In 2020, Pondicherry University (PU) suddenly restricted the number of ways PhD candidates could gain admission to various departments. The admission routes cut out were precisely the ones designed to increase inclusion of various marginalised communities — the National Fellowships for Scheduled Castes (NFSC), Scheduled Tribes (NFST) and Other Backward Classes (NFOBC). They were challenged in court by Arunesh X, a member of the department of English at the time and a member of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA-PU). NotA interviewed him about this case, his activist work, and campus politics generally.

About the Case

NotA: Can we start with what the NFSC/NFST/NFOBC is and what role it plays in equitable access to education?

Arunesh: Before going into NFST/SC/OBC, we need to talk about JRF, UGC-NET, etc. In India, if people want to take up research, they need a research fellowship. For example, the IITs and other places offer institute fellowships. But central universities don’t always offer fellowships, and we are asked to take up an examination called National Eligibility Test (NET). Based on the cut-off, a person will be given a fellowship or lectureship. For example, for general category the cutoff for JRF would be 60/100 and for NET lectureship, it will be 50 or 55. This is the normal procedure.

The second thing is that based on the quota/reservation percentages, those who score the greatest marks in every category are allotted JRF/NET. A lot of people miss the UGC’s JRF cutoff by .5% or 1% mark, like last time I missed the JRF cutoff by 0.54%. So to level the field, the Ministry of Social Justice created this fellowship – previously it was called Rajiv Gandhi fellowship, and now it is called National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste (NFSC)/Scheduled Tribe (NFST)/Other Backward Castes (NFOBC). And it is also there for persons with disabilities. There are also other fellowships like Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) for Muslims students. Around like 2000 students are given this fellowship every year.

The process is the same as for general quota; we need to write the NET and then based on that [these fellowships are} offered to people who miss the UGC’s SC/ST/OBC cutoff by fractions of a percentage. So the question of merit, which is often put forth by other people, does not apply here.

NotA: Can you describe how Pondicherry University tried to evade the NFSC policies and your attempts to fight this?

AX: In the Pondicherry University prospectus, until 2018, they had a column saying that people who have any of these fellowships, are eligible to apply. They had clauses with different eligibility criteria that you could apply based on. So until 2018 they had it in bold that people with NFSC/ST/OBC and also MANF can apply. Suddenly in 2019 they took that off. The 2019 prospectus didn’t mention the national fellowships at all.

Here are some sample pages from the prospectus, provided to us by Arunesh. The underlined sections clearly restrict applications to JRF-qualified candidates

The total loss of seats due to this omission was also calculated by them, as seen in this table

In case you think this could be the result of a benign oversight, they have also provided us with comparisons between the application website in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

AX: We found that out, and we spent over a year intimating the university administration that this is wrong. We found out that almost 40 seats from the PhD program were taken out. What we did was, we dug up all the executive committee meeting minutes and the proposals etc. from 2018 to 2020. Nowhere in all these documents have they mentioned anything about diluting all these fellowships. The moment I found out about this, I started calling the university offices, like the registrar, the students section, the academic council, the special reservation cell. They just told me that it is the decision of the doctoral committee. They were worried about the quality of the people, the same meritocracy argument. They just said, very point-blank, we don’t take NFSC/ST/OBC candidates, only UGC-JRFs.

So we started with a Twitter storm, and published an article on edex.¹ We wrote letters to every single person in the academic and executive councils. All these things were futile. On August 10 last year, I decided to file a case against the university administration. I even tweeted about this. My parents were supportive, so we filed a case with an advocate in the Chennai bar council.

The case happened for a long period. The minutes are available online.² The university offered arguments like “they can apply in another university,” “we didn’t say this” etc. They repeated the meritocracy argument over and over again. We posed the argument that since the fellowship is UGC recognised and the university is UGC recognised, they are ideally bound to comply but they do not.

