Latest
DU Beat – Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper
59 Results

course profile

Search
Arts & Culture

Thighs Attract Boys: The Curious Case of St. Francis College

By

Education is meant to liberate the educated. Read on to know what happens when there exists a polarity between the two.

Recently, a video of St. Francis College, Hyderabad, had made rounds on the internet. The video was received with widespread outrage across different social media platforms. The protesting students alleged that a faculty member had shamed a student for wearing a sleeveless dress. “The head of my department gave the example of actors who are paid to wear ‘such clothes’. That statement affected me. I have written down this incident verbatim in my book,” an enraged student said. “Sr. Sandra announced a new dress code change in the middle of the year and her colleagues told our representatives that a long kurta would get us good marriage proposals. They told our representatives that standing up for a cause is blasphemous, raising your voice is blasphemous.

This went against the very grain of our values as millennials of the 21st Century. Things got worse, every day we were all humiliated for wearing a kurta that was just an inch or less above the knee, we were made to stand outside the college, losing out on classes and tests. Things did not stop there, the college went ahead and hired female security guards in the pretext of security, these female guards were checking the length of our kurtas, they went ahead and pulled girls by their ID (identity) cards and even pulled their kurtas,” Zanobia Tumbi, who is a student at St. Francis, posted on her Facebook profile, along with the video. Eventually, the women decided to protest and were finally allowed to wear “long tops” to college. But that does not even begin to end the discourse. The Indian education system, specifically talking about higher education, has a way of putting unnecessary obligations on students.

Be it a certain way of dressing, a mandatory minimum attendance, or a particular way of writing the papers to fetch more marks, they all contribute to cease the liberty of students. What is worrying is that the students of these institutions have internalised this behaviour, and do not really seem to have a problem with it. When I asked a few students studying in a reputed college which followed the same practice, their answers ranged from, “I have never given it a thought,” to “No, I don’t have anything to say about it.” When humans are fed a diet of entirely problematic substances, they stop dissecting the reality to find out the truth.

Something similar seems to be happening with the Indian youth, and this is a cause of concern. Education is supposed to make them distinguish between real and false virtues, but in such cases, it is robbing them of it. When there is an imposition of uncalled-for rules, it tends to hamper with the real issues plaguing the country and the world as communities. India lags behind when it comes to research, innovations, and modifications in education. Instead of sanitising the post-millenials of their ungodly ways, the system should take a long, critical look within its cracks and make amends to the damage. While the whole world is progressing to form a more holistic approach towards education, actions such as these put a big question mark on the system.

There is also a debate about what the parents’ reaction is. According to the management of St. Francis, most of the parents had received this decision of their daughters wearing a kurta in a positive light. In this situation, dissent, and not the narrative of “disobedience” that we have been fed, is necessary. Across colleges, and especially in women’s educational institutions, patriarchy or moral policing should have no space. Such places in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, or across smaller cities, have given the country women that the world is proud of. If we limit them to, and define them by what they wear, these places will stop producing the kind of talent that they have. In an educational institution of the present time, moral policing on women’s bodies and clothing should be the topic of criticism and not a notice issued by the authorities who hold power. When it comes to learning, steps like these comply with the misogyny and sexism women in our country, and from all over the world, have actively been fighting to put in the past.

Feature Image Credits: The Hindu

Maumil Mehraj

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

To the Indians Who Love Their Bharat Maa, Let’s Focus on Mother Earth?

By

Indian political discourse manages to stay off climate change. Read on to find out the reasons and implications of this ignorance. 

In India, there is a water crisis in several states. Case in point: Chennai. We are a leading country in population, and have leading cities in pollution- to the effect that being a non-smoker in Delhi is no longer possible, as we all breathe in toxic fumes. Ghaziapur garbage dump is as tall as Qutub Minar, among other dumps in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai. One-third of Himalayan ice caps will not survive this effect of climate change; the melting of glaciers has doubled in the last two decades. It will only increase in some time. There is close to no rain in Delhi, but the regular floods in Mumbai, Assam, and Bihar are not unheard of. 

