gives you an immersive alternative world to escape the real life situations and become the part of virtual reality. While it can be argued that escapism is provided by other media as well such as movies, TV, books, etc. we need to keep in mind that none of them involves engaging all of our senses as VR does.

While living a virtual life might be exciting, it needs to be acknowledged that our body is not made for long hours of extensive use of this technology. Our body cannot withstand long hours of VR and experiences cybersickness which can last for hours after continual use of VR.

Virtual reality will also impact the behaviour of humans which will be in contrast to what they portray in reality. Virtual reality will not be bound by societal constraints and limitations, it will have its own environment where people can behave in harmful ways. This can already be seen in social media where people behave in certain way which is quite opposite to their character in real life. This has led to cases of cybercrime which are quite shocking.  Such legitimate concerns can also be applied to virtual reality where the human use of it will determine its impact.

Even though the virtual reality tries to bridge the distance between people and brings them close in a simulated environment there is also a nagging question of what about the real world.? The real concern is what would be the psychological impacts of VR on the humans: would they disassociate from their reality completely or will it help them to overcome their anxiety, depression, etc.
All these questions will be answered when the virtual reality pervades every household and becomes intrinsic part of our lives the way internet did.

Image credits:  J. M. Eddins Jr/US Air Force

Antriksha Pathania
[email protected]

 

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News

Unidentified Men Attack SFI Activists at the Faculty of Arts

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On 17th May, three activists from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) were allegedly attacked with lathis by unidentified men at the Faculty of Arts after they were protesting along with the St. Stephen’s College Staff Association. They blamed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for the attack. 

Three SFI activists, who wish to remain anonymous, were allegedly attacked by goons when they were resting after a protest by the St. Stephen’s College Staff Association. One of the activists suffered head injuries.

An activist recalls the ordeal, “It was raining, suddenly almost five people with faces covered with handkerchief came and asked whether we were from SFI. When our answer was affirmative, they first abused us and then attacked us with the lathis they had with them.” He added that one of them tried to attack the female activist, but she was standing far away and started calling for help. “After seeing people coming towards us, the attackers fled.”

In the social media posts, SFI has blamed ABVP for the attack. “Yes, it can’t be proved, but it is obvious,” claims one of the activists. “They first identified us as members of SFI and then attacked us. It is a sheer display of their money and muscle power.”

A police complaint has been filed at the Maurice Nagar Police Station in lieu of the incident, however, the activists don’t have a lot of faith in the authorities either. “We were attacked after the Virgin Tree protests at Hindu College, we have been attacked at the Vishwavidyala metro station, we had photos, videos and even CCTV footage of the incident. Yet, the police failed to take action.”

Refuting allegations, Sidharth Yadav, Delhi State Secretary of ABVP denies allegations. “Time and again they come out with their own thought-out incidents followed by tagging ABVP as goons. It is an old tactic, but whatsoever it may be, it must be thoroughly inquired. The allegations must also be investigated and any perpetrator must also be caught.” He added that a police complaint is a must and if anything comes up in the investigation or any name from ABVP comes up, strict action should be taken. “But I don’t think that would be required, it is just their old style of propagating false news against us. Their previous allegations, too, have failed to furnish any material evidence, despite them beating our members at Hindu College and walking away scot-free.”

Feature Image Credits:  Students’ Federation of India

Jaishree Kumar

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Admissions

DU to Release a Separate List for Non-CBSE Subjects

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From the academic session 2019-2020, a separate list for non-CBSE subjects will be released to aid admissions for students in other boards.

On 2nd May 2019, the standing committee of the Academic Council of the University of Delhi (DU) passed the recommendation to include academic subjects from other non-CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) realms in a separate list of subjects.

This move was proposed after the committee scrutinised papers and subjects followed roughly in the twenty-eight State Boards, three National Boards, and three Sanskrit Boards for class 12 and then weighed those against their CBSE counterparts.

This proposal caters to academic subjects like anthropology, biochemistry, civics, logic, philosophy, among others. Rasal Singh, a member of the Academic Committee, on speaking to a national daily, commented how these subjects currently fall under the separate vocational subjects’ list despite having course structure and content along similar lines as the CBSE subjects.

Vocational subjects, currently include Food Production, Painting, Hindustani Music (Vocal), Beauty and Wellness, and several others. These subjects, if included in the best of four, would incur a disadvantage of 2% deduction during admissions before 2019.

