Category Archives: Education

Education, Everyday Life

The ‘Occupy Library’ Protest in EFLU, Hyderabad: Anonymous

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Guest Post by a student who wishes to remain anonymous

The recent incidents in the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, shows yet another move from the part of the administration to bypass democratic procedures and suppress the voice of the student community. Ever since she took charge, the current VC Sunaina Singh has managed to acquire infamy for her anti-student and totalitarian mode of governance. The most recent one was closing down the common reading room for students, which was functional 24*7. The initial reason given was that it was under renovation. Later, notifications were put out stating that the previous reading room will be attached to the library (which closes down at 8pm on weekdays and at 6pm on weekend). Separate reading rooms were allotted for male and female students in their respective hostels, each of which cannot accommodate more than 20 students at a time (the total strength of the university is 2500+).

This decision, in effect, meant that boys and girls had no place to study/ work together after the stipulated working hours of the library. The authorities even posed the question as to why it was necessary that boys and girls have to study together. Excuse my hyperbole, but probably the next step would be to prohibit the formation of mixed groups for class works, assignments and presentations.

This particular incident of closing down the common reading room has to be viewed by placing it in the context of the larger issue- the regulations imposed on the students over the past one year and attempts to curb the liberal values that EFLU has always held up.  Continue reading The ‘Occupy Library’ Protest in EFLU, Hyderabad: Anonymous →

Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Language, Law, Violence/Conflict

Report of a Protest by Students at UP Bhavan in Delhi against Harrassment and Slapping of Sedition Charges on Kashmiri Students at SVSU, Meerut: Kashif Ahmed Faraz

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Guest Post by KASHIF AHMED FARAZ

Several students protested on the 7th of March in Delhi against the harassment and eviction of Kashmiri students in SVSU (Swami Vivekanand Subharti University), Meerut and the slapping of sedition charges against 67 Kashmiri students. The protesters included activists, students from universities, mostly from JNU and also Kashmiri Students residing in Delhi. The protest took place at Uttar Pradesh Bhawan, New Delhi.

Signs at Protest at UP Bhavan against Harrassment of Kashmiri Students in Meerut
Signs at Protest at UP Bhavan against Harrassment of Kashmiri Students in Meerut

Continue reading Report of a Protest by Students at UP Bhavan in Delhi against Harrassment and Slapping of Sedition Charges on Kashmiri Students at SVSU, Meerut: Kashif Ahmed Faraz →

Culture, Debates, Education, Government, Language, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

राष्ट्रवाद का मौसम

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मेरठ के एक निजी विश्वविद्यालय में भारत-पाकिस्तान के बीच हुए क्रिकेट मैच में पाकिस्तान की जीत पर कश्मीरी छात्रों की खुशी जाहिर करने पर स्थानीय छात्रों द्वारा उनकी पिटाई और तोड़-फोड़ के बाद तीन दिनों के लिए छियासठ छात्रों के  निलंबन (निष्कासन नहीं) और फिर ‘उनकी हिफाजत के लिए’ उन्हें उनके घर भेजने के विश्वविद्यालय के फैसले के बाद उन छात्रों पर राष्ट्रद्रोह की धाराएं लगाने से लेकर उन्हें वापस लेने तक और उसके बाद भी जो प्रतिक्रियाएं हुई हैं,वे राष्ट्रवादी नज़रिए मात्र की उपयोगिता को समझने के लिहाज से काफी शिक्षाप्रद हैं.आज यह खबर आई है कि ग्रेटर नॉएडा के शारदा विश्विद्यालय में भी छह छात्रों को छात्रावास से ऐसी ही घटना के बाद निकाल दिया गया है जिनमें चार कश्मीरी हैं. मामला इतना ठंडा क्यों है, ऐसी निराशा जाहिर करते हुए फेसबुक पर टिप्पणी की गयी है और उसके बाद तनाव बढ़ गया है.

