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Responsible Authority and Other Lies: DU Edition

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With every change of guard, from one President to another, from one Secretary to the next, there is a constant transfer of authority. But is such a transfer aware of the corresponding responsibility? Are inactive or precarious Presidents and Society Heads a thing?

It’s strange how with every new session, more than the excitement of a new curriculum, an alarming number of DU students await the culmination of their contributions into being elected society post-holders or heads. In a self-proclaimed political atmosphere, such expectations are natural, some would say. There is not a lot of space for selfless action. And why should such a concept even exist, when all we are, is measured by the responsibility we hold, the productivity we profess, and the authority we command? In the face of such reckoning, positions of responsibility become titles just for the sake of CV’s and job interviews, and that is precisely when the shams associated with authority are revealed.

It happens ever so often that people volunteer to take up positions of power, and fortunately, they also come to access them. Notably, they also volunteer to assume power in societies they are passionate about. How is it that on assuming authority, some of these promising candidates resolve to inaction? 

Once in power, the excitable idea is to step beyond the last set precedent. But more often than not, at least in my experience, even as a new imaginative thinking is employed in a defined position, something does not quite click. Everyone who has ever had to work with a group of people would agree how difficult it is to materialise ideas into tangible models with the combined effort. To speak matter-of-factly, there is an annoyingly normal lack of initiative in societies and organisations. In attempts to avoid overwork, we limit the scope of our responsibilities. Are societies then Just for Fun? Should every member be allowed to practise individuality or is there a moral obligation every person associated with a society is bound by? Questions like these reverberate in every society meeting, unspoken and unheard. However, there are two sides to this dynamic: the power-owners, and the sources and subjects of said powers. Failure to accomplish goals on either side complicates functioning of the structure as a whole. While it is easy to hold the latter responsible for fall-outs, who can question the former higher authority? College spaces instill a sense of free-rein, but as practitioners of such liberation, we regularly overrule the corresponding ideas of responsibility. 

A constant game of power dynamics is sustained by innovation and newness. Many a time, the creative, however, is sidetracked by the administrative. To top it off, we are also an age of burnout “ded” youngsters, and that seems to justify more than our general lack of empathy, as it also enables us to do away with our responsibilities at times. 

Almost all literature on Management Studies emphasises the correlation and co-dependence between the concepts of authority and responsibility. One of these cannot exist in a vacuum. In the face of such a mutually exhaustive structure, we often find ourselves contemplating the delusional non-issue that is life. To some extent, the transitional formative understanding of authority-responsibility relationship can cause disconcerting disillusionment, in the event of which, ignorance becomes bliss. We switch off our phones, ghost the council groups, evade our responsibilities to spite others. But everything about this maneuver spites us in return. How do we then, evade a voluntarily taken responsibility?

One of the greatest challenges in college is learning to prioritise. A position of responsibility teaches a lot, but it also takes away, sometimes much more than what it offers in return. There comes a point when authority seems coaxing. “Why am I doing this? What is the purpose of this all? I have a life outside of this space, where is my assertive power to say “No”? Why am I the only one working?” A collective space of authority tends to become a toxic agency in time, because of the very substance holding it: subjective inventiveness. Since every person brings their own mental faculty to the fore, the contributions also vary. It is indeed very easy to question someone agential, as the true measure of a leader is the sum total of the team lead by them. In the end it is for the team to decide the nature and scope of authority, as it is the leader’s decision to blend power with responsible action. But how often does that happen?

Feature Image Credits: @bambashkart via Instagram.

Kartik Chauhan

[email protected]

 

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Uncategorized

Development by Consent: An Open Letter

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The rhetoric of development has always been used as a method to lure people. The cost of this kind of development has always been borne by the marginalised and voiceless people, or the environment. In such a context consent becomes an important parameter if one really wants inclusive development. This open letter describes the plight when the rhetoric wins over the essence of development. 

Dear Development, 

I was in awe of you when they said you will improve my life. You would ease these sufferings and would take the “underdeveloped” in me to a “developed one”. I hoped to come out of this vicious cycle of poverty, as is what meant development to me. I expected to avail a better physical quality of life as that meant development. You were my ray of hope of becoming a human. They said you were good for me, and I simply agreed, because how does my consent matter any way. They know what is good for me. They know what is the best in the interest of development.