Then we figured out that this whole process of dilution of these fellowships, is just another step in excluding the marginalised on campus. If there are four vacancies in a department, two vacancies should be given to general, one to SC/ST and one to OBCs, known as the roster system.³ So when they don’t update the vacancies at all, they just take the JRF candidates and erase all the community details, so that they can violate reservation. For example, in the department of English, from 2018 to 2020 they have not updated a single vacancy — it was nil in every prospectus — but between that span they took three PhD candidates. So it happens through some kind of networking or something, it is not updated to other people, and they also don’t let people take up an entrance examination.

So this is all very inaccessible for the marginalised communities.

NotA: To clarify, you mentioned that you were working with others. Can you briefly say who these people were?

AX: This is the Ambedkar Students’ Association – Pondicherry University (ASA-PU). They collected all the data, spoke to university students, etc. They started collecting details on whether or not the NFSC candidates were taken in. They found out that the University of Hyderabad still admits NFSC candidates. Only these particular very autonomous universities like Pondicherry University don’t. This has been going on for a very long period of time. There are almost no NFOBC students in the campus already.

NotA: You also mentioned that you contacted the special reservation cell, so is there a body already that is supposed to take care of it but it’s not working?

AX: I called them for two days, and nobody picked up on working days. It’s just very absurd, because, if it was active, I don’t think students would be facing all these difficulties on campus. And especially this violation of constitutional reservation is very blatant and no opposing voice was raised. This has been happening since 2018, and we only figured out in 2019 because they just invisibilized the fellowships wholly.

NotA: What is the funding structure for PU? Is it privately funded?

AX: It is a central university. It is publicly funded, it works on the taxpayer’s money. However, there have been protests happening since 2019 regarding the fee hikes alone,⁴ another issue that does not get anybody’s attention.

NotA: Can you talk about some takeaways from your experiencing using the legal system to battle this issue of caste discrimination?

AX: I figured out that all these university bodies know that they are above these legal systems, constitutional law courts etc. They are very aware that, even if a High Court judgment is in favor of us (i.e.) in favor of the students belonging to the depressed class, nobody can really shake their (bureaucracy) authority which was shocking because the moment I got the judgment in favour, I thought people would be updating the vacancy etc., because that is what their (Pondicherry University) lawyer told the High Court then. Even after the faculty of the respective departments updated the Ph.D. vacancy, the administration kept stalling the process. All the other departments updated vacancies and admitted PhD candidates, except the department of English.⁵ This was over a year ago, and only now they have updated.

NotA: So, what’s your takeaway?

AX: So I guess the only takeaway I have is… (laughs) I don’t know what to do next. My takeaway is… it is an exhausting process which would make the petitioner eventually give up.

NotA: We don’t know what to say.

AX: The legal proceedings cost me Rs. 25,000/-.⁶ Only because my parents are able to afford that, I was able to file a case. I’m thinking about all those people who just withdrew because they cannot file a legal case against the university. It is their right to avail these things, and still they are not able to do that. Systematic exclusion this is.

NotA: Has there been support from other student groups working within PU and other campuses for your cause? What forms have they taken?

AX: Other student organizations extended help. But the issue is that they may or may not understand our demands completely for it requires recognition of caste consciousness, recognition of systemic exclusion. Other organizations without Ambedkarite ideals may not be able to fully understand our demands and the idea of success is very relative. In order to not give in for any partial success and to avoid misrepresentation, we (ASA-PU) took up the fight by ourselves.

For example, especially in this issue the ASA-PU kept highlighting that it is a constitutional violation ever since that update was put on August 10. And on July 14 the next year, the University updated us that NFSC can apply; but on July 29 they took out that particular clause. But SFI-PU (without consulting us) announced that SC/ST/OBC can apply, which would have led to others giving up the issue, relieved themselves thinking we have achieved our demands, had ASA-PU not intervened.