Despite the deteriorating situations, climate change and environmental policies were still not a priority during the elections. Jobs, corruption, and security have always remained popular ideas in the country’s political discourse. This sadly reflects on what the voter-base wants to hear, and shows that we still have a long way to go. Among various reasons for this ignorance, poverty and illiteracy become major factors. For a starving family of unemployed seven or eight people, living in a makeshift tent under a flyover, a square meal will be more important. But who will be affected immediately, and to the worst effect in this situation of climate change? The majority of our population includes people with no homes, who barely make their ends meet, and they will all face the brunt of this (ignorance) the most.

The image of mother, or Maa in Hindi, is highly glorified. The mother, who is called the backbone of the family—in line with the pedestalised notions of motherhood—is only talked about when there is a need to evoke a sense of nationalism or to emphasise the proverbial self-sacrificing nature of women. But between the loud traffic and noises blaring on news channels, all the screaming voices in our country hardly say anything for our ‘Mother’ Earth. 

The crux of the matter is that India needs more environmental policies and laws to be enacted and strictly enforced. Class twelfth Political Science books talk about how after the British drained our resources, it took several years for us to realise the problem, and only much later were we able to rectify them—we are heading down this path again. It is not the time to convince people if climate change is real, because it is. 

The Ministry of Environment and Forests needs to be seen as the highest profile allotted in any cabinet. Simply because currently, environmental issues are not the focus point; our existing policies do not suffice and many of our policies allow industrialists to cut down trees in bulk, and we are ill-equipped to manage any natural disasters. 

Recently, the Garbage Café in Chhattisgarh has acknowledged an important concern. It will open next month, and take certain kilograms of garbage to provide food to people. This café will open in Ambikapur, India’s second cleanest city. A similar story was heard about a school in Assam, which provides schooling to children in exchange of plastic waste. Another revolutionary idea was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals having been made from 80,000 tonnes of recycled electronics and mobiles. 

Theories on the world ending in 2012 gained a lot of traction, but scientists telling us how to protect this Earth—an act for which we pointedly have time till 2030—is yet to make as big of an impact as a movie. These ideas that have been proposed are unique solutions to fighting multiple problems together. But they are yet to gain the social mileage that they deserve. The Indian political discourse needs to change and reflect today’s problems to fight the real enemy. 

Feature Image Credits: MIT Technology Review

Shivani Dadhwal

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Bazinga

Bazinga: DU to Announce Saturdays Off for First-year Students

By

The administration of the University of Delhi (DU) has been mulling over declaring Saturdays off for first-year students from the new academic session 2019-20. 

The decision comes in the wake of a petition filed by Simple Wasan, a student of Daulat Ram College. Wasan sought the High Court’s justice in the face of the rampant college routine from Monday to Saturday. The petition further voiced various other issues: safety of students, library hours at colleges, subsidised canteen food at the same rate for faculty and students alike, etc. These key issues aimed at creating a more “holistic environment of learning” for the students, as Wasan mentions in her open letter to the Vice Chancellor. The letter has gone viral through Wasan’s Instagram story-series. 

Owing to the massive support the petition has received, the authorities have been considering the suggestion seriously. As the authorities overview and analyse the costs and benefits of this decision, to-be-first-years can expect a path-breaking decision in their favour.

Even if it sounds thrilling at first, college can be extremely taxing for the first-year students, freshly coming out of the promising comforts of school system. The DU administration might have finally come up with a resolution to this everlasting six-day fatigue of its students.  Reportedly, Saturdays could be off for the to-be-first-year students of the Varsity in the coming academic year. 

In the letter published on Wasan’s Facebook profile, Ram Manohar, a student of St. Stephen’s College has commented, “This is an essential movement against mediocrity, that settles in students owing to the relentless academic pressure.” The active supporters have also demanded establishing suggestion boxes in every college for the students, so that they can address their otherwise hesitant concerns to the authorities. “Naturally no one wants to win some professor’s spite, and hence most of us refrain from actually vocalising our issues in front of the faculty,” wrote Manohar. 