I have always aspired to become like the developed countries, as that is what a better life means. I was appealed to, by the common rhetoric of development. Little did I know my cost for development had a bigger picture, vested interests, and a propaganda complementary with it. My development never took my consent. I am the trees of Aarey and I paid the cost of development. I am a slum dweller and I paid the cost of development. I am a native of Kashmir and I paid the cost of development. Only to realise that I had a flawed notion of development being inclusive, holistic and for my benefit and well-being.

That is when I realized the importance of Consent for Development. You can have growth, you can build those structures, but how will you build my inner self?

You came for me and made me a destitute in the name of development. This development was not my development. It was largely governed by the vested interests and the public opinion professed by the propaganda of development. 

You came for me because I was the easy, soft target, I was voiceless and lured by you, development. 

I never wanted this type of development to happen. I never wanted your parenting for my good. I never wanted your progress at the cost of my own. India is my country defined by secularism and democracy. India is my country flaunting those plush green forests. India is my country defined by religious tolerance. But my idea of India does not matter, because that is not what the consensus today says. Surely there was vikas, but not sabka saath. You cut me down, you shut me down, and you threw me out because you were going to make my life better. I am still waitingf for that day to come, if ever it does. 

Yours truly,

The cost of development.

Feature Image Credits: Greenbiz

Sriya Rane 

[email protected]

 

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Campus Central

Partly Participation: Women in DUSU

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The Delhi University Students’ Union    (DUSU) remains to be the umbrella students’ union for the University of Delhi (DU). It is an integral part of a DU student’s life, and thus, it’s only fair that the DUSU elections carry a lot of weight and hype. It allows a DU student to exercise their right of universal adult franchise, and elect members they believe would be accountable for them. 

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Campus Central

DU to Revamp Evaluation Procedure

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University Grants Commission (UGC) has initiated its new evaluation set-up of continuous assessment, incorporating poster making, quizzes, essays and much more as a part of the curriculum. Thereby, restructuring a 7:3 assessment pattern.

 

UGC has initiated its latest step towards the evaluation and assessment of students, introducing poster making, quizzes and essays, giving respite to the paper-pen system of evaluation.

The committee that recommended the analysis reforms was headed by Professor M.M. Salunkhe, President, Affiliation of Indian Universities (AIU), with an objective of inculcating continuous assessment- making paper displays, participating in group discussions and writing unit exams for every chapter in addition to the year-end examination. In keeping with the proposed analysis methodology, 70 per cent weightage will likely be given to formative evaluation while summative evaluation, which was thus far 100 per cent of the analysis, will now be restricted to 30 per cent.

“The idea of moving towards a continuous evaluation method is a move away from rote learning and to make learning interesting for students,” said UGC Vice Chairman Bhushan Patwardhan. He further added, “The new evaluation scheme has been formulated by a committee of experts appointed by the commission and will soon be made official by the HRD minister.”

However, apprehensions lurk around the latest move. Rajesh Jha, a Delhi University College instructor told LiiStudio, “One has to see the size of our classrooms; there are 60 students in one class, how are we going to have the ability to do inside evaluation with issues like group discussions and poster making with them?” He added, “What are we going to teach the students anyway by poster-making? If the government wants a curriculum that makes students more creative and develops their critical ability, they should assess this scheme properly before implementation,”. Satviki Sanjay, a student of Miranda House put forth her views on the continual analysis initiative- “Poster making and quizzes seem like a waste of time. I would like the syllabus and the teaching to be more practical and application-oriented, for which I think essays and, to an extent, presentations are great, but a replica of the CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) system in college is impractical. While I agree, there should be some continuous evaluation because we only study for exams, I am not sure how practical and how well implemented this system would be.”

With private universities such as the Azim Premji University and Ashoka University already abiding by the continuous evaluation process, results of implementation of a similar process on DU colleges are awaited.

Feature Image Credits: The Print

Priyanshi Banerjee

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Campus Central

DU Student Fakes Own Kidnapping

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Late 6th October night, a father received a purported video of his daughter on WhatsApp with her hands and legs tied with repeated cries of “mujhe chhor do”. A case was registered in the Adarsh Nagar police station.