रोशोमन नियम के अनुसार घटना के एकाधिक वर्णन आ गए हैं और तय करना मुश्किल है कि इनमें से कौन सा तथ्यपरक है. स्थानीय (राष्ट्रीय या राष्ट्रवादी?) तथ्य यह है कि पाकिस्तानी खिलाड़ियों के प्रदर्शन और फिर उस टीम की जीत पर कश्मीरी छात्रों ने पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद के नारे लगाए जिससे  भारतीय टीम की हार से पहले से ही दुखी स्थानीय छात्रों में रोष फैल गया. निलंबित कश्मीरी छात्रों का कहना है कि वे हर उस खिलाड़ी के प्रदर्शन पर ताली बजा रहे थे जो अच्छा खेल रहा था. बेहतर टीम पकिस्तान के जीतने पर उनका खुशी जाहिर करना कहीं से राष्ट्रविरोधी नहीं कहा जा सकता. उनके मुताबिक  इसके बाद उन्हें पीटा गया और तोड़-फोड़ की गई. Continue reading राष्ट्रवाद का मौसम →

Culture, Debates, Education, Politics, Right watch

CHS, JNU Statement on the Wendy Doniger Issue

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The following is the text of a statement issued by the Faculty of the CENTRE FOR HISTORICAL STUDIES, Jawaharlal Nehru University, protesting against the recent decision by Penguin India to withdraw and pulp all remaining copies of Wendy Doniger’s Hinduism. An Alternative History

We are outraged by the news that Penguin India has agreed to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s much acclaimed book The Hindus: An Alternative History and pulp all existing copies of the book in stock. Professor Doniger is one of the most respected Indologists in the world. She has spent a lifetime exploring the richness of India’s religious pasts, showcasing the creative interplay between multiple traditions — the Puranic and the Vedantic, the folkloric and the Brahmanic. Innovatively drawing on many disciplines, she has investigated the variegated world of Hindu mythology and theology, to explore what they say about order and chaos, morality and ethics, the good and the evil, the erotic and the non-erotic. Her reading of Hinduism has inevitably disturbed those who wish to sanitize and straitjacket Hinduism, and repress the multiplicity of traditions that constitute it. While welcoming all critical engagements with the book, the faculty of the CHS condemns any attempt to curtail the circulation of this book in any form.

The decision of Penguin India to sign an out-of-court settlement to withdraw Professor Doniger’s book is therefore an act of abandoning the basic ethics of publishing. What is most disturbing is the fact that Penguin Books — which had in the past a sturdy reputation of defending freedom of expression — has agreed to a settlement even without the Indian state or the Indian judiciary taking a position against the book. This decision will affirm the power of the forces of religious intolerance, encourage further attacks on authors who question the fundamentalist interpretation of the past, and subvert the right to freedom of expression. It will undermine further the rapidly eroding public space wherein critical debates and discussions can take place. This is a space that all who believe in democratic values — publishers included — need to preserve and defend.

Please note that individual names are not being listed in this statement as this is emanating from the entire faculty.

Thank you,

Professor Rajat Datta

Culture, Education, Politics, Right watch

Statement by Scholars in North American Universities on Withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s book

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This statement expresses the views of the individuals listed below and does not represent the views of the University of Chicago or any of its departments.

We, the undersigned, as students of South Asia, strongly condemn the withdrawal by Penguin Press India of Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History from distribution in India. We believe that this work has been attacked because it presents a threat to orthodox Brahminical interpretations of Hinduism. We believe that this attack is part of ongoing attempts by upper-caste extremist Hindu forces to stifle any alternative understandings of Hinduism. As students in the United States, we are acutely aware that North American organizations of the Hindu right initiated the protests against Wendy Doniger’s scholarship. Hindu right wing organisations in India have worked in tandem with their North American counterparts to suppress alternative voices in India and too often violently. We are deeply concerned about the alarming increase in attacks on any academic study of Hinduism that does not fit these groups’ narrow and exclusionary vision of Hinduism which is part of their desire to create a Hindu India that excludes the religious minorities of Indian Muslims and Indian Christians. Continue reading Statement by Scholars in North American Universities on Withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s book →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education

Legal notice to Penguin Books India for violation of rights of readers

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Advocate LAWRENCE LIANG  has served this legal notice to Penguin Books, India, on behalf of Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Aarti Sethi. 

