In order of appearance in the program

1. Professor Ranu Jain, TISS, Mumbai: Minority Dynamics and Students’ Politics in Indian Universities

Changes in the students’ profile have generated changes in student politics in Indian Universities. Shifts can be seen in the discussions being organized on public platforms. Public lectures being held and consolidation of the students in ethnic terms. Earlier student unions were formed mainly in class terms while at present, one witness many ethnic unions competing with the class ones.  What is generating this change? Which ethnic/minority groups are forming these unions? Which fails to do so? Who joins them?

The paper would attempt to explore these changes along with the history and politics causing these changes. Concentrating mainly on the two minority communities – Dalits and Muslims,  it would deliberate on the reasons behind the Dalit community and its union emerging as a strong power center in the Indian Universities.

The paper would draw from the theoretical framework of Laponce and Ogbu on minorities. It would submit that the relations of the minority community with the wider society define its capacity to consolidate which, in its turn, defines its capacity for political participation. The relation of the minority community with the wider society impacts not only its negotiability with the wider society but also the possibility of its emerging as a power base in the Indian universities as well as the Indian politics.

2. Dr. Ashraf Kunnummal, University of Johannesburg: New Student Politics in Indian Universities: Four Major Discursive  Changes

The University campuses in India are witnessing a wide range of political changes in recent times. The major political shift can be seen in the emergence of Dalit Bahujan Muslim student movements that have been at the forefront of resisting the dominant Hindutwa forces. This paper is an attempt to mark these shifts through four concepts that form the major areas of contestation of university-based student politics: culture, narrative, subalternity, and knowledge. For analyzing the new trends using these four concepts, this paper draws examples from two major universities of India: Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Hyderabad. The aim is to show that new student politics in Indian universities are changing from traditional nationalist/secular/left-right dynamics to a new democratic paradigm of subaltern student politics based on caste, religion, gender, and region to envision a post-national and post-secular trajectory for student politics.

3. Dr. Kusha Anand, University College London, and Laraib Niaz, Institute of Education, University College London: The ‘perilous’ state of academic freedom and autonomy towards religious minorities in Higher Education in India and Pakistan

Academic freedom or autonomy of religious minorities is increasingly under assault from authoritarian governments worldwide supported by right-wing student groups who act as provocateurs within. It also refers to the freedom of scholars to conduct the critical inquiry, and the freedom of teachers and students to collectively deliberate on any idea without fear of sanction, censure, or illegitimate interference.

Yet, this right that is so crucial for the pursuit of knowledge has seen widespread attacks against religious identities in colleges and universities across India. There have been several structural concerns with the academic freedom of religious identities in the previous decades since Independence in India, especially during the emergency (1975-77). However, the period since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has seen an unprecedented assault on academic freedom as well as on academics. The recent penal measures taken against some faculty members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in India are analyzed against this backdrop. On the other hand, higher education in Pakistan has suffered from a continuous lack of academic freedom, perpetuated by an increasingly non-secular environment and corresponding discriminatory policies by the government and educational institutions. The situation has been exacerbated by a ban on student unions in public universities and curbs on freedom of speech in universities resulting in student protests in the shape of student solidarity march and the resultant backlash by the government.

This article analyses how the societal context of both countries, in particular, their colonial past and bloody history has an impact on the current curtailment of academic freedom of religious minorities. It examines the historical and current institutional policies and political discourse that has influenced academic freedom, particularly of religious minorities, and the resultant backlash and activism by students in India and Pakistan.

4. Anjali Thomas, University of Warwick: Deciding to access Higher Education: the role played by families in the educational trajectories of undergraduate students in Haryana, India

Gender regimes (Connell; and Pearse 2015) within families and education in India are patrifocal (Mukhopadhyay and Seymour 1994) in their behavior and choices in terms of education for their children. Educational choices are inherently unequal and are in favor of the men in the family. The education of men and women is significantly influenced by cultural norms and marriage practices (Sahu et.al 2017, Sudarshan 2018). I conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 26 undergraduate students enrolled in three colleges which were sampled across three districts of Haryana (Mahendargarh, Sirsa, and Sonipat) which are located at varying distances from the national capital of Delhi. This was complemented with semi-structured interviews with family members of 11 undergraduate students. The interviews explored educational perceptions, choices, experiences, and aspirations during schooling and during their transition into higher education (HE).