A first-year correspondence student from Delhi University (DU) left her home in Adarsh Nagar on Sunday to attend classes at a DU college, but instead, she went to Purana Quila with her friends. She lied to her father over the phone stating she was outside her college. He demanded to show him the college building on a video call. She panicked and hung up after which she avoided her parents’ calls and spent the night ahead at her friend’s house. 

Fearing that her parents would discover her bunking college, and scold her for the same, the 18-year-old orchestrated her own kidnapping. Late Sunday night, the father received a purported video of his daughter on WhatsApp with her hands and legs tied with repeated cries of “mujhe chhor do” (leave me). A case under IPC Section 365 (kidnapping) was registered in the Adarsh Nagar police station. The girl’s phone was put under technical surveillance, while teams were formed to look for her. 

Her parents received a call from a passerby in Old Delhi’s Ballimaran area on Monday stating that their daughter was crying on the street. However, she had asked the man to call them up. 

While questioning, she alleged to the police that she was kidnapped by four-five men on Sunday evening who took her to a jungle. “She couldn’t point out the location and said that at night when the men slept off, she escaped. When she was prodded a bit more, she confessed that she had made up the story,” said DCP (North West) Vijayanta Arya to The Indian Express. The woman made a video of herself in distress with hands and legs tied with the help of a friend. 

A similar incident took place in Mumbai, March 2018 when a Class IX student faked his kidnapping and sexual assault after bunking to escape punishment from his parents and school. 

Feature Image Credits: Metronation

Anandi Sen

[email protected]

 

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Features

Blog Competition on Suitable Finance for Agricultural Households

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At Dvara Research, we are delighted to host the inaugural Dvara Research Blog Competition 2019 for students currently pursuing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in India. The theme of the competition is “Suitable Finance for Agricultural Households”. It is aimed towards encouraging students to conduct analyses on the agricultural sector in India, and how suitable finance can serve as a lever for lower-income agrarian households to improve their social as well as financial capital.

Agriculture as an occupation is dependent on circumstances that are highly unpredictable. The likelihood of shocks for workers engaged in agriculture, as well as the seasonality of cropping cycles usually leads to such households not having a regular source of income. As a result, regular financial products and services, with their calculations made based on monthly averages, fall short of being able to address the issues faced by agricultural households.

At Dvara Research, the Household Finance Research Initiative aims to rigorously understand the financial choices and decisions of low-income or excluded individuals and households, and their relation to achieving households’ objectives. In this context, we realise that one cannot look at the financial well-being of households without ensuring that they are protected from being prescribed unsuitable methods by which to achieve it. We believe that financial service providers must ensure that the customers’ interests are adequately and effectively protected as a matter of business process. Through this competition, we hope to encourage and invite thinking on ways of aligning these two important aspects of household finance, to apply suitable finance to the issues and challenges faced by agricultural households.

The competition builds on our intent to develop and promote the household finance research community in India. Earlier this year, the Household Finance Research Initiative had launched two tools – the Financial Well-Being Evidence Gap Map and the Dvara Open Online Repository – to engage with the broader household finance research community and to pool resources that would help further their work. The competition serves as a means to encourage students to engage with the theories and resources of household finance, thereby building the community and increasing the flow of ideas within the sphere.

Students are encouraged to submit their original analysis/insights by 20th October 2019, which would be reviewed by an eminent jury, comprising of Dr. Ajay Kumar Tannirkulam, Bindu Ananth, Dr. Ritu Verma, and Dr. Sudha Narayanan. The top three entries as selected by our jury will receive INR 35000, INR 25000, and INR 15000 respectively. The top three entries will also be featured on our blog. For competition rules, grading criteria and relevant resources, please visit this page.

 

(This article was contributed by Vishwanath C from Dvara Research)

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Events

Amit-stical Odyssey: Rendezvous 2019 Ends with Amit Trivedi

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Indian Institute of Technology Delhi’s grand annual festival Rendezvous came to an end today.

The third day of Rendezvous 2019, the annual cultural fest of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) was a success, despite starting slow, owing to the venue recovering from the previous night’s rain.

The day saw many competitions conducting their finals and semi-finals. “Swar“, the classical solo singing competition conducted its finals, which had seven participants showcasing their vocal abilities and captivating the audience. The competition, which was organised by the Music Club, was being judged by Pundit Chethan Joshi. The competitors gracefully awed the audience.