Rasal Singh went on to explain that biochemistry, taught in the State board of Jammu and Kashmir, will be treated as an equivalent to biology or biotechnology. Similarly, a combination of Maths A from Andhra Pradesh and Maths B from Telangana State Boards will be considered as equivalents of CBSE mathematics. The statistics paper of Maharashtra State board will also be seen as a counterpart of CBSE mathematics.

Other changes proposed to the committee in the meeting include an increase in ward quota for teaching and non-teaching staff, one percent relaxation of cut-offs for students from government schools and rural backgrounds, and the conduction of entrance examinations for colleges, in Hindi and English. The varsity, according to sources, is also planning on adding 6000 seats this year and 9000 in 2020. These have just been proposed and need approval before being passed and applied during the admission season of 2019.

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Shivani Dadhwal

[email protected]

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News

Supreme Council to Sit for Interviews at St. Stephen’s College as Opposed to their Constitutional Clauses

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On 13th May 2019, in a meeting of Staff Council, John Varghese, the Principal of St. Stephen’s College announced that the interview panel for selection of students for admission will include a member of the Supreme Council (SC).

Admissions 2019 are around the corner and in the midst of all the preparation John Varghese, the Principal, St. Stephen’s College announced a decision increasing the involvement of Church of North India (CNI) in the admission process.

The SC of the college includes six members from CNI. The Chairperson of both the Governing Body (GB) and SC is the Bishop of Diocese of Delhi, CNI, Warris Masih, and the Member Secretary of both these committees is the Principal, Professor John Varghese. According to the statement released by the representatives of the GB, Nandita Narain (Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics), N.P. Ashley (Assistant Professor, Department of English), and Abhishek Singh (Assistant Professor, Department of Economics), this decision is directly against Clauses 4 and 5 of the College Constitution which read as follows:

  1. The SC of the college shall have the control of the religious and moral instruction of students of the college and of all matters affecting its religious character as a Christian College of the Church of North India; and, in addition, shall appoint, after proper advertisement, the Principal of the College who shall be a member of the CNI or of a church that is in communion with the CNI.
  2. The SC of the college shall have no jurisdiction over the administration of the college.

The statement also stated that all the teachers present at the meeting protested against the unilateral announcement. As stated by them, this decision is not only in violation of College Constitution but also the 1992 judgement of the Supreme Court of India that upheld the Minority status of the college according to which, the college was allowed to have “a separate admission process including an interview with 15% weightage only because the interviews were conducted solely by the teachers.” If this decision comes through, then it will be the first time that a non-academic person from outside the faculty of St. Stephen’s College will sit in the admission interviews.

The governing body has also called out a conflict of interest in the Principal bringing in another member of SC into the interview panel, as it is, the SC that selects the Principal, and will also take the decision about the renewal of his appointment for another term of five years.

On the other hand, Bishop Warris K Masih of CNI told the Indian Express, “It doesn’t matter if it has never happened before. The college belongs to us. The teacher representatives have no right to object.” When asked about the violation of College Constitution, he stated, “We just felt like that. We are concerned about the 50% Christian students; the other students will go as always.”

The aforementioned representatives of the Governing Body, in response to this decision, have called out for support from its students to participate in a protest on 17th May at 12:30 p.m. near the Main Portico in the Campus and demand its rollback. The statement also calls this decision ‘illegal and unacademic’ and according to them, this decision could compromise the integrity of the admission process.

Speaking to DU Beat, Sidharth Yadav, State Secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said, “The decision of including Fathers from Church (Members of the SC) to the admission committee is arbitrary and condemnable. This would weaken the secular fabric of the university. This is not only against the constitution of the college but also against the principles laid down in India’s constitution.” He further added that if the decision is not withdrawn, the ABVP would be forced to mobilise the student community to raise their voice against this autocratic decision.

 

 

Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat

Sakshi Arora

[email protected]

 

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DUB Speak

Exam time procrastination and Internet

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A frustrated rant by a procrastinating student trying to study, but too tempted by the Internet.

The World Wide Web is truly an intricate web which entraps everyone into it with offers of companionship, entertainment or services. It is truly very frustrating when you pick up your phone for one purpose but end up going through your Facebook, Instagram, Tinder and somehow ordering food online which you don’t even feel like eating.
The concept of time and space all fades away when you are on the internet. It feels like being sucked inside a black hole and you need to mentally berate yourself to get out of it. I have been buying books I don’t have money for, creating wish lists of TV series that I am going to watch this summer and looking at Spongebob memes instead of actually utilizing that time to study the complicated theories in my textbook.

