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In DU’s Daulat Ram College, Students Witness Saffronisation of a ‘Safe Place’

Tarushi Aswani

The Daulat Ram College (DRC) in Delhi University (DU) on Wednesday (January 22) organised a religious programme in the premises of the institute commemorating the first anniversary of consecration of Hindu deity Ram’s idol in the newly-constructed temple in Ayodhya. Labelled as “Shri Ramlalla Virajman ki Pranpatishtha ki Pratham Varshgaanth (first anniversary of the consecration of Shri Ramlalla Virajman)” – to many students the programme sounded like an event organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

DRC principal, Savita Roy, attended the programme along with Delhi chapter representatives of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as well as the BJP.

DRC students who spoke to The Wire said that despite poor attendance, the programme was part of a larger, ongoing effort to erode the institution’s pluralistic values, which used to be a “safe place”. A student from a minority community told The Wire that a particular teacher from the DRC who attended this programme, had in the past randomly questioned her knowledge of the Ramayana – this she suspects happened because she is one of the few hijab-wearing students in the college.

A Dalit student at the DRC, who saw the programme from a distance and said they had no interest in attending, added that it seemed that the staff at the DRC was finally, openly exhibiting its “upper-caste character”.

“I was not surprised, the way the current staff treats minority community students and staff and the way they are trying to erase the original purpose of this women’s college, the programme only confirmed their attempts,” she added.

Meanwhile, Mahima Singh, the DRC secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), stated that the event helped students understand “traditional values and culture.” Speaking to The Wire, Singh very proudly shared that even in the DRC’s library, a special section dedicated to Hindu mythological books was inaugurated and titled as ‘Ramalaya’ on January 22.

Sources close to the trust responsible for founding the DRC, however, told The Wire that the current administrative dispensation at the college is attempting to tarnish the values that the college and its founder, Daulat Ram Gupta, educationist and philanthropist, stood for. Gupta was a protege of Lala Lajpat Rai and had also worked under Mahatma Gandhi.

The college’s website testifies that the administration’s vision starkly contrasts with the founder’s principles. On February 8, the DRC in collaboration with Global Counter Terrorism Council will host a programme titled, “Bharat’s Geo-Strategy for Amritkaal”. Previously in October 2024, the DRC hosted “Amritkaal Vimarsh: Bharat @2047”. Sources also alleged that the current administration is driving efforts to privatise certain DU colleges.

Notably, there have been other instances of marginalisation in the past.

In 2020, Ritu Singh, a former assistant professor at the DRC, staged a protest in front of gate number four of the Arts Faculty that lasted over 186 days. Singh, a native of Punjab’s Taran Taran district, had completed her PhD at the DRC before joining the college as an ad-hoc assistant professor in the Department of Psychology in August 2019. Singh was treated as a ‘threat’ by college principal Roy for her strong views on issues such as the farmers’ strike, anti-caste politics, Ambedkar, and the constitution. She belongs to the Dalit community.

When Singh returned to the college in August 2020 after the COVID-19 lockdown, the principal refused to give her a joining letter. Singh protested in front of the college for 10 days against the illegal dismissal. Later, the Delhi Police registered two FIRs against her under the Epidemic Disease Act for protesting during COVID times.

“Education and religion must remain separated from each other. I feel that without the support of the vice chancellor, this wouldn’t have been possible. DU is becoming home to RSS ideology and DRC’s Savita Roy is also an enabler. Slowly, DU teaching and non-teaching staff is filled with RSS cadres to convert DU into a corrupt fortress of Hindutva. Even RSS’s books are launched at DU colleges,” Singh told The Wire.

Hinduisation of DU colleges and other issues persist

In the recent but saffronised past of DU, several colleges have also started the practice of organising hawans, poojas and Ramayana recitation within the campus. Laxmibai College, Hansraj College and now DRC have all hosted such programmes.

In 2022, the principal of Laxmibai College initiated a daily ritual of chanting the Bhagavad Gita and planned a monthly programme to host Sunderkand Path at the college.

Apart from Hinduis-ing the institutions, recruitments too are under the scanner in the university

Recently, two notifications – one issued by DRC, and the other by DU – for recruitment of assistant professors generated disgruntlement among several applicants who claimed that the new parameters were in contradiction of UGC guidelines. The notification by the DRC asked the faculty members appointed as assistant professors to undergo training in computer-aided teaching within six months, and submit its proof; the notification issued by DU, necessitated applicants to the same post to make a presentation of their work to the evaluators in the first round following which they were to be permitted to attend the interview round conducted by the final selection committee.

On this, the UGC chairperson Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar had stated that autonomous bodies and universities were free to pick qualifications and processes over and above the minimum standards provided in the UGC regulations with the approval of their statutory bodies.

(Courtesy: The Wire.)

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A Controversial ‘Book Launch’ and Delhi University’s Descent Into Party Propaganda

Apoorvanand

The vice-chancellor (VC) of Delhi University, Yogesh Singh, last week exhorted the audience at a program in the conference hall of the university to think about giving up neutrality and choosing the side of ‘rashtra hit’ (national interest). The program was for the launch of a book titled Modi VS Khan Market Gang. Apart from the VC and some top officials of the university, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries were also present as dignitaries. A large number of college principals, teachers, and students were in the audience. The hall was jam-packed.