Abdul Samad Kahan of Shaheed Bhagath Singh College and Shradha Singh of Hansraj College bagged the first position. Whereas the second and third positions were bagged by Rishab Raghuvanshi of Shaheed Bhagath Singh College, and Chinmaya Iyer of Kirori Mal College respectively.

Simultaneously, the seminar hall saw talented dancers grooving to the beat with individual performances, entertaining the crowd with their dance moves.

The “Pop Battle” which was being judged by Nidhish Pandey had nearly 200 participants, with back-to-back competitions involving various western dance genres under the pop culture.

The dramatics society of IIT-D conducted the prelims for “Natika Vatika”  a multilingual stage theatre competition with prominent judges like Ashok Nagar and Rejneesh Gautham. These plays dealt with various social issues like corruption and the philosophy of life.

Mr and Miss Rendezvous (RDV’19) was filled with spirited faces eager to display their talent and personality. From over 80 entries, 24 participants were shortlisted for Mr and Miss RDV. Out of these 24 entries, 14 were present for the event. The event was judged by the famous Instagram influencers, Stefy Gupta, and Raghav Gogia. The first round consisted of a ramp walk, where the contestants put their best foot forward, literally. The shortlisted candidates from those were then asked to showcase their talent. The six final shortlisted candidates were then asked questions by the judges. The title of Mr RDV was won by Siddhartha Dayani and Miss RDV was won by Tarushi Anand. The judges had asked Dayani what his biggest accomplishment was in the judge question round to which he replied, “My biggest accomplishment has been leaving home and coming to Delhi. I was a mama’s boy at home but now I live on my own which I think is great.”

As young men and women were competing in one of the auditoriums to be the idol of Rendezvous’19, young women were competing in the hall right above to be the Campus Princess. The competition was conducted by the Miss India Organisation and was judged by Viren Barman, Peter England Mr India, 2016 first runner up, and Siddhi Gupta, FBB Colours Femina Miss India, Uttarakhand 2019. From over 180 registrations, there were 62 selected for the competition. The first round was a ramp walk round, where the contestants had to walk in pairs of two. The second round was an introduction round, where the contestants introduced themselves, and the last round for the shortlisted candidates was talent round. The contestants came from different backgrounds, with future lawyers, engineers and even airforce officers present. They were all dressed in black cocktail dresses and looked ready to light up the ramp.

“Allegro” was the Western Group Singing Competition organized by the Music Club of IIT-D. The preliminary round was online where colleges had to send in a video of their performance. From 30 online entries, 12 were shortlisted for the finals on 4th October. The competition saw music societies of various colleges singing beautiful mashups. The competition was judged by Joshua Peters, a western classical music maestro, and Nirupan Sinha, a Delhi based singer-songwriter and composer. After a tough musical battle, Echo, the Western Music Society of Jesus and Mary college stood first. Euphony, the Western Music Society of Gargi College and the Western Music Society of LSR were the first and second runners up, respectively.

Day three also saw the reputed IIT Delhi MUN, where students came as delegates and put their diplomacy skills to use.

Apart from these, there were quizzes and games going on all over the campus. From quizzing enthusiasts racking their brains in the Open Numbers Quiz and Conjurors Bout. SPIC MACAY, an organization for the promotion of Indian classical music and culture, also organised Bharatnatyam and Madhubani Painting workshops.

Conjuror Bout, a word game event was also held. The game ignited the literary gene in all to crack questions based on word jumbles, meaning and literary references. Participants received a question paper, and were given 1 hour and 30 minutes to find the answers. They were given rough sheets and stationary to answer the questions.

The event witnessed bibliophiles, literature enthusiasts and poets all throughout the Delhi circuit with their friends, teaming up to answer questions on British Literature, pop culture references, and solve jumbled words through their meaning.

The four-day long IIT Delhi’s fest, Rendezvous ended on a spectacular note on October 5, 2019. A day full of events and performances from every spectrum of life found its way in the four captivating days of the event. 

The final day begun with a plethora of events that happened simultaneously ranging right from the debates to performing arts.

One of the key highlight events of the day, ‘Instrumental Impromptu’ saw participants from all colleges who presented their mesmerising melodies for the audience. The judge of the event was Mr. Vinayak Panth who has been playing the Sitar for the last fifteen years and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was awarded the CCRT Scholarship by the Government of India and has been a part of various ensembles, sub-collections and Anirudh Varma Collective, amongst others. 