“With only one day available in a week to catch up and clear the backlog, Sundays are not enough for college students,” said Naveen Kumar, a student of Ramjas College pursuing his final year of B.A. (Hons.) Sanskrit. 

The decision has invited a mixed reaction from the teaching fraternity; what happens next remains, of course, to be seen.

Disclaimer: Bazinga is our weekly column of almost believable fake news. It is only to be appreciated and not accepted!

Feature Image Credits: Namrata Randhawa for DU Beat

Kartik Chauhan 

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Admissions

4 Things You Could Do After Pursuing Economics Honours

By

Economics is one of the most sought after courses at the University of Delhi (DU). If you are in your last year of pursuing Economics Honours, here are a few career prospects you can explore for yourself.

Economics is a multidisciplinary subject that finds its place in the three verticals of the contemporary Indian education – Science, Arts, and Commerce. It is not everyone’s cup of tea and calls for one to have a knack for it. Here are a bunch of things you could consider after completing your graduation as an Economics Honours student:

     1.Masters in Economics

This option is an ideal and obvious choice for someone who wishes to increase their in-depth knowledge of Economics as a discipline and further consider options in academia. It will allow you to specialise in a certain branch of Economics and comfortably call yourself an expert in the subject. Prestigious institutions in India such as Delhi School of Economics and Jawaharlal Nehru University await you in case to decide to take this up.

  1. Analysis

To gain a headstart in the corporate world, taking up an analysis-based job is a great idea. Be it as an investment analyst or a financial analyst, this field can be considered to be a typical job profile for an Economics graduate who has achieved a good academic record. These options provide you with an excellent chance of getting to work with big multinational giants in the initial years of your career itself.

  1. Think Tanks

Think Tanks are resource bodies that are responsible for the deconstruction of economic phenomenon and issues for the prime purpose of policy interventions and offering recommendations.  Niti Ayog, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and the Center of Policy Research are among the top think tanks of India that work in the field of public policy and economics where you could consider applying.

  1. Business Journalism

If you have a flair for writing and an understanding of economic events, then this is your go-to option. Research papers, journals, magazines, and newspapers can be your working ground and you can hone both your skills by taking up this career path.

So, get out there, make the most of your learning and create a niche for yourself in a world that is controlled by the reins of economics.

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

 

Bhavya Pandey

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

SUDAN CRISIS: AN INNER LENS

By

The African country of Sudan is wrapped up in the ongoing political turmoil and civil war. While there has been a perpetual silence by the international community on the Sudan issue, recently the blue wave hit social media where people changed their profile pictures to blue to show support for Sudanese people. However, the whole picture has more to it having deeper intricacies.

  • How did all of this start?

Sudan gained independence in 1956, having a vast diversity of about 600 ethnic groups and over 400 languages. The northern part of Sudan is predominately Muslim, while the southern regions are mostly Christian and Animist. The ethnic divide led to two civil wars between North and South Sudan.

However, to end the first civil war, peace was worked out with the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 giving greater autonomy to the southern provinces. But peace was short-lived.

A second civil war ensued after Sudanese President Jaafar Numeiri came to power and abolished South Sudan’s autonomy and imposed Sharia law throughout the country.

The war intensified as Omar al-Bashir took over as President of Sudan in 1989, after he led a coup that ousted the previous government. His tyrannous regime of 30 years saw deaths of several Sudanese civilians, ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs, collapse of the economy and instability in the nation-state. Later he was indicted by the International Court of Justice for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 

  • Tyrannous leader no longer in power; will that bring “Peace”?

Although the tyrannous leader was no longer in Sudan, ‘peace’ was a far-fetched dream for the country.