Under instructions from, for and on behalf of my clients Sh. Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Ms. Aarti Sethi, both residing at New Delhi, I serve upon you this legal notice for the following reasons and purposes:

  1. My client, Mr. Sengupta, is an artist and writer based in New Delhi with a longstanding interest in the comparative history of religions. Ms. Sethi is an anthropologist with a deep interest in Hindu philosophy. Both Mr. Sengupta and Ms. Sethi are avid bibliophiles, ardent supporters of freedom of speech and expression and have in the past been admirers of Penguin Books.
  2. My clients were delighted when YOU NOTICEE published Wendy Doniger’s  “The Hindus: An Alternative History” and as people who have closely followed the scholarly contributions of the said author they regard this book to be a significant contribution to the study of Hinduism. They consider Ms. Doniger’s translations of Indian classical texts and her work on various facets of Hinduism from morality in the Mahabarata to the erotic history of Hinduism as an inspiration for their own intellectual pursuits.
  3.  It has come to the notice of my clients that YOU NOTICEE have withdrawn publication of the book “The Hindus: An Alternative history” pursuant to an agreement entered between YOU NOTICEE and Shri. Dinanath Batra; O.P.Gupta, Sharvan Kumar and a few other busybody etcetera’s on the 4th of February 2014. YOU NOTICEE have further agreed not to sell, publish or distribute the book and also to pulp all unsold copies of the book. Continue reading Legal notice to Penguin Books India for violation of rights of readers →
Culture, Education, Language, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

An Ice Age for Indian scholarship

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These are lonely times for scholarship in India.Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti( SBAS) has claimed yet another scalp in the form of the withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s book ‘The Hindus:An alternative history’ by its publishers Penguin,India. The author, while ‘angry and disappointed’ by this decision has said that she can understand the plight of her publishers who were fighting a criminal case and not a civil suit. It had serious implications for their physical safety. Fellow scholars and academics are upset and angry that the publishers have caved in.

The question we need to ask ourselves, however is about our own role in this whole affair. There were not too many voices of protest  when the same SBAS forced the Calicut University to remove a poem by an unknown poet from an English language textbook alleging that the poet was a ‘terrorist’. Its editors felt compelled to apologize as they were threatened with a probe into their possible involvement in a conspiracy network to jeopardize national security. Continue reading An Ice Age for Indian scholarship →

Bad ideas, Culture, Education, Everyday Life, Media politics, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

सतत क्रान्ति की पैरोडी

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पिछले कुछ समय से नागार्जुन और हरिशंकर परसाई की याद बेइंतहा सता रही है: भारतीय राजनीति के इस दौर का वर्णन करने के लिए हमें उनकी कलम की ज़रूरत थी !

क्रान्ति सतत चलने वाली प्रक्रिया है और असली विद्रोही वह है जो छह महीने बाद अपनी कुर्सी खुद उलट दे. आम आदमी पार्टी और दिल्ली सरकार के मुखिया ने केंद्र सरकार के खिलाफ़ बगावत की शुरुआत की,तो ऐसा ही लगा. दिल्ली के केंद्र में रेल भवन के पास दिल्ली की पूरी सरकार  अपने समर्थकों के साथ दस दिनों के धरने पर बैठ गए. उन्होंने धमकी दी कि वे राजपथ को लाखों लोगों से पाट देंगे और केंद्र सरकार की नींद हराम कर देंगे.किसान और सैनिक जब मिल जाएं तो क्रांति शुरू हो जाती है. इसकी पैरोडी करते हुए अरविंद ने दिल्ली के पुलिसवालों को वर्दी उतार कर धरने पर शामिल होने का आह्वान किया. कुछ लोगों को जयप्रकाश नारायण की याद आ गई. एक साथ लेनिन, लोहिया,क्रोपाटकिन और जयप्रकाश का तेज अरविंद केजरीवाल के रूप में पुंजीभूत हुआ. गांधी का आभा वलय अन्ना हजारे से हट कर अरविंद के माथे के पीछे पीछे तो तब ही लग गया था जब उनका भरपूर इस्तेमाल कर ठिकाने लगा दिया गया. क्या यह 2014 का भारतीय तहरीर चौक होने जा रहा है?

