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Mohanchand to Mahatma: haunting ghosts of Gandhi

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Gandhi is introduced as a messiah of morals to a child. Stories of the three monkeys turning the other cheek and the celebratory personhood of ‘the father of the nation’ have cast him away from ideologies appreciated critically to a domain of morality concerning only the judgement of an immediate right or wrong; this domain is scary for it appeals widely but negates a deeper philosophical intervention or understanding of the figure, what he stood as, and why he appeals still.

The modern Indian liberal attitude of tolerance and non-violence draws heavily on the principles of the Mahatma—a politically potent image inflated with the task of disseminating a high moral cause. Gandhi advocated for a legitimacy of authority to be found in the conscience of man, extending to include a moral regeneration of the people. This emphasis on ‘regeneration’ comes from the idea of the moral decadence of Indian people that resulted in colonial enslavement, thus allowing British rule. His path to freedom is that of an enlightened anarchy.

This rejection of constitutionalism and parliamentary democracy for Gandhi doesn’t come from a Marxist critique of democracy, which nonetheless repulsed him for being anchored in violence and the denial of God. The British parliament to Gandhi is a ‘sterile woman’ for not having ‘done a single good thing’ and a ‘prostitute’ because ‘it is under the control of a minister who changes from time to time.’ Why then is this non-democratic father of the biggest democracy still revered and set as a principle?

This essay is not an attempt to demystify Gandhi or dissect his ideological perspectives, considering the mixed bag his thoughts were and the considerable changes they underwent. Neither does this discredit his contribution to the freedom struggle. It rather tries to frame Gandhi’s relevance in a post-colonial world.

In a country that prides itself on elevating demigods with cult followings seasonally who influence entire elections, run scandals, encroach on lands, are crime apologists, and turn tides over with their bhakts, the occurrence of the image of an academic Mahatma shouldn’t then feel very alien. This nation of ours produces ‘godmen’ that talk of the culture taught by the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Gita and always desperately want to “go back to” and restore the lost. Their appeal to reason involves the acting on a soul force which carves out an existence replicating some past, further nudging us towards living a more perfect life in embodying this now realised historical truth. As ahistorical and pathetic as it sounds, it works when nationalism taints it and it appeals to a nation fraught with poverty, patriarchy, corruption, casteism, and obviously, the aftertaste of centuries of imperialist-colonialism.

The appeal for religion that comes strictly from the Hindu tradition and charms the upper caste consciousness, parading as spiritualism and distinguishing between good and bad Hinduism is a peak Mahatma move from Gandhi. For Gandhi, the acme of Hinduism is to be found in the Ramrajya. The rule of Ramrajya was a central element of his political philosophy and social vision for India; it stood as the manifestation of a philosophical anarchy that his ideas professed. The memory of that Ramrajya reverberates strongly today as one would see in the right-wing fundamentalist ruling state wanting to capitalise on vote banks using a similar analogy. Now, one doesn’t need to venture into the fraudulent concept of the Ramrajya and what it entails for minorities living in India. Such imagination of an ahistorical lofty state is in essence anti-equality, and attempts to extract the good from the fundamentally bad are attempts of deception. While there are Gandhian politicians/academicians who excessively differentiate Gandhi’s conception of an ideal state from the current trends, it only means that this idealism is confusing and largely interpretative while also being highly remunerative to talk about for the appeal it holds still after 77 years of independence.

This ascetic image of Gandhi is carried by the tokenistic ‘Mahatma.’ The deification of Gandhi, where he is seen as a saint who fasts, meditates, prays, abstains, and lives in an ashram while also providing a stage for people to opine regarding the role of women in public life, capitalism in a developing country, caste relations, the importance of import substitution, the significance of village life of family relationships and tradition, in general, work best in the Indian context. Our modernity isn’t too modern or radically progressive and always finds a place back to the religious to validate any step forward; all that is now scientific predates to a past where it has been discovered but apparently lost.

Gandhian philosophy is of spiritual passive resistance, which is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. It requires the use of soul-force over body-force. While the ambit of spirituality can be all encompassing (since it has no specific criteria of inclusion) and helpful, it detaches an individual from the product of a society and historical events. Injury to the self in resistance to the state still forms a criterion of recognizing a protest as valid and non-retaliatory. The figure of Gandhi emerges in resistance to the police while one defends and keeps defending their nature to be non-violent and peaceful. Violent attacks on the state, on the other hand, are deemed consequential and thus not acceptable, deserving a public trial of punishment. 

While it is certainly true that the celebrityhood of Gandhi has been withering, his ideas and philosophies still haunt us. So long as we remain a nation obsessed with religion forming our politics and us conceiving moral Mahatmas in every sphere, the ghosts of Gandhi will long endure.

 

Read Also : Spinning Selfhood : The Story of Gandhi Bhawan, Delhi University

 

Image credits: Pinterest

 

Bhavana Bhaskar

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Navigating Neurodivergence in Academia

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Neurodivergence, as an impairment, unfolds to become a disability as social and educational institutions heavily lack in its recognition; resourcing for such students remains a dream.

 

Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that enlists to include people with atypical brains, which adds a difference to how they ecologically interact. It is inclusive of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD), and others. 

There have been positive changes in terms of recognition and importance of mental health in India. However, all alerts and emphases on mental health leave out the back door when the shallowness of such a performance is exposed with the invisibility of neurodivergent students in academia. An understanding of “the mental” on educational campuses limits to only believing it as a wave of sadness and discomfort that needs counselling. This idea is reiterated with Delhi University’s Counselling Centre, which fails in its purpose to mention and include the experience of neurodivergence, even for namesake.

While the stigma and prejudice (along with other factors) around disorders limit accessibility to diagnosis, those already diagnosed have it no easier in navigating academic and university spaces. The confusion and strictness of college societies collude with a premodern educational setup to confound the sense of achievement and goodness that these spaces should be offering, very often becoming places of disinterest and hurt.

Recollecting her experience, Silvia Nath, a second-year student at Miranda House, who has been clinically diagnosed with ADHD, shares

In my first year, I completely detached myself from my department since my batchmates and teachers weren’t helpful and held stigmas around therapy and mental health. I was judged also for my food habits (as a non-vegetarian) along with my unwillingness to contribute to classes. This detachment caused a very low attendance, which again was a traumatic experience for me. Teachers have been harsh towards me and questioned my competence. Being happy should not be so normalised so that other spectrums of emotions are seen as unnatural and unhealthy.”

The general ignorance to this problem is reflected in the casual usage of medical terms amongst neurotypical people to express mood phases, which has inadvertently reduced the real symptoms to a bluff, non-serious setting of the mind—which can be auto-altered. Sharing rigid spaces like college societies with such groups that lack a reasonable understanding then becomes challenging.

In conversation with DU Beat, Debolina Bhattacharya, a graduate from Delhi University 2024 batch, shares,

I was working with a lot of neurotypical people, for sure, in my college society. Personally, it was not the best of times. It’s very hard to get along with people. I was told that I was overdoing things, talking too much, and other things that were singled out. Naturally, I prefer to do a lot of things together, which allows me to move from one thing to the next. But when you have to deal with people who don’t understand it and have very rigid ideas of how you’re supposed to behave, it becomes hard to curate your personality. I have reached a point, after college, to not hide who I am. But there was a demand to conform, to ‘fit in’ and it was made very clear that I wasn’t. The burnout was so severe that graduating college was what helped.”