The civilians demanded an end to the military council led regime in the country and establish a civilian-led interim body and elections. The protestors wanted to pave way for the transition of power in the hands of the people through democratic elections. The military council and opposition groups originally agreed on a three-year transition to democracy, but talks soon broke down. Until 2011, Sudan was one country. That year, following decades of civil war, the southern section separated, becoming the world’s newest nation: South Sudan. Months after the country’s dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a coup by the Sudanese military, a deadly power struggle has emerged between forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti) and protesters calling for civilian rule, increased women’s rights, and an end to the brutal militias that have destroyed the African nation.

 

  • The Blue Wave

The recent uprisings and violence followed by an internet shut down brought the world’s attention to the Sudan crisis.  A military raid on a non-violent protest in Khartoum, the capital city, on 3rd June 2019 led to the death toll reaching more than 100. Social media became indispensable to propagate the plight of the Sudanese people to the world. Several posts showing the brutal protests started making rounds on social media. The world responded by using a blue profile picture to show solidarity with the Sudanese people.

Why blue? Well, it is reportedly said that it is an attempt to honour the memory of Mohamed Mattar, who died trying to protect two women during the bloody dispersal of the protest camp outside the military headquarters.

Interestingly, women are in the vanguard of the protests and voicing their opinions firmly. Having typically fled conflict zones, they are more vulnerable than most and have faced severe oppression.  The protests are setting new discourses about women’s rights and giving them a new face in the protests.

The UN Peace-making Operations commented post the uprisings, “The crisis has produced one of the world’s worst displacement situations with immense suffering for civilians. A sustainable political resolution of the conflict is also the only avenue to chalk out a viable exit strategy.”

 

  • Awareness or Pseudo Advertence?

Although awareness on the issue went viral on social media as people posted about it, there came up certain posts which claimed to help the conflict-affected people in Sudan and requested people to follow these accounts.

One such page which went viral on Instagram was @SudanMealProject which claimed to provide meals to starving Sudanese children on sharing its post. In less than a week, the account garnered more than 4,00,000 followers and was all over the social media. People posted and shared it without questioning its legitimacy in the misguided belief that it was an exchange for donation. Soon several similar accounts were made on social media claiming the same thing.

However, several people knew that it was a hoax, but shared it only for spreading awareness on the issue. Muda Tariq, a student of Lady Shri Ram college commented, “Many of my friends shared it despite knowing that it is a hoax, but it did generate awareness about the issue. However, blindly following these things makes it an exploitative process ends up trivializing the whole Sudan issue.”

Misrepresentation of intentions can be a host of misinformation. As well-informed citizens, we should question everything before actualising it. With the privilege of access to information, it’s the onus on the millennial generation to think and rethink before putting anything up on social media.

Sudan is battling through a huge political turmoil. Support, awareness through proper channels, and severe condemnation for such grievous violation human rights should be our role as responsible global citizens.

 

Feature Image Credits: Getty Images

 

Sriya Rane

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Arts & Culture

If Instagram was Honest

By

“Guys, suggest a funny caption for my picture na!” What are some Instagram lies we are all guilty of?

Spontaneously Funny Captions

Yes, you did not send that picture to your three friends and ask for their advice on the caption. You’re just naturally funny.

But, after you sent the best pictures to your friends or sibling, to choose which one to post, the next thing you said was, “Okay, now suggest a caption.” Something funny or self-deprecating (or both at once) is the latest preference in the caption business. “Me looking at food like” or “find yourself someone who looks at you the way I look at food” are some captions we have all used or at least seen being used around us. The seemingly effortless jokes took the combined efforts of many.

IMG-20190504-WA0056
Food photography has become a common       display trend on Instagram. Image Credits: Damini Mehta

Food Porn

The image of that perfect cheesy pizza, that fancy breakfast at a hotel, that chocolatey heaven of a dessert making others crave is but one part of a carefully orchestrated effort, and is not practically real. What if we posted the pictures of what we actually ate? Imagine that greasy roti, with bharte ki sabzi, moongi ki dal, and achar.