दिल्ली के मुख्य मंत्री ने एक बार फिर  आज़ादी की  नई लड़ाई की घोषणा की.यह दृश्य क्रांतिकारियों,समाजवादियों,अराजकतावादियों, सबके के लिए एक पुराने सपने के  पूरा होने जैसा ही था. एक पुरानी, दबी हुई इच्छा के पूरा होने का क्षण!यह आज़ादी झूठी है वाले नारे , वंदे मातरम और भारत माता का जयकार से रोमांचित होने का सुख!! Continue reading सतत क्रान्ति की पैरोडी →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life

Skin Deep – Narratives of Racism in Delhi University: Aashima Saberwal Bonojit Hussain Devika Narayan

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Aashima Saberwal, Bonojit Hussain and Devika Narayan are activists associated with New Socialist Initiative (NSI). This article was published in the November 2010 issue of CRiTIQUE, an irregular magazine brought out by the New Socialist Initiative (NSI) – Delhi University Chapter. 

Kevin is from Kenya. He studies at the faculty of Law. We ask him whether he likes India (he doesn’t) and about the kinds of challenges he faces. He shrugs and shakes his head “I have don’t face any discrimination” He often repeats this sentence at various points of the discussion. After he tells us about shopkeepers who refuse to sell him milk or before narrating how not a single shop at Patel Chest area was willing to type his assignment. “When you go to buy things from a shop they refuse to sell. If you ask for milk they say ‘no milk’ but you can see the Indians buying milk.” Later he tells us a similar story “My mobile phone was stolen. For one week I was thinking how to get a new one. The shops here don’t sell to Africans.” Kevin doesn’t think much of these experiences and dismisses them as insignificant, the ordinary trials of living in a foreign country. A woman on the road provokes a dog, provoking it to bite him, which it does. At Hans Charitable Trust Hospital they ask him for 10,000 rupees for the anti-rabbis injection. This is a service which is provided free of cost, however the small print reads ‘unless you are black’. Our interviews starkly shows that this particular subtext is present everywhere. We don’t realize that for the most mundane of daily activities (like buying milk) there are conditions that apply. The condition that you are not black.

These interviews give us a glimpse of how these students experience classrooms, hostels, streets, the metro and other public spaces. “What does kala bandar mean?” Boniface asks. They point. They laugh. They don’t like sitting next to you in the metro. What must it feel like to enter a strange foreign country where people across the board categorise you as sub-human? Strangers call you black monkey. “When I go back from college to hostel people on the streets keep laughing and staring. It is humiliating” Boniface says.

Read the rest of this article here.

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Identities, Politics

On A Prayer and a Petition: Babu Gogineni

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This is a guest post by BABU GOGINENI

“What exactly happened, and what gave you the strength to fight your case, Mr. Salve?” I asked. “Your job as an English teacher was at risk, and your own colleagues shunned you. You are from the Dalit community, and you live in Maharashtra state where militant religion has frequently silenced dissenters – how could you hold out for 7 years?” Continue reading On A Prayer and a Petition: Babu Gogineni →

Culture, Education, Images

Freezing History in a Pedagogy-proof Textbook: Kishore Darak

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Guest Post by KISHORE DARAK

In the current academic year, the fourth grade history textbook in Maharashtra titled Shivchhatrapati depicting the valiant life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630-1680) completed 43 long years of its existence, this being in itself a record. More than 3 million children in the 75000 plus schools affiliated to the Maharashtra State Board follow the textbook presently. It is probably the only example of textbook in the world which teaches the life of a single historical personality to 9 year old pupils.

The textbook shows remarkable similarity with a 1952 Marathi film, Chhatrapati Shivaji, directed by Bhalji Pendharkar who is known for his support of right wing ideology. The original version of 1970 and subsequent editions of the textbook follow an exact sequence of scenes and contain similar visuals as we see in the movie, as the first two images demonstrate.

Meeting between Afzhal Khan and Shivaji Maharaj 

In the 1952 film

Untitled 3In the text-book (Republished 2000)

Untitled 4

Continue reading Freezing History in a Pedagogy-proof Textbook: Kishore Darak →