What could be more gratifying for any university than to have such a large number of teachers and students turn up for the launch of a book? Anyone who knows the reality of the university, and is aware of the reluctance of its students and teachers to read a whole book, might be pleasantly surprised to see such a public demonstration of interest in one. That students turn up in such large numbers for any such intellectual discussion can only be a good sign.

We know, however, that reality is different. As the title of the book makes clear, this is not a book that has anything to do with knowledge or scholarship, which is the business of a university. Instead, it is a propaganda pamphlet.

The name of the book clearly suggests that it is part of a glorification drive for Modi. We need to ask whether it is appropriate to use university resources for this campaign. What’s worse is that it was not just a platform to idolise Modi. It was actually part of the campaign to defame and demonise the critics of his regime – many of whom teach in the university. It was disappointing to see the VC lend his voice to this anti-intellectual propaganda.

It has been argued that it was not the university‘s own program. The VC and other officers and teachers were there as invitees. But the university has put the complete recording of this program on its website. The VC’s speech has been uploaded separately. Should we now accept that the university‘s resources can be used to promote a ‘book’ which is neither published by the university nor authored by any member of its faculty?

Why is the university website therefore publicising a private program and pro-actively spreading its contents? No one would believe that the principals, teachers and students came in such large numbers because they were curious about the book. Without being unfair to the writer, one can safely say that he is not known for his journalism, which could be a reason for his name drawing people.

Although this is not the first time such an event has happened in the university – and it has often been used as a platform for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP propaganda over the last ten years – yet, after every such event, one feels humiliated as a member of the DU community. It is sad and frightening to see our academic leaders mocking intellectuals and researchers and labelling them enemies of the nation.

From ‘intellectual terrorists’ to ‘Khan Market Gang’

The term ‘Khan Market Gang’ was coined by Modi as a term of abuse for intellectuals and human rights activists who kept a critical eye on him and his regime. Earlier, in 2014, he had invented a similar term: ‘Five Star Activist’. He had warned judges not to be persuaded by these five-star activists. In the ten years since this advice, human rights organisations have been delicensed and made dysfunctional while activists have been attacked, prosecuted and jailed.

What is this so-called Khan Market Gang? According to the speakers at the meeting, including DU’s VC, it is a network of people spread from Delhi to America who are conspiring against India: defaming it and spreading misinformation about it. This gang has foreign collaborators too. The VC wants us to accept that India has now become synonymous with Modi. Any criticism or probe of his regime is automatically an attack on India.

People like Nobel laureate and renowned scientist Venky Venkatraman, economists Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan, writers Salman Rushdie and Ashok Vajpayee, historians Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Uma Chakravarti and Nayantara Sahgal are part of the Khan Market Gang. When I hear this, I recall that it was Murali Manohar Joshi, education minister in the first NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had coined termed them “intellectual terrorists.” Those intellectual terrorists of the NDA 1 have now become the Khan Market gang.

The VC said that it is being mischievously claimed by this gang that India is slipping down on the democracy index and other indices. “What can be a bigger lie than this? How correct is it to say that the country is falling below many sub-Saharan countries on the hunger index when Modi is feeding 800 million people free of charge?’

The VC was particularly upset that an organisation, V-Dem, from a “tiny country” like Sweden, had the temerity to rate the health of democracy in India. As if being small in size and population is a disqualifier in itself and being huge in size is proof of greatness. “How can an organization from ‘such a tiny country’ dare talk about a huge country like India!”

The VC did not feel a need to consider why political scientists who study democracy trust V-Dem. Similarly, experts around the world have not cast doubt on the Hunger Index, Press Freedom Index or Human Rights Index. It is governments, including the Modi government, that keeps rejecting them because they show a mirror reflecting their ugliness.

Wouldn’t it be good for him to organise a conference of political scientists of different hues to sit across the table and discuss how credible these international indicators are?

Attack on academia as ‘national interest’

The university is a gathering of experts who study societies, democracy, public health, hunger, etc. Often their work leads them to question the claims of their regimes. It should be concerning that their expertise is dismissed as intrigue or conspiracy. If experts and researchers are attacked in the university itself, and if the VC joins that attack, then what will happen to the enterprise of knowledge?

The VC wanted people to serve the national interest. How do universities serve national interest? By doing their job.

The work of a university is the creation and expansion of knowledge. It has been accepted worldwide that knowledge always advances by asking questions. What is established and accepted by authorities must be subjected to scrutiny. By disseminating Stalin’s words as knowledge, the universities of the Soviet Union did not serve the national interest but worked against it. Similarly, when Chinese universities expelled teachers and researchers by obeying Mao’s orders during the Cultural Revolution, they were not working in the national interest. When American and European universities barred discussion on Palestine, they went against the duty of knowledge bodies and consequently their nation. I am not working for national interest if I do not critically examine official knowledge. If I do not do that, I fail the dharma of my trade and also fail my nation. Leading the nation into deception may favour the ruling party and leader but is certainly a disservice to the people and the nation.

Just by looking at the banner of this program, one could see that it was a campaign program of the BJP. The university has made itself an active propagandist of BJP and RSS interests. But BJP’s propaganda and national interest are not one and the same.

The VC wanted to choose a side and leave neutrality. We also beseech him not to be an onlooker in the battle between knowledge and regime. He should choose the side of knowledge.

We would like to tell our academic leaders that their job is to protect knowledge from the onslaught of power, to give it a safe environment to flourish. It is certainly not their job to open the gates of universities to those in power and join them in trampling the garden of knowledge.

(Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu.)