This brings us to the second type of images we see. It has become extremely common to see people at restaurants clicking pictures of each meal. Food bloggers have made a profession and money out of this, cafes and bakeries are now marketing through this, celebrities are being paid for posting such images and unique food items (like the black ice-cream you saw at fests) are also becoming trends because of this. With Huji to help us, we can make any picture look aesthetic!

Image Credits: Shradha Dadhwal
Stories depicting a beautiful study table are often staged. Image Credits: Shradha Dadhwal

Exam Season Study Table

Beautiful handwritten notes, pens kept diagonally on the notebook, and colourful stationery – the picture showing 3 A.M. is given the perfect touch with a cup of coffee (seconds before we have an emotional breakdown because so many chapters are left).

As exams get closer and sleep schedules worsen each day, we see more of these late-night study table pictures, with colourful pens, sticky notes, ear-plugs among other things. In reality, no one studies that way; majority of the kids are too flustered a night before exams and simply mug everything. Handwritten notes begin and end on the first day of college; the actual notes are shamelessly saved in our photo galleries. The coffee also gets cold by the time you click this picture.

Throwback Picture

When you could not post too many pictures from the one day you got good pictures, your friend suggested, “Yaar, #tbt karke daal dena (Friend, post it using #throwbacktime later.)”

Let us be honest here: it was that one day when you not only wore a great outfit but also your friend was clicking “Insta-worthy” pictures for you. So, you went home and sat down to choose what to post but even after one story, there were two pictures you just could not choose from! You simply let a few days go by, added a throwback (tb) caption like “tb to good hair day” or “tb to when college life was not a mess”, and posted the next one.

Side Profile

Look at you- standing in front of a wall or a bush of bougainvillea looking towards your side (whichever profile is best, of course).

The trend of selfies and smiling straight at the camera is gone and even feels self-centred; the trend of side profile in front of a view is on the rise! Let me paint you a word picture: you looking side-wards or glancing at something perfectly intensely, when your jawline is looking fine, and it seems like you totally did not intend on getting a picture. Other variants include fixing hair, fixing pallu or tie for farewell pictures, couples smiling at each other, etc.

Candid Laughter

No one:

Person in the picture: starts laughing

Things get funnier when people are getting pictures, and their pictures come out with this almost-candid laugh. We see this almost every day, especially in group pictures. The words ‘candid’ and the oxymoronic ‘staged candid’ are now used synonymously with pictures, where people say, “I want a candid there!” This trend is super common and here to stay.

Featured Image Source: Instagram

Shivani Dadhwal

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Campus Central

Attack on Protesters at Jamia

By

Women marching towards the gate numbered 7 were assaulted in the protest. As the video circulates on the internet, ask how misogyny empowers men to suppress dissent.

On Thursday, 7th February 2019, the women students engaged in a protest demonstration outside Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi were attacked by unnamed individuals during the course of the march.

The demonstration started on 31st January 2019, due to the outrage caused by the numerous accounts pointing towards the Head of Department (HoD) of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Hafeez Ahmed, being guilty of sexual misconduct and academic bias. In the accounts circulated on the social media profiles of various students, it was stated that the HoD had passed lewd comments on women’s clothing and physical appearance on various occasions.

The news of the attack broke on the Internet when Pinjra Tod’s official Facebook page shared the account of the occurrences, with a video displaying the attack as it had happened. In the one and a half minutes’ long video shared on Pinjra Tod: Break the Hostel Locks, the viewer can see a group of students raising slogans like “HoD, haaye haaye! (HoD, shame shame!)” and “We want justice” while marching towards a gate at the university. First, a man with slippers in hand can be seen rushing into the crowd and attacking a protesting woman. Caught in a brawl, the attackers in the video hurled expletives as multiple witnesses recorded the incident on their smartphones. Later in the video, a ruckus is created as men rush to dismember the group nearing the gate, by hurrying to jump at a female involved in the march.