(Debolina is a diagnosed neurodivergent person)

The range of exclusion and vulnerability expands when various markers of identity such as caste, class, gender, sexual identities, or geographical locations intersect. Students who are already disadvantaged are pushed deeper to the margins, where their potential is untapped, and their abilities are overlooked. 

Norzin, a Ladakhi student, currently preparing for her NEET examination, has been diagnosed with OCD and anxiety. 

Since I am currently preparing for NEET, I have faced challenges in staying organised due to the lack of a structured environment. I believe a college space with a more structured environment and access to resources and opportunities to interact with peers and professors would provide a more conducive environment for me to work and will help me to deal with my mental health issues more effectively.” – shares Norzin

Institutional reforms beginning from classroom recognition of neurodivergence and sensitisation towards it, are a good place to start when addressing the problem. Pedagogical methods that allow for behavioural support or interventions to promote communication in academic, social and everyday life skills should be used. Most essentially, kindness and empathy should be used to deal with and comprehend the nature of those around us, whether they are diagnosed or undiagnosed. It’s not a burden, but rather a responsibility. 

 

Read also: Mental health societies in DU

Featured Image Credits: Education Times

 

Bhavana Bhaskar

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Campus Central

The rural-urban campus divide

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The rural-urban campus divide

Ever since the inception of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India’s very first central university established in 1916, a lot has changed in terms of the demography often found in such premiere educational institutes. The demographic shift has also led to a new phenomenon in these spaces – the growing rift between rural and urban India.


Higher educational spaces often come with the promise of securing a better livelihood by the provision of a space to learn and grow. India has 56 central universities across the entire nation, with seven being in Delhi itself. It is this abundance of central universities, and diverse nature of students that it attracts, that makes Delhi a vital cultural hub for our youth. Every year, the likes of DU, JMI, and JNU admit thousands of students from all over India, many speaking different languages and living vastly different lives. More often than not, these students come to an educational hotspot like Delhi with great ambitions. 

There’s a great deal of diversity, with a very clear rural-urban divide that becomes very apparent in university campuses. To better understand this growing epidemic, we spoke to the students themselves. There were a number of problems that stood out and remained constant across the responses. They ranged from linguistics, stereotypes, and ultimately a sense of feeling ignored by the privileged.

“A friend of mine from Ramjas College had his friends distance themselves from him, simply because of the way he dressed and his accent resembling a Bhojpuri one. This has been something I have noticed in my college as well.”

This is what a student from Kirori Mal college had to say when asked whether he had encountered an incident where the rural-urban divide was apparent.

“I have never seen so much regionalism anywhere else.”

A student residing in Delhi said when talking about problems faced by them.
Incidents like the ones above, unfortunately, have become the norm in recent times, with racism and xenophobia becoming ever more casual in India. Due to incidents like these, students coming from semi-urban towns or villages often lose self-confidence when starting out their college lives, often already burdened by the pressure put on their shoulders by their families due to constant stereotyping and discrimination faced. These incidents only further the sense of alienation and exclusion, leading them to fade away –, afraid to stand out due insecurities during a period of life when they should be exploring themselves, meeting new people, and growing as individuals.

“Not knowing English or being fluent in English really hinders our interactions with our peers and our classroom participation where  English is the primary mode of communication.”

Issues along linguistic lines continue to be a rampant issue in Indian society and have spread to these universities as well. Even in academia, accessibility to non-English resources is practically non-existent, and not enough is being done by authorities to address this glaring issue that a large section of society has been facing for decades. The default medium of teaching being English hinders classroom development, but having no access to resources to study makes matters all the more sour.

The space definitely needs a cultural revamp, one that fosters inclusivity and encouragement amongst peers. There is an urgent need to recognize the differences that exist between people. A lot needs to be done to make university campuses  more inclusive and equitable regardless of who you are, where you come from, what you speak, or how tech-savvy you may be. Recognizing the different challenges people face is the first step to developing a sense of empathy, because support and encouragement take people miles more than anything else is ever likely to.

Read also: Precarity, Infrastructural Collapses, and the Façade of Prestige: What the NIRF Rankings Hide

Featured Image Credits: Devesh Arya, DU Beat

Yash Raj

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DUB Speak

Precarity, Infrastructural Collapses, and the Façade of Prestige: What the NIRF Rankings Hide

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Since its debut in 2015, the NIRF has faced ongoing criticism and controversy. Regardless of its widespread criticism, it still continues to be a significant factor in choosing universities and colleges by the students. With the release of the NIRF rankings for 2024, students reflect on the human cost that they hide and the attempt to ‘cover up’.

Trigger Warning:  Mention of suicide

Established by the former Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) in 2015, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking system responsible for annually ranking the various colleges and universities of India on the basis of varied weightage accorded to five parameters, namely: Teaching, Learning, and Resources (30 per cent); Research and Professional Practice (30 per cent); Graduation Outcomes (20 percent); Outreach and Inclusivity (10 per cent); and Perception (10 per cent). The NIRF has been challenged by several scholars and stakeholders in the university space for its one-for-all approach that it imposes on all institutions without taking into consideration the differences in their funding, ownership, location, and courses offered. Further, the ranking methodology has also been widely debated on the basis of lack of verification of the data sent by colleges, lack of qualitative parameters, negligence of inclusivity as a significant factor, and artificial or selective student responses for a better perception score.

Infographic about the NIRF rankings parameters

Image Credits: Factly.in

Though the colleges of Delhi University have been ranked highly in NIRF rankings, concerns persist about the credibility of these rankings. Issues such as the displacement of ad-hoc professors and the increasing corporatization of the academic environment highlight a significant gap between the reported rankings and the on-the-ground reality. Since permanent faculty appointments began in 2022 in DU, the Philosophy Department of Hindu College experienced a tragic case when Prof. Samarveer Singh took his life in 2023 after being displaced twice from his position. Despite this “alleged” institutional death and the precarity of academics in the college and the university, the ranking system clearly failed to reflect this. 

I saw top professors like Prof. Samarveer Singh being displaced. Both students and faculty complained about the heavy curriculum, administrative burdens, poor infrastructure, and irregular classes. If those who drive the institution are exhausted, how did we rank first? This suggests that NIRF’s priorities are misplaced and don’t reflect the real well-being of its stakeholders.

– A recent graduate from Hindu College

On further asking about the availability of accommodation facilities in the college, they added,

I remember outstation students struggling with poor living conditions due to inadequate hostel facilities. The college lacked a boys’ hostel and the girls’ hostel, outsourced to private entities, had exorbitant fees. A friend at Hindu died from jaundice due to poor water quality in the residential areas. I often wonder if he’d still be here if the college had provided better, affordable hostels.

Further, reports have also pointed out how NIRF rankings not only allow but may actively encourage privatization of higher education through their criteria.  On asking from another final- year student from Hindu College (identity withheld for the sake of anonymity), they added,

Most academic blocks at Hindu, including the Sanganeria Science block and the new faculty room, are privately owned. The research center is also owned by Relaxo. The new boys’ hostel, the only one in DU backed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, also includes a 500-seat auditorium. However, its potential may again mirror issues of higher fees as seen with the privately owned Smt. Indu Punj Girls’ Hostel.