With each performance, the audience was hooked to the beats produced, from various instruments such as the Sarangi, to the drum set. Out of the ten teams that participated in the event that turned out to have an intense competition, Nabeel Khan from Zakir Hussain College won the first prize, Saarah Roy from Daulat Ram College won the second prize, and Saksham and Sarthak from SGTB Khalsa College bagged the third position in the event.

The events began at 9 a.m. Debutant- IITD’s vigorous debating competition- came to an end with Gargi College bagging the first prize, followed by Lady Sri Ram College, and Hansraj College. 

Quizzing whizzes battled out their wits in the India Quiz Competition as well as the General Quiz later in the day, at Rendezvous, which was conducted at the Lecture Hall Complex, with questions varying from Pop Culture-  Music and Entertainment- to History and Science, sensitising the participants as well as the spectators.

Belly Dancing event saw a wide range of cheerful spectators. The performers showcased their impressive dancing skills, making the crowd thrilled with excitement. However, a few spectators raised objections to the lewd nature of the audience’s perspective. “The majority of audience saw the event not as an art form, but rather a way to get cheap thrills. It degrades the participants,” a spectator commented. The general ambience too, was more of a way of objectifying rather than appreciating the dance form. Yet, the participants were energetic and well-rehearsed, and set the stage on fire. The first prize was bagged by Shivani Gupta, and Muskaan Singh bagged the second position.

Duo Dance event witnessed scintillating performances by dance duos from the entire Delhi Dance Circuit.

The biggest highlight of the competition was liberalisation in terms of dance forms and dance types which paved way for diversity and Versatality among dancers.

All performances ranging from Bhangra, Kathak and Bollywood displayed their dance routines.

Members of Spardha, Dance Society of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College came first in tie with Angat. The second position was banged by Athak and Kathak.
The special mention was bagged by Phulkari and Adrita.

Monoact provided the grandeur that IIT Delhi’s Rendezvous needed to come to an end.
The event was filled by artists from all over DCTC i.e. Delhi Collegiate Theatre Circuit.

Monoact which works on the principal of one actor in one scene, stood alone to set the mood for last day of Rendezvous.

The beauty of art is to be an anecdote of emptiness of existence in the society, and the many monoacts performed on pressing issues like lack of choice, lack of sexual preference, domestic violence and patriarchy raised necessary conversations.

Echoes, the Western Solo Singing Competition was also conducted at LHC at 1 p.m.  The event drew a heavy crowd of music lovers. There were 11 participants, all from various colleges and universities. The participants were allowed to either sing solo, or with an accompanist, and the singers were joined by pianists and guitarists. The competition was extremely subjugating in its aura- with the singers entertaining with high notes and vibratos. The first prize was bagged by Dattatreya Biswa, from Deen Dyal Upadhyay College. The second and third position went to Rashim Anand from Daulat Ram College and Janhavi Rajaram from Delhi Technological University respectively.

Another interesting event was FAIL! Initially the idea of this event was conceptualized in Massachusetts Institute of Technology to bring out stories of successful people who have come so far after facing many failures in their life. IIT held a desi edition where celebrities  including Rajat Sharma, Sudhir Chaudhary, Laxmi Agarwal, Sharad Sagar and Captain Raghu Raman addressed the audience with their inspiring life stories.

The event started with a captivating speech by acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Laxmi suffered a barbaric acid attack at the age of 15 and came out as a warrior. She started a campaign called Save Sale Acid and has never looked back in her life. She talked about her journey post the incident very modestly. Laxmi’s speech was followed by a video conferencing with Sam Pitroda. A telecom engineer by profession, Sam is considered to be the pioneer of hand held computing in India. He talked about his humble family background, friendship with Rajiv Gandhi, contemporary politics in India over other things. While there was a connectivity problem initially because of technical glitches he took a jibe saying what an irony it is to face such technical glitches in an institute like IIT. His brief address was followed by Sudhir Chaudhary who organically took the audience by his presence. He spoke about his life, his profession and the nationalism that he preaches. Acknowledging the humble response that he gets in IIT he said there’s another university in affinity just about 5 kilometres away where he never gets such overwhelming welcome. He implicitly referred to JNU with which he shares a controversial relationship because of the 2016 JNU Sedition case.