The PU student council is led by SFI-PU. They should have followed up on the issue. These things need to be closely monitored, otherwise there will just be abandonment of all these issues. So we didn’t let other people hijack the issue. They just put out some statements. For example, PU is supposed to have 25% reservation for Pondicherry natives and also is supposed to provide free buses. But the university was charging for their buses, and the 25% reservation was also not implemented properly. Some other student organisations took it up and were planning to file a case, but till date we don’t know what’s going on.

So we didn’t let other organisations extend their support, since that would lead to lack of transparency regarding their working process.

NotA: Has this been happening at other universities too, to your knowledge?

AX: Yeah definitely, other universities also do this. Only some don’t. For example, Hyderabad University takes in NFSC students.

But it is my belief that they somehow downplay this passage of entry. There is this bias that NFSC is not as meritorious as UGC-JRF. Also, I couldn’t find any prospectus which clearly mentioned that National fellowships by the Ministry of Social Justice are as valid as UGC fellowships.

NotA: Did you try to get in touch with compatriot organisations at the universities you were looking at?

AX: Yeah, they were amplifying the issue. Hyderabad University, University of Mumbai, BAPSA [Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association] from JNU etc. But since this was happening in 2020, these organisations had their hands full with CAA, political prisoners, farmers’ protests, etc.

NotA: Recently, the UGC changed the qualification criteria for NFSC to give more weight to the ill-conceived notion of merit, and the numbers admitted fell from around 4000 to a few hundred. Can you talk about the wider implications of this and perhaps its relation to the issue you have highlighted?

AX: The whole idea of NFSC is to level up the field. Anybody would defund these fellowships or reduce the number of people only if they are under the illusion that the field is leveled enough.

90-95% of lectureships at universities are filled by the forward castes,⁷ there are very few OBCs and even fewer SC/STs. So, by not letting people take these fellowships and not complete their PhDs they are making sure that the representation is never equalised in the universities or colleges. They will just make sure that there are more Rohith Vemulas in the campuses. It’s nothing but systemic oppression and systematic exclusion. They are cutting out ways for people to take up PhD by making this merit argument.

About Ambedkar Students Organisation – Pondicherry University (ASA-PU)

NotA: What is the scope of activities of ASA?

AX: There are certain issues which are never taken up by many student political organizations. And even when they do take up these issues they don’t take into account the caste political dimension. For example, during one women’s day, some “progressive” students’ organizations made sure that the working akkas got gloves. But ASA-PU discusses why the akkas are pushed to such work in the first place, so that the root cause can be addressed and taken care of, rather than providing token solutions. This is how ASA-PU works.

It works on the basis of Ambedkarite notions. There are also some study circles, the Ambedkar study circle and the Malcolm X study circle. It also takes up the work of recognizing marginalised icons, people who are often sidelined like Savitribai Phule and Fatima Shaikh; both taking them to the mainstream as well as raising voices against their appropriation. Also, it organises programs during Ambedkar Jayanti, Bhima Koregaon Memorial day, etc.

But most of all, the existence of ASA is to assure the students that they are not alone in the campus; they can reach out to ASA, since it is an openly anti-caste organisation and the actions are carried out by Dalit students and OBCs themselves. They can feel safe on campus. It is to create a safe atmosphere, to have a support system. Because as I previously said, the special reservation cell is completely useless, so a support system is needed.

NotA: Can you give us an overview of student politics on your campus?

AX: There are a few prominent student organisations. One is ABVP, the [student] wing of RSS. Another one is the SFI, Students’ Federation of India. The National Student Union of India is the Congress people. There is PUSF-OBC organization dominated by Tamils (belonging to the intermediate castes) who haven’t realized Ambedkarite ideals, but push Tamil Nationalist sentiment. There are minority organizations like Fraternity PU and the Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF). So these are the active organisations apart from ASA.