Grafitti found at Hindu College

Image Credits: Anonymous

In several highly ranked institutions, such as St. Stephen’s, Lady Shri Ram, Hansraj, and Kamla Nehru College, there have been recent incidents of infrastructure failures, including collapsing ceilings, bathroom stalls, and falling fans, which have severely harmed students. Regardless of the severity of the injury caused by these collapses, the rankings of these colleges have remained unaffected, raising questions whether the safety of students’ lives is at all a concern of the NIRF.

Atma Ram Sanatan Dharam College (ARSD) has made efforts to address violent student politics, but its infrastructure remains inadequate and unsafe. The old academic block has cramped classrooms, and the new block, which is still under construction, is extremely fragile. The auditorium, used as a storeroom with broken chairs, has been unfinished for years, with no interest from the administration in completing it. The NIRF rankings overlook these issues and fail to verify the college’s research claims. ARSD’s research facilities and UGC-recommended internships, particularly for humanities students, also fall short compared to other colleges.

-A recent graduate from ARSD

Government ranking frameworks have also been scrutinized due to significant state involvement and potential for corruption, leading to concerns about “gift bags” being given to the authorities conducting these surveys.  Additionally, despite NIRF’s claims of inclusivity, most of its top-ranked colleges are located in North India, with not a single institution from the North-Eastern states appearing at the top. This regional imbalance highlights the NIRF’s failure to implement an inclusive methodology that accounts for differences in ownership, course offerings, and the varying levels of funding received by institutions from state governments and the UGC.  Furthermore, the ‘outreach and inclusivity’ scores for various top institutions in the NIRF remain unchanged despite the absence of functional Women’s Development Cells, Queer Collectives, Equal Opportunity Cells, and SC-ST Cells.

With universities facing threats from privatization, alleged political interference in faculty appointments, limited academic freedom, and severe challenges for students and professors there is a critical need for a more independent, transparent, and inclusive ranking system. Moreover, the focus on celebrating rankings reduces the development of institutions to mere attainment of these rankings which contradicts the purpose of university education. This competitiveness often leads to increased privatization and demands for institutional autonomy, ultimately resulting in higher fees for the students. Hence, the methodology of these ranks fosters a culture of hedonistic celebrations and creates a façade of prestige rather than encouraging critical reflection needed to address the genuine precarity faced by students and academics. 

Read Also: Beyond the Numbers: Understanding and Evaluating the Credibility of NIRF Rankings

Featured Image Credits: Devesh Arya for DU Beat

Vedant Nagrani

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Paris 24: a wake-up call for Indian sports

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The 2024 Paris Olympics arguably broke more hearts than espouse moments of elation for many. India could only bring six medals. It was particularly shocking as it was an Olympics where nations with far fewer resources, exceeded expectations.

India is often referred to as the sleeping giant in any discipline of sports – yet much is or has ever been done that would resemble even in the slightest a wake-up call. We might be one of the largest economies, top-3 even, but why is China bringing in 40 gold medals from Paris 24 whilst our all-time gold tally barely reaches double digits? A diamond in the rough is almost always going to be rough; in the same vein, India, with an abundant talent pool, has to start scouting and nourishing these gems at a very young age, or else you’re just going to be left with wasted potential and a whole lot of “what ifs”.

It was a stark reminder when, back in 2017, former sports minister, Rajvardhan Singh Rathore, remarked in the Parliament that whilst China spends about six rupees per day per capita on sports, we spend about three paise, taking into account the census of 2011.

India spends 1.13 per cent of its GDP on sports, which in absolute numbers comes to around $4.07 billion, which is about 9 times less than that of China, which comes to approximately $36 billion. Even if we look at annual numbers, China greatly dwarfs us. As per the 2023 data, China spent more than $3 billion compared to India’s meager $412 million. When you look at the numbers, it makes sense why China has accumulated 303 gold medals in its history compared to us, who’re barely touching double digits.

China has established a proper governance body to streamline its sporting activities, which it calls GAS. It helps them manage and plan their operations in a systematic manner that is almost absent from most Indian sporting federations, often led by politicians with no clue about sporting activities. Indian federations like AIFF and the IOA have either faced bans from international sporting bodies like FIFA or have been threatened with the possibility,  due to irregular governance, malpractice, and external interjection. The plight of sports and our athletes appears very grim with these incompetent sporting bodies at the helm.

“My parents, like most Indian parents, found sports to be a rather unpredictable and unstable field marred by the ever-looming risk of a career-ending injury or an uncertain life post-retirement, as the most government offers you if you don’t make it big, so to say bring an Olympic medal home, is a job that of a T.C. There aren’t enough safeguards provided by the government for athletes to have a stable career post-retirement and to incentivize them to pursue sports. My parents, too, despite being from a sportingly rich area, pushed me towards studies due to these uncertainties.”

“Resources, despite me being from a relatively big city, were always a problem. We didn’t even have a synthetic track for athletes up until two years ago. I was fortunate enough to be able to afford the equipment, but many of my peers sometimes had to resort to training with below-par equipment, which did them no favors. And that is the plight of the more “popular” sports; if you want to be a swimmer or a gymnast, the academies are far and few in between, and even so, only for those who are already good enough, and team sports are marred with corruption.”

The above statements are by Arjun, formerly an athlete from Haryana, who chose to pursue his studies for a more stable career path.

How far have we really come since the late great KD Jadhav won India’s first Olympic medal in 1952? Our athletes do not have proper equipment to train with, nor have they particularly provided enough quality safeguards in case of failure or post-retirement. Sports like football are marred with corruption on the grassroots, with age fraud and nepotism in the selection process. The government’s lack of care for our athletes has resulted in a culture where sports as a career has almost derogatory connotations. That is no exaggeration. Many Indian households view it as something done as a last resort, for those who don’t have better, more academic talents. The volatile and uncertain nature that looms over sports in our country deters these parents from sending their kids to academies even if they have the talent to make it as a professional. We should not be surprised in the least by our performances on the international stage if we ourselves choose to ignore the abundance of talent around us. How often is it that in schools, the supposed slot for games is taken away from students?

There’s no point to being sad or angry if you only care to watch and support these athletes once every four years. That is not going to take us anywhere, nor boost our medal tally –  be it at the Olympic games or the Asian Games. The biggest tragedy in the Indian sporting scene is that one loves to take pride when an Indian brings home some silverware but would not want their kids to idolize or play like those athletes. Until this almost derogatory outlook on sports vanishes, nothing is going to change anytime soon.

Read also: Beyond the Fields of the Olympics: A Transcend into the Ball-Park of Humanity – DU Beat – Delhi University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Featured Images Credits: Associated Press

Yash Raj

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Campus Central

Authorities Impose a Rickshaw Ban; Workers and Residents Face Adverse Effects

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Local authorities earlier this week banned two-seater e-rickshaws in areas around the University Enclave. The ban has been implemented due to an absence of number plates.


Earlier this week, local authorities imposed a ban on two-seater e-rickshaws in the University Enclave and surrounding areas, citing the absence of number plates. For people residing in Vijay Nagar, touted as the student hub of Delhi University’s North Campus, the ban came as a massive surprise and nuisance for the residents in the early hours of Monday. The students were faced with inflated fares or waiting for four-seater rickshaws due to a shortage of transportation options.

Walking helps save money, but sometimes I just don’t have the privilege of time to walk to any place. So, unfortunately, I have to shell out the extra cash, which has become a burden on my pocket, 

 

said Krithartha, a second-year student living in Vijaynagar, about his struggles as an outstation student managing this fare hike.