Captain Raghu Raman appeared next. His quirk and unconventional ideas about life enthralled the audience. The second journalist in this event’s list was Rajat Sharma,  editor in chief of India TV. Keeping himself apart from other speakers he held a rather interactive session asking questions from the audience for the majority of his speech. Event was concluded with a speech by young and dynamic Sharad Sagar, who heads the Dexterity Global foundation.

The final day was a melange of events right from the ones of competition and team spirit to the ones which fuelled up the people around. 

With an energetic and captivating performance, the famous dance group MJ5 had the crowd shimmying along with the members of the group to the tunes of famous Hindi and English numbers!

In what could be best defined as the perfect conclusion to a four-day relay of events and performances, Amit Trivedi and band had hundreds of people swooning and crooning to the exuberant tunes of his songs.

The unified and synchronised coordination between the band members reflected the positivity of their music. With this unforgettable rendition of a timeless musical experience, Rendezvous 2019 came to a grand end.

Feature Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat.

Satviki Sanjay 

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Stephen Mathews

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Chhavi Bahmba

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Shreya Juyal

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Amrashree Mishra

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Priyanshu 

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Shivani Dadhwal

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Kartik Chauhan

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Campus Central

After the State, Jammu and Kashmir Girls Hostel Under Administrative Rampage

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Just as the Jammu and Kashmir Girls Hostel of Jamia Millia Islamia is about to complete one year of its inauguration, 11 workers of the hostel were sacked arbitrarily without any prior information.

The workers including mess bearers, sanitation workers, and caretakers have allegedly complained regarding the impeachment and new appointments of the staff, claiming it to be deceptive and originating from personal relations with the newly appointed provost. 

Apparently, this year also marks the appointment of seperate provosts for both the hostels of the BHM Hall of Girls Residence, the entire staff including the wardens has undergone a similar change, making many people skeptical about the appointment procedures. 

Many students residing in the hostel have expressed their grievances regarding the new rules coming into effect with these appointments, the strain of formalities is extremely burdensome with the students being accountable for every minute of entry and exit. Where the suspension of the work staff  has augmented a feeling of envy towards the authority, although the workers impeached from their duties came in a sudden response, the authorities claim that they were hired on a contractual basis and had hints regarding the removal.

Furthermore, the new recruitments are under due procedures necessitated for appointment of hostel staff, the appointment of male staff for sanitation works seems heretic to the safety and privacy of the female students of the hostel. 

The job in country’s premier Central University comes without any security is equally concerning to which one of the students responded as such, “If the workers and staff of the hostel is not secured, how are we as students going to be safe here,”

Where most of the workers were asked to discontinue their services from the very moment, one of the workers was even asked to depart within a day, failing which she was compelled to leave by the action of force and guards coming into play. 

Meanwhile, as no clear statement is availed from the administration, they are inconsiderate towards the plea of the chucked workers. The reaction to it with new recruitments still remains a big question, nothing can be clearly interpreted with regarding to this issue. 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat.

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Bazinga

Bazinga: DU to Reintroduce Mid-Semester Examinations

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The administration of the University of Delhi
(DU) has announced the reintroduction
of mid-semester papers, which will be
held immediately following the end of the
University’s sanctioned mid-semester break
in October.