Members involved in the protest demonstration stated that the men who can be seen attacking the demonstrators are the “Gundas (Goons) of Faculty HoD”. An excerpt from the account shared in the aforementioned social media post is as follows: “Two women students were brutally beaten up and sexually assaulted. They are currently hospitalized…. Students are currently protesting outside the Vice Chancellor’s Office demanding the resignation of the HOD along with an FIR to be lodged by the administration against him. In complete solidarity with the ongoing struggle of the protesting students.”

They also stated that the system at Jamia was manipulated by Ahmed in a manner where he would allegedly give lower marks to the students who appealed to him. Not only was he accused of favouritism in academic marking, but some accounts also termed him placist, as he was accused of discriminating with hatred against Kashmiri students.

According to a report published in NewsClick, the HoD had denied to comment on all the allegations against him, and referred to the protest as “fabricated”. He cited university protocol for his silence, and was not available to comment when DU Beat reached out to him. The report will be updated as and when the protest demonstrators, and/or the authorities provide a statement regarding the incidents.

Muntaha Amin, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia who has been a participant at the protest gave her account of the events of 7th and 8th February to DU Beat- “One woman who was on hunger strike was assaulted and she had to be hospitalised. Another woman’s breasts were groped and squeezed by another goon of the HoD.

NSUI came into the protest today, and disrupted it so that it got scattered for three to four hours. In fact, NSUI has a #MeToo accused, Imran Choudhary, in their own party. We started raising slogans against him, stating that we do not want an accused sexual abuser here, and then they started video-taping us, telling that they now knew who we were.
Many people did not want to politicise this aspect of the issue, but we insisted that this is about sexual harassment in the entire university, and cannot be treated in isolation. Anyway, we stayed and protested for a long while and the NSUI also stayed there with their flags. We want the HoD to resign.”

Image Credits: Pinjra Tod: Break the Hostel Locks
Image Caption: Still from the video, showing men hurling to physically assault women protesters.

Anushree Joshi
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
Uncategorized

MASH Project Foundation is looking to hire interns for Winter Internships!

By

MASH Project Foundation is looking to hire interns for Winter Internships.

About the Company:
MASH Project Foundation is a youth-led non-profit social enterprise, working to create an ecosystem for young social change-makers. It regularly organizes cause based community meetups, consults non-profits, conducts experiential workshops, provides support to events and campaigns and lends media support to inspiring grass-root stories. MASH Project is among the fastest growing community of social entrepreneurs.

Internship Profile Title:
MASH Project Winter Intern

Eligibility:
All Courses, All Years

Incentives:
• LOR
• Certificate of Participation
• Access to high quality exclusive events, conferences, workshops and mentors who are domain experts.

Duration:
Minimum 6 months (Work from home + 1 day to office in a week)

Application Process:
Interested students can apply at the following link: https://bit.ly/2AopPSD

In case of any queries, please contact:
Bhavya Taneja
(+91-9958077025)

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Investigative Journalism in Jeopardy

By

Investigative journalists offer selfless service in terms of promoting dissenting opinions and discourse in society. Sadly, people in power often resort to threatening their dignity, profession and lives. And it’s only getting worse.

Last week, a Saudi Arabian journalist named Jamal Khushoggi was allegedly murdered in the Saudi Consulate of Instanbul in Turkey. Turkish officials claimed to have audio and video evidence of the same which Saudi Arabia blatantly denied. This ploy on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia has faced international backlash, with the White house condemning the attack and considering sanctions.

With a twitter following of more than 2 million, Khushoggi was an outspoken critic of Saudi governance and policies and a member of the nouveau elite among journalists and writers worldwide. From a self imposed exile in the United States of America, he contributed to editorials in BBC, Al Jazeera and the Washington Post.  He is infamous among the conservative Arab elite for campaigning that Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood should be included in choices available to the region’s citizens. Saudi officials classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. Saudi Arabia is notorious for ‘eliminating’ all those it sees as a threat to its sovereignty. A well reputed journalist with a vast and infiltrating network of informants and sources, and an advocate for democratic governance in the Middle East, Khushoggi was without a doubt, a prime target.