The SFI is the largest organisation, primarily because of the Keralites on campus. So they push forward a lot of regionalism, and also invisibilise identity assertion in the name of class politics. The PUSF-OBC and ABVP, because of their empathy towards caste ideology, align together and take the side of the administration and push a right-wing nationalist ideology. ASA-PU, MSF and Fraternity, sharing a marginalised identity, all group together and believe in the assertion of oppressed identities.

Because of the size of SFI-PU, any issue affecting Kerala becomes mainstream. And also people come together in their own cultural functions, like the Bengalis during Durga Puja and the people from the Hindi-speaking belt buring Mahashivratri. So these functions are used to create identity-based solidarity networks. All these people stand together against the marginalised students’ issues, pushing forward arguments like merit, leaving ASA-PU and other minorities to stand alone.

For issues like the CAA protest and fee hikes, they push for this committee called Joint Action Committee that includes all the left-wing organisations as well as the marginalised peoples’ organisations. But whenever there is a meeting with the authorities, it is usually attended by the student union/SFI people with minimal representation from other groups in the Joint Action Committee. There is a lack of transparency and the very hierarchical structure in these committees.

This is related to a resistance towards identity assertions. You can’t just take away the identities of Dalit students, since they are oppressed because of their identities. And Muslims are targeted because of their identities. So when you take away the reason they are being attacked, the issue gets diluted down to “students being attacked” or “bullying” or just a class issue. This is another issue, not acknowledging the actual political dimensions, the social and cultural dimensions, of the campus. So they don’t even take seriously the lack of representation in these committee actions, and they end up hijacking the issue.

NotA: Does ASA work with other student or non-campus groups?

AX: ASA-PU does not have a mother organization. It works very independently, there is no political affiliation. Whereas, because of SFI’s ties with CPI(M), even the CMO of Kerala has written letters to the VC when there has been an issue affecting the students from Kerala. Similarly, other organisations are affiliated to other parties. ASA does not have any external support, but it does extend solidarity to the VCK [Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, a political party active in Tamil Nadu with an anti-caste ideology].

It’s just a solidarity thing, no financial or political help comes from anybody for ASA-PU and inside the campus it actually works with all the parties, but on lines of electoral alliance and not political or social alliance — because of ideological conflict and lack of transparency.

Regarding Caste Discrimination in Academia Generally

NotA: What are the ways, both personal and structural, in which students from marginalized communities are excluded from universities and what battles should we be fighting?

AX: The campus does all kinds of discrimination towards Dalit students. There are threats from the faculty, active discrimination, microaggressions. Making students feel different is an active effort on the campus.

Some members just react differently to marginalised students. They don’t let certain students into their cabins while letting others in. They don’t communicate well with them — they don’t clear doubts and actively target them. Talking about the personal lives of marginalised students is also another form of aggression.

Another thing faculty do is calling Dalit students into their cabins only when they want to be patted on the back for doing so. They call the students in and give them lectures on how even they can be great too despite being a Dalit.. And generally giving them extra care in a very patronising way because they are very progressive people who care about Dalits. But, in fact,we (Dalits) do not want any such special treatment. We just wanted to be treated equally.

Another thing is that there is a separate SC/ST hostel outside the campus. The ASA-PU has been pushing for moving these hostels into the campus.

Let me talk about one incident that happened to my friend with the administration. This guy had an SC/CT scholarship, and at one point the PU administration failed to complete the formalities for disbursing stipend. they were supposed to. He was threatened by the head of department that he wouldn’t be able to write the examination. So he went to the cashier and handed them a letter saying that he couldn’t pay the fees since his scholarship was delayed. The cashier responded, if you can’t pay the fees, why do you want to study? We eventually made it a big issue and they had to apologise to him. But he was pushed from all sides and he still had to borrow money from a lot of people to pay the fees. He got the fellowship one week later and settled his debts personally.

These are the sorts of forms that systematic discrimination and exclusion takes.

NotA: What, in your opinion, are the biggest battles that people across India should be fighting in the university campuses?