This presentation will explore how different family members and their social capital is mobilized to support, inspire, inform and steer the educational choices and decisions made by young people in Haryana. The way in which these roles are gendered is not straightforward. Both young women’s and men’s experiences and are subjected to different gendered socialization and situations which limit their educational options and choices. Additionally, First-in-Family (O’Shea 2015, 2020) or trailblazing students and individuals are reflexively re-negotiating the gender regimes and educational pathways operating within their families and communities. I argue that educational decisions, as young women and men access HE, are not autonomous or individual.  Educational decisions are mediated within gendered family spaces and are complex group decisions.

5. Professor Nagaraju Gundemed, University of Hyderabad: Religious Minorities and Student Solidarities: A case study of Indian University

University is a sign of modernity and a symbol of social diversity. Access to university education is considered a means of economic mobility and social opportunity in South Asian countries. Critical reading of the university as epistemic and social space informs multiple claims and contestation. Very often the contested claims are conditioned by the broader ideological ecology of the university and student’s orientation towards diverse socio-religious groups. The paper aims to understand the university student’s perceptions on the notion of religious harmony and the nature of interreligious relations in everyday life on the campus.  The study based on the sample of 450 students from one of the leading central universities in South India, presents their perceptions on the notion of religious harmony on the campus.  It also presents the experiences of religious minority students in negotiating their religious identity in diverse spaces such as classrooms, hostels, cultural and religious spaces on the campus.  Survey and interview methods were used to capture the status of religious minorities on the campus and their experiences with other students.  The sociological decoding of the students representing gender, caste, religion, and regional affiliations informs that minority students tend to negotiate their religious identities in subtle forms.  As the state legitimizes only the dominant religion as the de-facto spiritual faith, most of the minority students practice their faith in hidden spaces on the campus. Thus the state has to widen the space for diverse faiths and practices to represent the true spirit of the Indian model of University is a sign of modernity and a symbol of social diversity. Access to university education is considered a means of economic mobility and social opportunity in South Asian countries. Critical reading of the university as epistemic and social space informs multiple claims and contestation. Very often the contested claims are conditioned by the broader ideological ecology of the university and student’s orientation towards diverse socio-religious groups. The paper aims to understand the university student’s perceptions on the notion of religious harmony and the nature of interreligious relations in everyday life on the campus.  The study based on the sample of 450 students from one of the leading central universities in South India, presents their perceptions on the notion of religious harmony on the campus.  It also presents the experiences of religious minority students in negotiating their religious identity in diverse spaces such as classrooms, hostels, cultural and religious spaces on the campus.  Survey and interview methods were used to capture the status of religious minorities on the campus and their experiences with other students.  The sociological decoding of the students representing gender, caste, religion, and regional affiliations informs that minority students tend to negotiate their religious identities in subtle forms.  As the state legitimizes only the dominant religion as the de-facto spiritual faith, most of the minority students practice their faith in hidden spaces on the campus. Thus the state has to widen the space for diverse faiths and practices to represent the true spirit of the Indian model of secularism which beliefs in the notion of the wheel of separation not the wall of separation.

6. Thafseer Ummer, Jamia Millia Islamic: Free Space to Fear Space: a narrative account of experiences of a Muslim Student at Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia

This research paper intends to explain how a university space is transforming from free space to a fear space. University is a space where a student starts thinking critically, questions inequality and other forms of exclusion. It is where he/she learns to question the existing problematic ideas and discourse. The paper will try to bring in certain problems faced by students in changing nature of the university. Post 2014 the socio-political context is entirely different, especially in the universities and colleges. The signs of the same were visible prior to that. The changes in student unions, the role of the student wing of each and every political party were all part of that signs. From protesting to supporting different political ideologies the shift of the university space in describing larger political scenarios will be also part of this paper. The dissent and choices of a student especially minorities are curtailed. University spaces are supposed to be secular especially in a democratic system. The major question this research paper intends to put forward is to what extent that secular nature exists. To what extent this space is profane and how Inclusive is the existing structure.  To elaborate on the same, the larger political development and changes in the country will be analyzed. This paper is broadly based on my personal experience at Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia which spans around the last 9 years and also added experience from the friend circle. The recent Anti CAA protest and the violence which took place to redefine the free space concept attached to a university. The paper will explain how the transformation in political structure is affecting the university space and how it is overpowered by fear.