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The Department of English, Daulat Ram College, organised a UGC sponsored National Conference on the topic, Migration and Identity: The Urban Subject. It was a two day event held on January 28 and 29.

The conference discussed the topic in question comprehensively by investigating various literary works to realise the importance of the topic and to find out how migration is shaping our lives- knowingly and unknowingly.

The first day of the conference began with an inaugural ceremony where the Head of the department and Convenor of the conference, Dr. Deepshikha Mahanta, welcomed all the esteemed guests. She also thanked the college Principal Dr. Savita Roy for her constant guidance and help. The keynote speech was given by Prof. Avadesh Kumar Singh, professor of Translation Studies at Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.

This was followed by various sessions where the invited students and scholars from all over the country presented papers and indulged in fruitful discussions. Topics such as Migration and Labour, Migration, History and Gender, Migration and Identity, and Migration and the Subaltern were discussed. These discussions were chaired by respected guests namely Prof. B.P. Sahu (Dept. of History, DU), Dr. Shimi Doley (Jamia Milia Islamia) and Hany Babu (Dept. of English, DU).

There was also a movie screening of a film called Essential Arrival by Prof. Ariva Javed, Dept. of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit. The day ended with a short play on migration by Memesis, the dramatics society of Daulat Ram College.

Day 2 saw discussion on topics such as Migration and the Urban Question, Politics of Migration, and Narratives of Migration chaired by distinguished guests which included professors from various universities. The day came to an end with a Valedictory session where everyone congratulated each other for pulling off a successful event and hoped to organise more such productive and rewarding conferences in the future.

“I believe the conference taught us both, academically and practically and we all just hope our guests and audience enjoyed participating in the conference as much we enjoyed organising it” said Sanya Dhingra, the Cultural Secretary of the English department.

Image Credits: Sepia, The Photography and Film society of Daulat Ram College

Nishita Agarwal

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The newly elected union of the debating society of Daulat Ram College with its members organised the first debating event of the year, the Intra-College Conventional Debate 2015 on the 26th of September. The motion at hand was “This house believes that marriage is an outdated institution.”

The total number of teams that participated was 14. The judges of the event were Dr. Seema Rani, a teacher from the Hindi department of the college, Ms. Abhipsa Chakraborty, from the English department and Ms. Megha, a graduate of DRC and currently pursuing M.A from Delhi University.

The event kicked off with the felicitation of the convenor of the society and the judges by presenting them bouquets. Then a general introduction of the debating society was given and soon the waiting participants were called on stage to present their debates. As the topic is quite controversial, there wasn’t any dull moment throughout the event.

As the topic is quite controversial, there wasn’t any dull moment throughout the event. It was interesting to get such different perspectives of the students for both, for and against the motion. The few debates that were presented to affirm the motion were strains of patriarchy seen in such an institution, no more than a regressive idea, no space to acknowledge LGBT rights or a homosexual union. Also, live-in relationships were proposed as an alternative because they’re hassle-free. These arguments were refuted by points such as marriage being a stable environment for the development of the kids; people sustaining faith in marriage even after divorce; if the sanctity is nullified then why is the world seeking approval of same-sex marriage; live-in relationships seen just as an excuse to not bear responsibilities and so on.

After the participants had spoken, there was also a small ceremony where the union members were presented with badges of their respective posts by the teachers-in-charge to formally mark their advent in the society. Then, the judges addressed the audience and told them how it’s an endless debate and there will always be two sides to a coin but they are also happy that the students of Delhi University are doing justice to its standards are well-aware and open enough to debate on such topics. The winners were announced as follows: Akansha Sharma and Aparajita Talwar both of final year, Political Science (H) as the best team of the event, Nisha, 3^rd year, Political Science (H) as the Best Speaker (For), Himadri Bhatt, 2^nd year, Political Science (H) as the Best Speaker (Against) and Arunima, 1^st year, Political Science (H) as the Best Interjector of the event.

“It was great to see such an exceptional participation from students considering it was our society’s first intra-college event. We deliberately kept a topic which every student could relate to. And, seeing it execute well encourages us to organise more such events in the future”, said Disha Singh, president, Debating Society of DRC, after pulling-off the event successfully with the help of her team.

Nishita Agarwal

[email protected]

Image Credits: Aakriti Jindal

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