On 13 June 2018, a leading newspaper journalist and editor in Indian-administered Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari, was murdered by gunmen in Srinagar, India. Bukhari, a frequent contributor to the BBC News website, was attacked in his car near the office of the Rising Kashmir newspaper, which he founded and edited. He previously worked for The Hindu, and was well known for groundbreaking reports, unprecedented exposés, and strong views about the ideals of journalism.

In September 2017, Gauri Lankesh, a prominent Indian journalist critical of Hindu nationalist politics was shot dead in Karnataka.. The death of such a high profile journalist triggered protests in several Indian cities including Delhi. The news made top headlines in Indian media, with editors and journalists condemning her murder and paying tribute to her work.

In the same year, Zehra Dogan, a Kurdish artist and journalist, who was the founder and the editor of Jinha, a feminist Kurdish news agency was jailed by the Turkish government for a painting of the destruction of the city of Nusaybin in 2017. This also faced international backlash,  although in vain.

These cases highlight the egregious nature of the increasing crimes against those working in the media. According to the BBC, more than 2,500 journalists have been killed since 1990, and media rights groups warn of a growing trend of journalists being targeted for the work they do. This occupational hazard ranges from physical harm and violence to rape threats and even conviction or imprisonment in certain autocratic states.

This has had a detrimental effect on reporting standards, since high profile kidnappings and beheadings of foreign journalists in 2012 onwards sparked a shift in news organisations’ policy, with fewer correspondents being sent into danger zones.

Most of those killed were murdered for their investigations into political corruption and organised crime, according to several media rights groups. Imprisonment has always been a form of intimidation. These practices are aimed towards silencing those in jail and intimidating those outside reporting it. Journalists have been targeted by security forces and militants alike. Publications have been denied federal government adverts—a key source of revenue for smaller newspapers.

In India, with nationalists trying to purge all manifestations of ‘anti-national’ thought from the national debate, self-censorship is growing in the mainstream media, primarily due to cases of violence against these ‘anti-national’ writers. Adding to that, radical ‘nationalist journalists’ have also targeted other writers, with online smear campaigns and threats of physical reprisals.

When Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament attack was hanged in 2013, copies of newspapers were seized from the press and the stands.  Newspapers were forced to cease publication for approximately four days.

Since the outbreak of armed rebellion in Kashmir in early 1990, media in the region has had to work on a razor’s edge in what is effectively the world’s most heavily militarised zone. Authorities had forced several media platforms to suspend publication during the protests against Indian rule in 2008 and 2010 as well.

These instances compel us to think about the endangerment of freedom of speech and expression of media. Not only are these against the very foundation of democratic ideals, but also imperative to avoid negative flow of information, false propaganda, heavy state censorship, and asymmetric information. Media should not be seen as an enemy in a democratic set up. Stifling the media does not help to strengthen the democracy. The occupational hazard that comes complimentary with the status of ‘the people’s voice’ is far too detrimental and comes full circle when governments, state functioning, and economies implode, as history has proven time and again.

 

Feature Image Credits: CNN

Nikita Bhatia

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

The Lack of Liberal Arts Universities in India

By

In a country obsessed with engineering and medical degrees, the field of humanities takes a step back. There is a lack of liberal arts universities in the country when compared to government, and science and technology related institutions.

College admissions are a testing time for a student. The probability of getting in to  one’s preferred college/university is  very exhilarating, but the more important question is the choice of stream for  one’s further studies. Education in India for high school and further education is a division on ‘streams’. The predominant ones are science, commerce, and humanities. They are hierarchical in nature, as for an Indian parent the order places science at the top, followed by commerce, and humanities respectively.

