A letter by a former KNC student
And finding hope through educators who continue to make their voices heard
In 2009, on a hot summer morning in Delhi, I found myself sitting in exceptionally cooler temperatures within the halls of Kamala Nehru College. The long corridor had a tunnel effect which brought a light breeze and calmed the nerves of many 18-year old girls waiting for their interviews for admissions in Journalism Honours at the college. This was the first interview of my lifetime, I was an anxious teenager comforted by my Dad’s presence and other candidates waiting their turns. Once inside, a panel of three-four teachers sat across me, and the interview began.
I recognised one professor from the department prospectus, other were all new faces. One teacher was particularly good at breaking conversation rhythm and at one point she went, “Please continue speaking, I’m just stretching my legs here,” right in the middle of my answer. She was also the one who asked me the only question I still remember, “Mariyam, what makes you angry?”
I came out of the interview eased but with adrenaline pulsing through my system. Most of all though, I felt something right about the place. Maybe it was the shock of seeing casually dressed teachers, or the exciting questions, or just the long stretch of that corridor that made want to explore every room in it. I don’t remember much of the remaining day, but for the next three years, KNC, its teachers and its lessons, would change me for the rest of my life.
I remember studying Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, watching Paromita Vohra’s Unlimited Girls, learning about the Watergate scandal, each of them opening my young mind a different way. On us 19-20 year olds, lay the responsibility of organising a department fest, running a publication, making documentaries, writing dissertations, but most of all, we were expected to have opinions. We brought our lost, confused, egoistical selves and unpacked them all, in the safety of our department. Friendships, heartbreaks, celebrations, sleepovers and sleepless movie nights, happened along.
Those years, in one way or the other, coaxed many of us to find our voices and question our gaze. Some educators in their own ways helped me know myself better, sharpening my instincts in calling out many glass ceilings. This is not to say that the education system or educators were flawless, but some of them had the capacity to drive us towards searching for a sense of self.
The recent news of the displacement of KNC’s adhoc faculty member Dr Itisha Nagar after working at DU for a decade, and the ongoing protest by former DU lecturer Dr Ritu Singh, against facing alleged caste discrimination in Daulat Ram College, not just bring to light the patriarchal and casteist forces at play, but also point to the conscientious drain within these institutions.
As per Brookings Institutions 2019 report, in India, private higher educational institutions are twice in number to public institutions (this shocking statistic warrants another essay altogether).
While public universities remain the last bastions of affordable quality education in the country, teachers who help students find their voice, fortify the spirit of such institutions.
Former DU professor, GN Saibaba was recently acquitted of charges that had him spend a decade imprisoned. A snippet of his teaching life (shared online by Civic Studios’ Anushka Shah) by one of his students speaks volumes of his diligence: “For some reason, almost every student in my batch chose Latin and Greek Studies over the Indian paper leaving me as the only student in the course. With his driver helping him move his wheelchair inside the disabled-unfriendly campus, Saibaba had to come to the university to address a class of exactly one student. He was never late and he never missed a lecture.”
These are individuals who value their profession and its role in imparting knowledge to students while asserting their dignity, believe in young minds and their capacity to bring change, have the courage to speak up for their rightful place, and in doing so help so many others as well. The day Dr Nagar announced her departure on social media, her Instagram was flooded with comments from current and former students lamenting her departure, but also thanking her for taking a stand.
Educational institutes stand on the shoulders of such luminaries who help students on the cusp of their adulthoods, find meaningful paths for themselves.
Despite having done my Master’s from another institution and pursued life in different cities, I always look back at my undergrad years as the most formative ones. Beyond the training in journalism, I learnt a lot more from the time spent at KNC. To question everything. To make room for yourself in every space you enter (like stretching your legs in the middle of taking an interview). To challenge hierarchies. To learn to discern the seriousness and lightness of things.
When I see Dr Singh set up a fritters stall outside Daulat Ram College, I see a force of creativity, resilience and fortitude stay alive. Her ingenious way of protesting proves how invaluable an asset she is to young minds and the educational system she rightfully demands to be part of. When I read hundreds of comments by Dr Nagar’s former KNC students, it is a matter of immense heartbreak that they are deprived of such a valuable voice in their undergrad years.
Dr Nagar in her displacement announcement post wrote, “If I had to do it again, would I change anything? Yes. I was not outspoken enough. Rejections are sometimes a mark of doing something right, not wrong.” This and Dr Singh’s clarity underscore that character-building is not restricted to institutional corridors, classrooms and boundary walls.
While KNC offered me a lot to learn, I now see how educators like Dr Nagar and Dr Singh inspire many students to be relentless, to speak up and seek ways to grow beyond the traditional and established corridors of education. The age of innocence I grew up in, where one would find such gems within institutions, might have long gone, but I cannot wait to see how these educators define paths for so many of their students and admirers in times to come.
Mariyam Haider is an independent writer-researcher, spoken word artist and producer & host of Main Bhi Muslim podcast. Her writing has appeared in Scroll, Kontinentalist, Asian Review of Books, Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, AWARE, Livemint, Mekong Review, among others. The latest podcast episode is out now:
References:
Full post by Dr Itisha Nagar on her recent displacement (Dr Nagar’s LinkedIn, Feb 2024)
Dr Itisha Nagar’s Instagram post (March 2024)
“Because I am a Dalit”: A teacher’s battle against caste bias (Ghazala Ahmad, Maktoob Media, Sep 2023)
PhD Pakkode Wali: opening ceremony delhi university| dr ritu singh daulat ram college case (Dr Ritu Singh YouTube, 4 March 2024)
Reviving Higher Education in India (Brookings India, November 2019)
Saibaba Acquittal: From Lack of Sanction to Dodgy Evidence, High Court Judgment Tears Into State's Case (Sukanya Shantha, The Wire, March 2024)