In conversation with DU Beat, Aslesha, a second-year student living in Kamla Nagar said,


The hike is bad, of course, and considering student areas are getting more expensive day by day, a hike in transport will severely lead to problems for students. Since there are no regulations on the hike, we do not know how far it might rise.


Students were understandably left upset due to the increased financial load due to a reduction in transportation choices for students who mainly come from middle-class backgrounds. However, the ban has affected people from all walks of life. A resident of Shakti Nagar commented,


Having lived here in this locality for over 20 years, something like this has never happened before. I have been facing issues running errands and travelling shorter distances.

 

There was a general feeling of anger amongst the residents. They question as to why the government has to wait for these things to go overboard before taking action and causing nuisance in their lives. The rickshaw pullers have been affected the most by the ban. Many lost their livelihoods out of the blue, given the abrupt nature of the ban. While speaking to DU Beat, one of the affected rickshaw pullers had to say opened up about the entire fiasco,

 

We had no choice but to hike up the price due to the abrupt nature of the ban, many of us had our e-rickshaws confiscated, and pulling a traditional rickshaw takes a massive toll on our bodies.


The loss of livelihood, the increased workload, and shortage of transport options have naturally made these Rickshaw pullers feel justified in their actions. The police, on the other hand, deny the abrupt nature of it all and tell a totally different tale. In conversation with DU Beat, a police officer from the area said,

 

Do not fall for what these Rickshaw pullers tell you. The ban has been in place forever, it might just be a case of stricter implementation in recent days.


While the repercussions have been felt throughout, one section perhaps might suffer more than most – the women. Delhi, to no one’s surprise, is unsafe for women and has been for many years. It is especially during the night hours, when most are returning from work or their colleges. The lack of transportation options only makes them more vulnerable.


Going via auto – rickshaws can be weird at times, with the driver often trying too hard to persuade you into his ride. The guys that you often end up sharing seats with try to sit closer to you, even when there are empty seats,

shared Mrigakshi, a student from Vijay Nagar, on her experiences in autos, often shared with a bunch of men.


Women have already had horrible experiences, particularly late at night, and the reduction in the number of transportation choices at their disposal or the ease of access to them only worsens the case. The recent rickshaw ban in areas like Vijay Nagar and Shakti Nagar might seem minor on the surface but have broader implications for almost everyone involved, some at risk of a loss of livelihood whilst others being put in precarious situations.

 

Read Also: https://dubeat.com/2016/04/29/the-e-rickshaw-phenomenon-in-north-campus/ 

 

Featured Image Credits: Vanya for DU Beat

 

Yash Raj

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The Edifice of a Gargantuan Ambition – Where Does the NEP Stand Today?

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The policy-behemoth of 2020, the NEP, has begun to seep into the cogwheels of the state machinery, and an ugly picture now stands before us. Has the NEP oiled the machine or soiled it?

With its first major revision since 1986, the New Education Policy of India (NEP), cradling promises to remedy the fractured education system and its often dysfunctional multiplicity of boards, targeted skill-sets and examination protocols, has finally started to lose moss as it roars down the steep slope of universities and schools dotting the Indian landscape alike, and needless to say, it poses the threat to obliterate the status-quo hitherto observed. The question remains whether an overhaul of such prodigious proportions should be a welcome change. Do Indian institutions, and in fact, the institute that is India itself, possess the capacity to contain it and not crumble in the process? Perhaps a fortification is imperative. Have we given the political and academic structures adequate time to recalibrate and fortify themselves in order to welcome the change? 

Indeed, having to model the Indian paradigm of education after the Americans presents appealing prospects to those who wish to pursue their higher education abroad. Statistically, we must determine how much of the student population that truly represents. One need not resort to the numbers, however, to infer that it must not constitute a generous portion of the Indian-student demographic. A disparate wealth distribution in the Indian economy continues to persist, consequently shutting a devastating majority of the population out from access to foreign lands. Education in the UK and the US for just one year is almost as expensive as an Indian’s kidney, if one were to pardon the conceit.  Within India itself, private universities cost as much over the course of four years. We may safely say that the structure under the NEP, benefits only a microscopic percentage of Indian students. Simultaneously, it insinuates certain cultural and ideological conflicts. 

Of course, change is daunting, abrasive at times. I desire to direct our attention to the realised change therefore; that is where the NEP stands, four years after its conception and more than  a year after it having been implemented. Lying beyond the theoretical assent and dissent, how has the change shaped itself in practice? 

The syllabi structured under the NEP have introduced subjects such as GE (Generic Elective), SEC (Skill Enhancement Course), VAC (Value Added Course), AEC (Ability Enhancement Course) with the respective departments offering choices from a pool of courses. Some of these courses such as “The Art of Being Happy” may be taught by professors of any and all departments! The obverse side of the coin parades this as ‘holistic development’ that should buttress an individual’s employability. The reverse, practical side of this coin reveals a diluted core syllabus and therein the concomitant and ironic risk of a half-baked education. Can subjects such as ‘Sports for Life’ or ‘Personality Development’ substantially better the depth of a student’s learning, especially at the University level, where courses are supposed to be rather rigorous and demanding? 

Professor Debraj Mookerjee, Associate Professor of English at Ramjas College, reflecting on the Economics Honours syllabus for St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata, says,

Of the eight courses being taught, only one is in the Honours subject paper…are the students learning enough about the core subjects to make them optimally employable? Can the other subjects not be self-learnt in the age of the internet?

A 3rd Year English Honours Student at the University of Delhi, Pema Choekyi Thongdok, in conversation with DU Beat, echoes the same concern

Also, while one may argue that papers like yoga, sports, etc. do help in extra-curricular development, I still believe that this should be the choice of the student. A student should not be forced to study a whole new paper, simply in the name of “holistic development”, if it wouldn’t even be of any help to them in the future.

A critically upsetting point that Pema raises is that these subjects, with the exception of the GE courses, may not be repeated after one semester of having studied it. How does one fathom the idea of learning a subject well enough within the span of four months, with six other such courses to cater to, including 3 core papers, to find any practical or academic use for it later in life? If the practical use is eliminated entirely, an academic use is tenuously possible. Even in that scenario, additional rigorous research must be done to develop a scholarly understanding of the topic in the first place. This research shall only be the qualifying pre-requisite and no more. 

Highlighting another pitfall of this system, Shivam Bhanushali, Assistant Professor of English, B.N.N College ventures,

The policy’s emphasis on student choice in subject selection is commendable. However, large class sizes and an uneven teacher-student ratio make it difficult to offer diverse options. This can lead to schools prioritising feasibility over student preferences, potentially hindering the policy’s objective.

The cause behind such a butchered syllabus coupled with an equally ignominious execution may be ascribed to the inadequate workforce in terms of, on one hand, administrative sections that must be reconditioned to accommodate the changes in the dealings with students and a largely under-equipped faculty.

Many of the universities are facing problems because they do not have the manpower required for proper implementation. This programme has many sub-sections like value-added and skill-based courses. If institutes want to offer these courses, they need to have proper departments in the university.

 says Professor Imankalyan Lahiri, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. 

Taking this argument further, Priyanka Mukherjee, third year journalism student at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce laments

NEP, while it boasts of introducing “practical aspects” into the syllabus, doesn’t take into account that several DU colleges lack the basic infrastructure to even accommodate a media lab in their premises.