This has been counter-productive and heightened my feelings of panic and guilt. It is funny how when you are on the internet you can scroll past the deluge of puppy videos without blinking your eyes but when you open your textbook and read the first word you lose consciousness and fall into deep slumber. Your texts to your friend asking for help with the syllabus usually ends up in heated debate on the final episode of Game of Thrones.
You are setting yourself up for disappointment if you think “Bro will help me on the Video call”. Video calls usually starts with laughing fit, moves on to judging session and culminates in trading sob stories about your significant other if you have one or your crushes. These video calls will hardly be peppered with actual learning done in real time.
YouTube is such a sham really with its false promises of teaching us a topic through educational videos under three minutes but usually ends up in tempting us with suggestions which somehow seems more important than the actual thing we want to study.
Don’t even make me start on Snapchat, Facebook, PUBG, Instagram, Google, google chrome, Wi-Fi and my Internet Service Provider. Each one of them contributes to my inability to study and this is also me blaming the medium for the obvious lack of self-control that I possess. However, can internet withdrawal really be helpful to concentrate?
According to a student from Kamala Nehru College, “Internet is not the only distraction during the exam time. So limiting it’s usage is very subjective. The aim should be to increase your concentration and also keep the internet usage liberal.”
Using Internet as a scapegoat for your inability to concentrate is not only very delusional but also is not helping you to realize your weakness. Self-control is the key to actually get some work done.
Internet with its elaborate offerings can help you to de-stress only if you know how to use it to relax for a fixed period of time and not let your temptation allow you to exceed your set limitation. All I am saying is that don’t let one conspiracy video turn into five and end up taking all of your time.
Focus is the key my friend. You cannot study while your mind is drifting to things it has no business drifting towards. Your focus needs to be steel-strong and your tendency to procrastinate fibre thin if you want to knockout that monstrous syllabus.
In the end, Internet does make a pretty good excuse for not working hard enough to score a decent GPA but we all know the real fault lies in our inability to work our asses off when it is really required. So, study hard and stay hydrated to pass this semester and learn to co-exist peacefully with internet without letting it control you.

Image credit: Meme org
Antriksha Pathania
[email protected]

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Campus Central

Young DU Voters Stuck with Semester Exams

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As the election season draws towards a close, we take a look at the votes lost due to engagement in academics and end semester exams.

 

Shoonya is a young 20-year-old pursuing her Bachelor’s in Economics hons. from a college in Delhi University. Shoonya is politically opinionated and keeps an eye on every new political development that happens nowadays, owing to an environment stimulated by the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. She is predetermined to use her voting rights in order to impact the elections. But Shoonya comes from Varanasi, which will go for polls on May 19. Unfortunately, she has a core paper a day later, which she can’t afford to miss. Shoonya inadvertently has to sacrifice his vote for exams.

Thousands on eligible young voters have to let their precious votes go in vain owing to a bigger priority. This overlapping acts as a predicament to the spirit of our democracy.  A huge chunk of votes, not only from the University of Delhi but from all other higher education institutions get lost every time elections and exams coincide.

The 17th Lok Sabha elections started on April 11 and will end on May 23 in 7 phases all across the country. Most of the students currently in their under-graduation years will be eligible for voting in the 17th Lok Sabha Elections. These first-time voters constitute 1.66% of the total voters registered for 2019 Lok Sabha. Out of the 900 million voters, 15 million falls in the age group of 18-19.  This percentage is detrimental to a huge extend because voter turnout doesn’t exceed 60-65% and formation of a government happens at mere 30-35%. Many of these 15 million are those who have turned 18 on January 1 2019. This translates to the fact that a bunch of these students are currently pursuing their bachelor’s or will enrol in a under graduation programme in the coming academic year.

In January 2019, The Times of India came up with a fascinating drive to acknowledge the votes that are lost during elections. The campaign known as “Lost Votes” was meant to instigate a conversation on people who sacrifice their votes in order to prioritize their studies or jobs. In many countries, right to vote is a fundamental right but in India, we treat it as a legal right. This stagnates the voter turnout every time and in case of first-time voters, it becomes lower.

“I want to vote but travelling back to Jamshedpur is tedious and hectic. And exams have made it impossible for me to go back and cast my ballot.” says Deepak Singh, a third-year student at Aryabhatta College. Many like Deepak and Shoonya or will lose an important milestone of their lives, the first indelible ink on their fingers, their first votes.

 

Image credits- Zee News

Priyanshu

p[email protected] 

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