After continual speculation, Professor
Yogesh Tyagi, Vice Chancellor, DU, has
declared that the University would be
reintroducing mid-semester exams for all
papers across every undergraduate course
provided by the University. The exams
would commence immediately following
the end of the University’s mid-semester
break in October, in accordance with the
Academic Council (AC) of the University. The date sheet for the mid-semester exams will be released on 1st October 2019 via the University’s official website. The changes in the academic calendar were sanctioned on 26th September 2019. The press release states that the administration acknowledges that the unannounced decision may come as a shock to the students and faculty. However, it clarifies that the decision is for the welfare of the students, in an attempt to mitigate the stress of a singular exam per paper at the end of a semester.
Though the Varsity’s action aims at making the academic year less stressful for the students, the faculty of the University is less than happy with the decision. Professor Angad Mehta, from the Department of Economics at Hindu College, says, “This is a rash decision on behalf of the administration. The professors were completely unprepared for this decision; now we have to rush the syllabus.” Another professor from Indraprastha College for Women said that it burdens the students rather than “lessen the pressure, as the administration wished for.”
Students of DU have mixed reactions. Aarti Bhaskar, a B.Sc. (Honours) Mathematics student from Daulat Ram College, stated, “This decision is honestly a godsend. Our entire GPA is currently dependent on one exam at the end of the year. This way, we have a way to compensate.” A student from Lady Shri Ram College said, “I’m glad that the decision was introduced as a way to lessen the burden on students during exam season, but the University’s decision of taking such a drastic step suddenly has blind-sided us. I’m a part of multiple ECA societies, and trainings and practices take up a lot of my time, and I’m lagging on my studies. Now I have to rush to complete them in just a matter of weeks when I would have had at least two months prior to this change of rules.”
The decision has been contested by the students’ unions of colleges like Hansraj College, Hindu College, Miranda House, and Motilal Nehru College. DU Beat tried contacting the Registrar, but he was unavailable for a statement.
Disclaimer: Bazinga is our weekly column of almost believable fake news. It is only to be appreciated and not accepted.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat.

Shreya Juyal

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DUB Speak

The Glorification of Gandhi and the Rising Sympathy for Godse

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A look at how Gandhi shaped our nation, along with the parts of his character not discussed popularly.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi is popularly remembered as the Father of the Nation. He was one of the leaders at the forefront of the Indian freedom struggle, and has a significant role in the attainment of Indian Independence. These are few of the lines we have been told throughout our lives as children – on the 2nd
October every year, on Independence days, and through our History and Political Science textbooks. This is true for the most part and Gandhi’s return from South Africa did
provide a much-needed boost to the freedom struggle. His work with the downtrodden, and his ideas of non-violence still hold a prominent place in the society today.
However, due to the nature of his death, many of Gandhi’s idiosyncrasies and frailties are ignored when it comes to mainstream dialogue. He is considered to be a man beyond wrongdoing, to be the definition of moral standards, and everything we have been taught all our lives just adds to that line of the narrative. The book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India by Joseph Lelyveld was banned in his home-state of Gujarat when it came out in 2011.

This is interesting because the book does not break any new ground as such, and still speaks glowingly of Gandhi. Although, it does contain the description of some negative aspects and flaws in the great man’s character.
The banning of this book simply shows how the Indian population cannot withstand any attack in any form on those who they deify as gods.

There are many aspects to Gandhi’s character that should be questioned, because it is through the crevices in popularised and validated ideologies that people find the scope to improve society and, by extrapolation, the world.

One of these aspects showcases that Gandhi was a racist for most of his adult life, especially while working on civil rights in South Africa. His work centered on giving Indians more power and rights, as compared to the local natives who he felt were “inferior”. Gandhi wrote to Adolf Hitler twice in 1939 and 1940,and while it was to call for peace, he did write the following- “…nor do we believe you are the monster described by your opponents”.
Sexually, Gandhi had maintained a vow of celibacy; however, according to Lelyveld’s and Jad Adams’ Gandhi: Naked Ambition, it was said that he maintained close and intimate contact with females, making teenagers, women, and allegedly even his own grandniece sleep naked with him
to test his vow of celibacy. He was incredibly sexist and homophobic, propagating the belief that women should be responsible for the sexual assaults they face. He justified honour killings, labelled women who used
contraceptives as “whores”, and once chopped off the hair of two female followers who were being harassed so that the perpetrators would stop. He also led a campaign to have all traces of homoerotic tradition removed from Hindu temples as part of a “sexual cleansing” initiative.
Gandhi might have been the reason that India is still an ideologically backward, and sexually repressed nation. However, it is no justification for the current narrative propagated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the extremist right-wing labelling Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s killer, as a hero. The incident involving Pragya Thakur serves as a recent example to this belief. The rise of Hindutva under the extreme right has led to many such people being given a status that
they do not deserve.
To conclude, here is the statement by a student from the University
of Delhi, who does not wish to be named, “I know Gandhi did a lot of messed up things, but how can anyone even think (that) celebrating his killer is good? He still helped our freedom struggle; the celebration of his death because he worked to help the Muslim minority just shows the rising intolerance in our country.”

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives.

Prabhanu Kumar Das
[email protected] 

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