 In the recent fee hike at JNU and DU postgraduate and doctorate programmes, one of the contentions seemed to be a constantly failing infrastructure that did not reflect or justify the increased fees. If colleges were not being able to handle infrastructural demands even before the NEP was implemented, it is only natural for a massive bottleneck to have been birthed in the wake of NEP’s structural reform demands. For instance, one of the AEC papers offered under the NEP syllabus is “Environmental Science – Theory Into Practice”. As an unfortunate victim of the NEP myself, I may assuredly proclaim that there was nothing generally practical about the course structure exempting the practical waste of my precious time as an honours student. The “practicals” prescribed in the syllabus decreed the making of a practical file, with an arbitrary number of experiments left to the discretion of the teacher responsible for teaching it and a viva-voce at the end of the semester. I trust you have understood that there were no opportunities created for us that warranted leaving the four-walls of the classroom or our living accommodations. Unless I am practically delirious, it bothers me that there are no realised practical, or hands-on aspects to courses that purport to be largely practical. 

Under the NEP, one may skip completely their Master’s and appear for the UGC-NET provided they can meet the criteria of a “minimum of 75% marks or equivalent grades in their four-year undergraduate course”. Additionally, the UGC has already scrapped the M.Phil degree entirely. Commenting on this, Professor Saswata Bhattacharya, Associate Professor of English at Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi, in conversation with Times of India, says,

The 4th year requires a student to acquaint themselves with research methodology and research work. The papers that they have, were previously a part of M.Phil courses, let alone M.A. Speaking of their M.A. courses, which they may now skip, they have a one year programme with not more than 8-10 papers. We had a minimum of 12-16. The length of their M.A courses have been effectively halved. I can vouch for the paramount importance of a two-year course for their M.A. Students who have been introduced to a specialised discipline only recently, and have been studying it for not more than 3-4 years, will find themselves severely ill-suited for serious research. In fact, a 2 year M.Phil course after their master’s helps bridge the large gap in the nature and workload between a Master’s and PhD course.

The hoped expedite is not so much an expedition as it is a hindrance; the process leaves students insufficiently armed and unable to ease into the succeeding steps of their lives. Professor Biswajit Mohanty exposes a dangerous area of quicksand in the exit policy of the NEP undergraduate programmes.

The exit policy is clearly disadvantageous for the underclass category students because it is easy to exit and difficult to gain re-entry into the system, considering the fact that the poor students would find it burdensome to expend energy and financial resources for four years to get the desired degree. Earlier three years seemed achievable but it seems a distant goal for them. This has manifested in the form of one of my students from Rajasthan now contemplating a move to SOL as he cannot afford to study in Delhi because of his family’s financial situation. This will also be disadvantageous for girls, as they would be the first to be taken out of school.

Certainly, given the India now, in an attempt to dig new pathways, the NEP has run the drills under whole residential areas without relocating the inhabitants. It has done so under the influence of a flimsy vision and a threadbare execution. The damage control has been pitiful because it lacks the work-force and the resources to acquire said workforce. In simple words, India is not ready to so radicalise its educational wireframe. It is not simply the universities that have failed, but the government responsible for funding them. “It is, however, not a big surprise that the present government has implemented yet another ambitious policy without taking into account the ground-reality of our academic institutions.” concludes Priyanka. While the students suffer from not having been eased into degrees in a rush to acquire them, the academic institutions suffer from not having been eased into the NEP. One cannot deny the NEP’s transformative capacity. However, a ceramic bowl cannot contain oversized bricks. There is hope for the NEP, but the damage done to the first batches in its inchoate stages seems irremediable. 

Read Also : The Good, Bad, and the NEP: A Far Dream?

Featured Image Credits : The Times Of India Website

 

Aayudh Pramanik

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The Reformed Identity of Bengal: Tracing the History of an Exodus

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The hands of the clock now beckon you home and you realise you are quite far away. As you step across the threshold of your motherland, you do not recognise it anymore. The universities are now debris, the art nowhere to be found and the citizens asleep immobile, in a deathly slumber. 

On the asphalt streets of Bengal, there is God. Amidst the wet mud underneath newborn rice; in the dramatic torrents from precariously placed Dhunuchi on sundried hands; in the kitchen’s sweating, simmering air and the tear that sizzles in the onion sliced open on the cutting board, there is God. From the ancient, blistered pages of a chalky hardbound Thakumar jhuli, Thakuma’s thunderous and meek voice rings clear and God flashes her third eye. When you hear her, you hear the underbelly of a tidal wave roar with ripe and red age – her seasoned drawl trembles like the quaking earth. Sitting a few trees, a few cities and a few seas away from her, you find that all around you, the wet mud, the dhunuchi, the curry that stained your childhood nails have crumbled to stone. 

You are not home. The air is no loner laden with the heady fragrance of dawn Shiuli, the paint no longer peels off walls as your eyes fall to the floor and the sunlight no longer burns with the force of a thousand furnaces in your face when you smile. You feel estranged from language for your tongue has remained in your mother’s heartland. There are no trams here, no yellow taxis, no cobblers spread out on street corners, no purple skies of the Kalboishakhi, and no roads choked with rice lights and kabiraji during pujo. There are no little gods in melting make-up darting about on the streets, touring the city on shoulders and veined, brown laps. There is no you. 

Thus Modhushudon says,

“সাধিতে মনের সাধ,

ঘটে যদি পরমাদ,

মধুহীন করো না গো তব মনঃকোকনদে।

প্রবাসে দৈবের বশে,

জীব-তারা যদি খসে

এ দেহ-আকাশ হতে, – খেদ নাহি তাহে।”

This translates to:

“If disaster befalls,

My questing heart,

Do not banish me from the nectar of your memory.

If, by foreign banks,

My life cascades away from me,

I do not fear the death of my body.”

 

For the Bangla that has seeped through the fissures of Bengal and carried an exodus of the personality to the without and ushered them within, through the crests and troughs of an experience divorced from the comfort of a motherland, for the teeth watered with the acrid wind of a foreign song, Modhushudon lamented. Of course, along with departure, there must be an arrival. But we realise that the arrivals pale soon. That which arrives and has arrived, could not arrive again. In its incomplete arrival, an arrival is effervescent. There is another arrival and we lurch forth, perpetually, towards newer lands and tongueless elegies sung in deserted rooms. This sense of the ceaseless arrivals is only an abstract account of the idea of the present. Aristotle had reductively expounded it as an uneventful translocation between tactile distances. “Duration is the stuff of which conscious existence is made”, Bergson shall profoundly declare some two centuries and two score years later. But I digress. Why this lived time is important to understand is because it corresponds to the Bengali’s distorted lived identity.

This precipitates the workings of an abstract nation that is peripatetic and exists in the blank space wrought by a disturbed people’s diaspora. How did this come to be? Indeed, the political unconscious, as Jameson would observe, of the endless literature that Bengal could offer, reflects the change in the most confounding manner. It is not easy to say when the left front began to collapse; the artistically, academically, and pedagogically peerless British-fed empire of the paddy fields commenced a burgeoning descent to an industrial, infrastructural and economic impasse. Of course, the united Bengal, alongside the other, now prominent, port cities of colonial India’s Madras and Bombay, stood to be the entrance of the British into the Indian subcontinent. The colonial landslide was inevitably felt the strongest in these cities. The domain of English academia is still, to this date, dominated by either the present-day south-Indians or the Bengalis. It is no coincidence for such to have been the case. Bihar, which was an organ of united Bengal, produces the fiercest administrative officials.

