As the protests across both IIT Madras and JNU surged with more and more students coming out on the streets, hundreds of students from various colleges affiliated to Mumbai University and civil rights groups came out in protest to express their solidarity with the protesting students.
The protest gathering, held at the Mumbai University, Kalina Campus, highlighted the rampant discrimination taking place in Indian campuses and the importance of free and subsidised education to support the students coming from Dalit Bahujan communities. The call for protest was given by the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, Maharashtra.
A graduate student Niket present at the protest said, ”This is all because of caste and religious discrimination. It is not only colleges, even at the school level, one can witness such discrimination based on surnames. It is easy to label people by saying, you are Hindu, you are Sikh, you are Muslim, you are Christain, you are a Dalit, this is not how I imagine India should be, we want an India which is free of such discrimination and follows brotherhood. Fathima’s case is not a case of suicide, three people have been named in this, and the police is not doing anything as even they are under pressure”.
Regarding the rampant discrimination taking place on Indian University Campuses students opined that it is nothing new, but it is only coming to light now. A PhD student, Piyush said, “I think such discrimination existed even before if you read Om Prakash Valmiki. He writes about how he faced discrimination on all levels even in school. What I feel is before people (from other castes) were not even seen in Universities, at least after the 1990s they were able to make it to the Universities, but I don’t think that an atmosphere of acceptance has developed in any University as such.
Courtesy: Two Circles