The article brings to light a prominent issue in the Indian higher education scene: the lack of liberal arts universities. Liberal arts, within the past decade,  has been a good study option for a lot of students. In the western universities, there is a major focus on their course structures to cater to the liberal arts facilities. In comparison to their eastern counterparts like India and other Asian universities, liberal arts is still a blooming concept, majorly restricted to private universities.

Liberal arts as a concept was first designed by the  Greeks and Romans, as a form of essential education required for an active civic life. Basic subjects taught under it were grammar, rhetoric, logic, etc. However, in the modern curriculums, liberal arts has grown into a multitude of different subjects, with a promising prospect of varying skills and producing students as global citizens with a multi-dimensional knowledge of different subjects.

According to the most recent published data by University Grants Commission, on 25th September 2018, there are a total of 318 Private Universities established by the Acts of the Legislatures of different states. In India, some of the more prominent and well known,  liberal arts universities include universities like Ashoka University, O.P. Jindal global university, FLAME Pune, etc. While these universities offer attractive courses and world class infrastructure, the high fees is a major concern for  potential students. These universities also promise world class  standardised education, career prospects, and partnerships with big companies for future job prospects. A major attraction to these universities is the ease of adaptability one has, for pursuing post-graduation courses abroad, due to the similarity in course and work structure.

The study of humanities is still taken quite lightly. A lot of the state and  centre-run universities and colleges provide a basic Bachelor’s degree in the mainstream subjects of humanities. There  is neither much versatility in course selection, nor enough staff to ensure introduction of more flexible course structures. A major benefit which students adhere to a degree from these government run institutes is the feasibility of education. It is economical and reputed. A lot of students also wish to take it up as it helps in the preparation for their civil services aspirations later on. A popular career option is also   academia and politics.  While a major attraction today on a global level is MBA, with B-schools offering seats to over five lakh students every year according to a recent Assocham report,, a lot of students in these colleges are from engineering and commerce backgrounds.  .

A major factor for the lack of universities catering to liberal arts is also because of the demand-supply factor.. According to the general thinking of an Indian family till date  is that engineering and medical sciences remain the most highly opted courses in the country, as they are  considered “safe” options.. India, along with other Asian countries, is also the biggest supplier of IT and technically skilled labour in the world. Hence, when compared to other Asian countries, the state of Indian universities is almost the same. . Even though the liberal arts courses provide a number of career options the general desire  for high-paying jobs and a better standard of living is a driving force to opt for other courses. Luxury and sustenance is considered to be of a greater value than personal “passions” and hobby in a country like ours.

From the beginning, there has been good investment in institutes related to science and technology, and management like Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management etc., which are government backed and autonomous, and have been given international accreditation. Government sponsored liberal arts universities are fewer  in number, but very highly accredited. Universities like English and Foreign Languages University are known for delivering quality education in different foreign languages like Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, among many others, and in  areas such as Education, Literature, Linguistics, Interdisciplinary and Cultural Studies etc.

The need to have more liberal arts universities in India is a must, as they offer a great deal of flexibility in subject options.. There are options like deferred admissions, and students often take a gap year to   explore their courses more thoroughly, and also volunteer in their time off.

Liberal arts universities remain a popular  choice for the upper middle class and the more affluent sections of the society in the urban areas. A major reason why  this happens is because of soaring fees. While India is endowed to take its education sector in the same manner as in countries like the USA and the UK, where higher education is expensive, India should try to incentivise the private universities to bring more scholarship and financial aid opportunities. This is apart from the present situation wherein  the government itself caters to such services, albeit in a limited number.. Moreover, the government should also invest heavily in the improvement of higher education. . While public universities in India  do have a very vivid course structure  like that of foreign countries, the lack of options in courses is something which affects the career choices for students. A lot of the times, students compromise on their career options in lieu of studying and associating their profiles with a degree from a government institute.

The future state of affairs may seem bleak for now, but with so many different job portals opening up in every field, liberal arts may be taken seriously and more educational institutions would be put to practice for its sustenance.

 

Feature Image Credits:  Perkins Eastman

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By