It does not take the exceptionally precocious to piece together the facts. I must confess that I have also met that crude populace that has failed to tag this failing state machinery. It was only yesterday that I had the misfortune – now, let this not be extrapolated so as to deem their company unpleasant, indeed it was the converse – of acquaintance with a certain professor who was astonished at my decision to have chosen Delhi for my undergraduate destination. Being from Kolkata, why had I not chosen amongst the premier institutions of the city? Her question was not unfounded. Two decades back perhaps, or a little more, I would have considered it. In fact, it would not have been an easy task gaining admission into either Jadavpur University or Presidency. “No one knows what happens during the checking of Jadavpur entrances anymore”, sighs a Professor that I know. I would also have been assured that the evaluation of my entrance examination at the former would have been a fair one. Nevertheless, the unnamed was unaware, albeit, not blissfully so, of the cruel edifice of Bengal’s present truth. When I asked my friend who is currently a second year student of Mathematics at Presidency what has become of the education system in Bengal, what it is that has so dramatically altered its state machinery, and he said “Bengal has once churned out nobel laureates like the primed barrel of a gun; we have fallen far since then. The culture where Bengali households still push, sometimes excessively, their children towards unimaginable heights of success still exists. But the means for our generation to manifest that now-distant dream have been lost. We see them only reminisce, complacent and smug in their erstwhile glory and do nothing to reclaim it.” It might sound scandalous to say so, but it is my belief that any Bengali, with a morsel of ambition remaining in their blood, has left. The evil of the Naxalites, which had catalysed this transformed political sub-space in the first place, has been replaced by the evil of stagnancy that is borne of negligence and a ruthlessly debauched moral compass. This moral compass does not remain confined to the rulers of the state only, for we must remember the citizenship that has advocated for them, and handed to them this power. It would be folly to discount the sheer comprehension of the people’s pulse, of which the incumbent opposition ruler seems to be in dangerous possession. She knows what makes Bengal tick and she makes them tick well. I am afraid that if I indulge myself any further, I shall stand to lose my diplomatic tenor and therefore I shall not risk that venture. 

Bengal has been outpaced, and superseded by time, for all great societies are fated to fall. This is not to occasion a trite exchange, only to ascribe the causality of a devastating truth to powers intangible. And yet, I must maintain that it is not, in fact, intangible. The democracy of the Indian subcontinent is now choked with choices that one could not make without the mortifying acceptance of their choosing the lesser evil. That is another complicated tangent of debate, which I could not take up frankly without gravely endangering myself. We can no longer jointly hail one as a scholar and a politician. That species seems now to be extinct. In any case, as I grapple with this undeniable prospect, it is quite clear to me, a state I hope I have been able to confer upon the readers of this article, why the exodus has been in such Herculean proportions. The issue of the brain drain is not atypically Bengali. In Bengal, the tremors have been felt deeply, and yet, to the perspicacious, that the drain is quite Pan-Indian. The established Indian scholars have all to sport in their resumes, a degree earned from abroad. This is not simply the result of a quest to expand one’s horizons, as seems most apparent. The outward-bound instinct, or Beauvoir’s masculine transcendence, is not a universal tendency. I would fail at this moment to furnish the reader with the statistics, but commonsensically, it would not be preposterous to infer from cases of those irrefutably successful, that ambition is not a rather ubiquitous quality if all the world’s sensibilities were to be accounted for. If the reason so posited, about expanding one’s horizon, were true, then how does one explain the negligible immigration that India has seen recently, in terms of students. Of course, it is a developing country, and yet, if one were to examine the history of Indian scholars who have flourished abroad, one must concede that the Indian education system was once robust and globally revered. It pains me that I cannot account for a solution that does not drastically alter the system, and perhaps I must not. Perhaps it is important that the system be so radically reformed, for if we continue along this path, we shall only gracefully expedite our world’s transmogrification into the dystopian world of Orwell, if not extinction. 

Read also: Of Remembrance and Letting Go: An Ode to Hometowns

Featured Image Credits : Ahmadzada for Freepik

Aayudh Pramanik

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On the Death Anniversary of Samarveer Singh: A Memorial and Display of Solidarity

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On 26 April, 2024, students and professors across Delhi University came together for an online memorial for the one-year death anniversary of Professor Samarveer Singh, seeking to honour his legacy and work, but to also engage in discussions about the systemic issues and conditions in the academic circuit that forced him to take his own life. 

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Suicide

Samarveer Singh, a former ad-hoc Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Delhi University’s Hindu College, committed suicide a year ago, on 26 April, 2023, days after he was displaced in the ongoing recruitment process. Samarveer was abruptly dismissed, despite hopes for a permanent position at the institution. His unexpected death prompted protests from students and faculty members at Delhi University, who decried it as an act of “institutional murder” and also argued that a mere two-minute interview should not outweigh years of dedicated service and experience.

Students and professors all across Delhi University came in solidarity over a memorial held online on 26 April 2024, to remember Professor Samarveer and his scholarly and creative works. The memorial involved recollecting anecdotes about him by his students and fellow colleagues, while also including discussions on the nature of exploitative ad-hocism and the displacement of teachers across the university.

The organiser, a student from Delhi University, on the condition of anonymity, shared his objective of organising this online memorial for Samarveer Singh and the concerns of students like him who plan on pursuing a career in academia:

Arts Faculty, the site of dissent and protest on the North Campus, which also violently removed Dr. Ritu Singh’s protests had nothing but deafening silence on 26  April, 2024. A deafening silence that came not from a collective recognition of the unfortunate murder but from the lack of it. Seeing that no memorial for him was planned, I decided to conduct an online memorial to him on 26 April and invite his students, colleagues, and other professors of the university to speak about him as a person, a professor, a thinker, and a poet to remember him with the help of anecdotes related to him, his poems, and recordings of songs sung by him. The purpose behind conducting the memorial to him was not merely to remember him but also to take cognizance of and resist the larger issue of ad-hocism that was the reason behind his death and which made it an institutional murder. His death was a heart-wrenching moment and a dark spot of shame on the history of this university, the apathy associated with which seems to be the final nail in the coffin of this university. I and many students like me who want to become professors have been shattered by his death and wonder if our dreams will ever come true. If they do, what cost would we have to pay for it?

Students of Professor Samarveer joined the memorial to recount how they had always been amazed by his innate passion for philosophy.

He often spoke about his dreams of visiting France, and his eyes would light up when discussing art, film, theatre, and poetry. He was undoubtedly someone who harboured a profound love for his discipline of philosophy. An original thinker and a prolific reader.

They continued to elaborate on the challenges Professor Samarveer faced with being constantly targeted, overburdened with work and responsibilities, and ultimately losing hope.

He hadn’t seen his family in a year because he was constantly burdened with college administration work. He faced dismissal twice, and during a certain period, we also witnessed him being very unfairly targeted by other teachers. Samarveer sir has dedicated 7.5 years to teaching, only to receive this mistreatment.

We didn’t even receive official news from our college about his passing; it was through an Instagram post by a professor that we learned of his demise. We knew that he couldn’t finish his Ph.D. due to being overwhelmed with administrative tasks. We saw how students disregarded us when we sought a condolence meeting because they felt that it might disrupt Mecca, the Annual Fest. We saw our teacher losing hope and questioning the merit of those appointed.

Discussing the pitfalls of ad-hocism and the current state of the university, they added how important it is to keep in touch with the professors who may have been displaced.

Unfortunately, nothing has changed. Last month, another teacher from the philosophy department of Hindu College got displaced. It is important to be in touch with your professors; a simple gesture like asking how they are can make a world of difference and might help with their loneliness. Ad-hocism is inhumane, and a brief interview without considering the minimal academic qualifications can never be the right method for appointing a new educator.

Rudrashish Chakraborty, an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Kirori Mal College, comments on the larger causes behind the death of Professor Samarveer:

Samarveer’s unfortunate death is a case of institutional murder, expedited with precision by the apathy and complicity of the administration both at the college and university levels. The fact that he was pushed to the extreme of taking his own life suggests the adverse conditions created for the ad-hoc teachers by the system that treats ad-hoc teachers as captive labour force: to be used till the last drop of blood and then to be disposed of once the job is done. The University of Delhi has witnessed an unprecedented displacement of ad-hoc teachers in the last one and a half years through farcical interviews. The displacements were targeted, premeditated, and meant to eliminate teachers who were upright and independent and who invested in the academic and intellectual lives of their students. The objective of displacement was to fill the university with pliant minds and also to create a situation of fear and greed so that nobody should speak their minds against any injustice.

Jatin Chahar, a second-year student at Ramjas College, made an empowering yet heartwarming statement on the role of solidarity in such times and how important it is to be there for each other.

Memorials of this sort are truly brave initiatives by students when the so-called stakeholders of our university choose to be passive observers of the injustices. One thing that has to be central to our constant struggle against power is to build solidarity amongst ourselves. True solidarity will only be formed when we let each other know from time-to-time that we are there for each other. So I thank everyone for being here today, and I want to assure everyone that we are here for all of you. We have learned from our teachers in the English and History departments that it is important to keep going.

Samarveer Singh represented a safe space for many of his students, a teacher who sought to impart the best of the knowledge he had received and establish a real connection with his students that extended beyond the confines of the classroom spaces. Many students who joined the memorial lamented the loss of their institutional safe spaces, represented by professors like Samarveer Singh, who have been unfairly displaced. They expressed the feeling of being lost and desolated in college, but their professors, who have now been displaced, had provided a sanctuary for them in their classroom spaces. 

Prof. Rina Ramdev from the Department of English at Sri Venkateswara College expressed her hope after seeing this display of solidarity in the memorial while remembering Samarveer Singh:

I’m really glad to see students from different colleges here for Samarveer’s memorial. Unfortunately, departments and colleges stay silent and carry on with no memories of those displaced. And yet, there is something gutting—an absence and a deep sense of loss—that has left its mark on our classrooms, our university, and on us. We should be back on the streets organising, protesting, and not ceding space. This online memorial is itself a reminder of all that could slip away. But the strength of our students and this student-teacher unity is our greatest hope.

The memorial ended on a heartening note with the reading of Professor Samarveer’s poems and works.

Hope still leaks.

Through the cracks and gaps in the walls and

the windows.

– Untitled by Samarveer Singh

Read Also: Academia aur ye Article, Paani Mai Gaya, Chapak!

Featured Image Credits: Counter Currents

Sarah Nautiyal and Dhairya Chhabra

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DU Beat 21 Under 21: Trailblazers of Tomorrow (2024)

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From time to time, we come across talented and awe-inspiring individuals who deserve their stories to be told. So, here is to 21 such amazing individuals who have achieved great feats in their lives before even tasting the 21st year of their life.

Tarun Jindal

Hailing from Chandigarh, Tarun Jindal is a B.Com. Honours student, CA Finalist, and President of 180 Degrees Consulting Club at Hindu College, University of Delhi. Having worked with esteemed organisations such as Dhwani Rural Information Systems, UNDP Malaysia, India Accelerator, and Infolso, Tarun is a high-impact achiever and go-getter, who believes in seeing every hardship as a source of inner fortitude and every failure as a test of perseverance. Their consistent commitment to making a difference in the lives of those around them has resulted in tangible social impact, particularly in the fields of healthcare, gender justice, and education.

Kartik Chauhan

A driven start-up enthusiast, Kartik Chauhan is a student at Hindu College and founding member of Delhi Smart Protein Project (DSPP), a project under the aegis of the Good Food Institute to stimulate open-access research, entrepreneurship and climate action through food technology. Recently, he received a full-coverage scholarship to attend the Good Food Conference in San Francisco, USA in recognition of his achievements and contributions. At Hindu College, he in also the President of the Entrepreneurship Cell, leading a 50 member team, and conceptualising, and spearheading the rebranding of the Cell to encourage a ‘builder-centric’ approach to innovation. His other achievements include being a part of Ripen’s first invite-only Entrepreneur in-Residence program, and having built a ‘feedback marketplace’ that was selected in the W22 Batch of GSF Accelerator. With their passion for technology, he are looking forward to turning his own project into an actual start-up soon.

G Brinda

A third-year History Honours student at Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), G Brinda has a passion for policy-making, social work, consumer behaviour, and research. They serve as the General Secretary of Youth India Foundation (YIF), leading 50+ interns at state level and guiding 250+ college chapter members, having founded the LSR, Gargi, IITM (IPU), and Hindu College Chapters of the social entrepreneurship platform. They are a compassionate and empathetic leader, who imbibes this ethos in every position of responsibility that they diligently pursue, including but not limited to State President at the Kerala Impact Consulting Council under WICCI, Content Head at the Global Youth India-Israel Forum, and Editorial Head at Prakriti LSR.

Anshu Narwal

A research-enthusiast and dedicated social volunteer, Anshu Narwal is a student of economics and mathematics at Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR). A district-topper and school-topper since their school years, Anshu has furthered their interest in academia by undertaking two impressive research projects in collaboration with professors from esteemed institutions such as IIM Kashipur and IIT Delhi. Their research interests lie in the critical topic of ICT Adoption and Inclusive Growth, addressing issues that are fundamental to our society’s development. Additionally, they are passionate about the fields of psychology and social work, serving as the Project Director for Project AASHA, facilitating workshops on hygiene, unsafe touch, and mental health.

Nirmanyu Chouhan

A Hindu College alum from the Batch of 2023, Nirmanyu Chouhan is a Programme Coordinator at Lokniti, Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), and former research intern at Newslaundry. Fascinated by the intricate interplay between politics and society, they are a honed researcher and journalist striving towards a more informed citizenry through their work. Beginning their journey within the staff writing rooms of the Hindu College Gazette, Nirmanyu’s experience with media houses such as DU Beat and Newslaundry have allowed them to engage with topics across politics, economy, society, and pop-culture. Their present work at Lokniti-CSDS centres the field of psephology, the study of elections and voting behaviour, which allows them to analyzing voter patterns and understand the pulse of the electorate.

Pulkit Sehgal

A 2023 Management Studies graduate from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS), Pulkit Sehgal is a driven consulting and finance enthusiast, who has been recognised as an ‘Emerging Leader’ by FinOak, India’s largest student-run finance community. They are the co-founder of Makes Sense, a mental health non-profit aimed at providing social and psychological support to university students. The initiative has impacted 450+  students through free therapy, and catapulted fruitful collaborations with Mindpeers, a Shark Tank-funded and Asia’s fastest growing mental-health platform. Furthermore, they are an Incoming Associate at Boston Consulting Group, and served as the President of 180 Degrees Consulting SSCBS during their college tenure.

Molina Singh

An english literature and history afficionado, Molina Singh is a 2023 alum of Gargi College and founder of Delhi Reads, a 1500+ member citywide book club that has secured successful partnerships with popular coffee chains, bookstores, and publication companies. During their college tenure, they held the position of President of the English Creative Writing Society and spearheaded the organisation of 4 varsity-level fests at Gargi College, a feat of uncprcedented calibre and visionary execution. Their staunch commitment to social-political principles and impact-led community service have made them one who is not afraid to voice their opinions, whether it be in expressing solidarity with the IPCW Fest victims or in their capacity as a student-journalist at DU Beat.

Pranjal Jain

In 2023, Pranjal Jain graduated and immediately embarked on a journey to catalyze positive change. This drive motivated them to pioneer the establishment of India’s inaugural Bridges for Enterprise (BfE) chapter at SSCBS, a milestone aimed at fostering entrepreneurial endeavors with a societal impact. Alongside, they engaged in two consulting and financial advisory projects with socially conscious startups in Nigeria and the Philippines, demonstrating the tangible real-world impact achievable through collaborative initiatives. Moreover, recognizing the pressing need for mental health support among college students, they co-founded Makes Sense, a nurturing and inclusive platform dedicated to destigmatizing mental health discussions and providing essential assistance to those in need.

Manvi Bhatt

Having graduated in 2023, Manvi Bhatt was honored to receive the distinguished Sultan Chand Memorial Scholarship Award, recognizing their exceptional academic achievements. Fueled by their entrepreneurial spirit, they actively participated in the development of Mark & Tonic, a digital marketing startup venture, where they served as a founding member. In this role, they led the integration of live projects to address strategic consulting and digital marketing needs. One of their accomplishments is winning the BrAINWARS undergraduate case study competition, a prestigious event hosted by Bain and Company.

Jayesh Rungta

A 20-year-old from Kolkata, Jayesh Rungta recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Hansraj College, University of Delhi. Securing a position as a Business Analyst at the prestigious management consulting firm Kearney, they stand out as the sole and first undergraduate hire for a front-desk consulting role from their college and one of only three selected across the University of Delhi. Demonstrating their commitment to social impact, they served as the Convener and Founding Member of Project Parivartan from January 2021 to March 2023, overseeing a yearly Financial Literacy Drive that reached over 10,000 individuals across three editions.

Anjana Jose

As a current psychology student at Jesus and Mary College, Anjana Jose wears multiple hats as an entrepreneur and podcast host. Since June 2023, they have served as the Founder and CEO of BooKing, a platform dedicated to promoting sustainability through the use of second-hand books. Simultaneously, they also host the OnlyGeeks Podcast, a show tailored for college students, which has garnered a listenership of over 100 individuals from diverse backgrounds since its inception in June 2023.

Gavish Lohat

Currently enrolled as a political science student at Hindu College, Gavish Lohat stands as the 1st Raj Bhargava Foundation Scholar, an honor bestowed upon them in 2022. This prestigious scholarship provides them with ₹75,000 annually throughout the duration of his undergraduate studies, along with a tablet. In addition to their academic pursuits, they are also the founder and host of ‘The Skeptical Student Show’ Podcast in collaboration with India Film Project, where they engage in thought-provoking discussions.

Punya Malhotra

As a final year Economics student at Hansraj College, Punya Malhotra stands as the lone Indian fellow selected for the fully-funded Young Leader’s Fellowship program in 2023 by MCW Global, USA. Their previous roles include working at the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI). Additionally, they were featured in the Voices of the Young series by Dr. Subodh Mathur, where they shared insights on optimizing the college experience. As part of their research endeavors, they authored a quantitative paper titled ‘Urban Planning and Gender Inclusivity.’

Apoorva Rathore

Having graduated from Lady Shri Ram College with a degree in B.Com, Apoorva achieved remarkable success by emerging as the National Winner of the EY NextGen Women India competition. This accomplishment propelled them to represent both India and their university at the Global EY NextGen Women Competition held in London. Following their academic achievements, they ventured into the professional realm as a Research Analyst at the Indian Institute of Science. Here, they dedicated over a year to working within the Strategy Team, focused on developing a robust business model for an in-house eVTOL (electric air taxi) project.

Pratham Changoiwala

Pratham Changoiwala is a third-year student of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, currently pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce. He is interning as an executive assistant at Niamh Ventures, an investment banking firm based out of Gurgaon, Haryana. Alongside that, he is the youngest speaker shareholder of HDFC Bank’s AGM and his experiences were shared as a part of Hindustan Times’ Live Mint as a part of their Gen Z interview series. He has been selected as a delegate for Harvard’s prestigious HPAIR Conference. He was also part of the Sustainable Stories Project, which involved interacting with eco-friendly brand manufacturing units and their business founders. He is also Operations head of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College’s Entrepreneurship Cell.

Bhavika Dabur

Bhavika Dabur is a third-year student at Sri Venkateswara College, pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce. They are currently working as a training manager and social media advisor at Aspirant Learning. Previously, they had experience in educational consultancy and soft skills training.

Falguni Mahajan

Falguni Mahajan was a political science student at Lady Shri Ram College. Currently, they are the founder of Mandonna Research Consultants, which focuses on the promotion of gender equity through academia and research work. Previously, they had interned as a researcher at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Policy, Politics and Government Foundation as well as with the Aam Aadmi Party. They hold C1 level certification in the French language as well.

Bhavya Sood

Bhavya Sood was a student at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, having completed their BBA in Financial Investment Analysis. They are the co-founder of Project Bridgeway which aims to democratize access to education and guide students, through consulting, which has assisted over 10,000 students across several colleges. They have also served as the first elected deputy chair of IFSA’s Indian wing.

Anjali Batra

Anjali Batra is a political science student at IPCW, Delhi University, who is also pursuing a diploma in Psychology. She is the founder and president of Project Mehviyat, which focuses on empowering victims of abuse in South Asia. She was also recognised as a U21 Global citizen, due to her advocacy for Sustainable Development Goals and is serving as the deputy chairperson of the SDG Council, Global Youth India.

Tanusha Arora

Tanusha Arora is currently in the final year of Bachelor of Management Studies at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. Arora has interned at Havells India, in the field of e-commerce as well as a research and market intelligence intern at EXL. She secured a placement in the capacity of an Associate at Samagra | Transforming Governance. She was selected under India Top 14 CEO for One Month Challenge by the Adecco Group. She has recently been felicitated with the coveted Linkedin Top Voice (blue badge) for her insights on marketing, communication and adulting. Moreover, she has been featured in Top 29 Leading Voices of India 2024 by BTalkz. She has a growing community of 7000+ followers and over 6 lakh+ impressions as yet.

Parv Jindal

Parv Jindal is a student of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, completing their Bachelor of Management Studies. They founded the India chapter of Bridges for Enterprise, an international impact consulting organization. They have also interned with companies like Blinkit, MakemyTrip, Zomato etc. Jindal is acting Vice President of SSCBS’ Student Council.

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