AX: People have internalised casteism so much that they fail to acknowledge caste dynamics at all. For example, if a Dalit man was accused of sexual misconduct by a savarna woman, the sexual harassment prevention cell would be completely against the man without any benefit of doubt. I do believe that in these situations the authorities must stand firmly with the woman, without asking for proof. BUT, my problem here is that when the same savarna woman accuses a savarna man of sexual misconduct, the trial is less severe or sometimes there be no trial at all. And if it is a Dalit women who accuses a Savarna man, then the Sexual Harassment Prevention cell would not engage in any discussion regarding affirmative action. Maybe because they all are in some way connected, and we call it Caste solidarity. I would never say that Bahujans or Dalit men are incapable of sexual misconduct, for that would be a complete Ad Hominem, which invalidates the victim’s trauma. But all I’m asking for is a fair trial for all people and all perpetrators be treated the same way, punished the same way.

Another instance is mess fees. Dalits can avail some discounts for hostel and mess fees. They are shamed even for that. There should be some sort of mandatory anti-caste counselling sessions also.

And there should be ample self-representation in the campus. Suppose the 18% reservation seats are filled; even if 60% of these are mere tokens (officials who have never raised their voice for Dalit concerns despite being in a position of power), the other 40% will make a lasting change. This would automatically result in decrease in caste crimes and discrimination. We should very carefully observe this violation of the reservation policies, which happen in broad daylight over and over again, as you can see with the prospectuses.

NotA: What are the ways in which university authorities practice discrimination or actively encourage such misconducts by individual students and faculty?

AX: Let me give you an example – if you google “Pondicherry university VC Modi once more”, you will find a ‘beautiful’ picture of the Pondicherry University Vice Chancellor Gurmeet Singh standing with a lot of people wearing T-shirts that say “Modi Once More.”⁸ It was for the election campaign. You should take a look.

So the university administration clearly turns a blind eye towards all the other student issues, but they have time for this. On that particular day, they asked the science block and MBA block students to gather in the Jawarharlal Nehru auditorium. Nobody knew why they were gathered there and it turned out to be a program for the Modi campaign. A university VC should have no bias towards any organization.

When standing and posing like that, it is clear that the administration of bureaucracy stands with one ideology and against another ideology. So these are certain signifiers of discrimination, like these are certain signifiers to show we are in support of some organization, we are not in support of another organization, that your voices do not matter. The university administration sent suspension letters to about fifty PhD candidates on the campus in 2020 for voicing for a lot of issues, beginning from CAA. All these names were marked, letters were sent to their homes, not even to them but the letters directly reached their families and they got threatened by their families to not engage in activism.

I’ve seen violence first hand. Whenever there is a pride march, the peers of OBC groups, the caste hindus often come in on their bikes and do Bajrang Dal-type work there. Like, they just thrash people etc. Last year in 2020, three to four people were taken in an ambulance after a big incident of violence in the campus. So all these also happen and the authorities do not interfere at all

The administration instead questioned people whether they had asked permission to have a gathering in the campus and hence claimed that they were not responsible. And they don’t hold other people accountable. All these people who engage in violence came from outside.

Another incident in PU is that, during the CAA protest people burnt the effigy of certain BJP leaders.⁹ So the next day, a huge group of BJP supporters swamped inside the campus. They just broke into the campus and started shouting near the administration block and they were taken out. Even on normal working days, students without ID cards are not allowed inside the campus. The watchman actually calls the administration and so without their permission nobody gets inside without the ID card. So it also shows a clear political support and affiliation towards other people. I’m citing these instances, because these are on the Internet, you can clearly google it – The Modi Once More campaign or the BJP people entering inside PU thing – these are on the Internet, you can actually cite them. That’s why I’m mentioning these incidents.

NotA: What are your thoughts on representation among faculty in these universities.?

AX: Again as I told before, a lot of people avail reservations and they can even keep mute, but the issue is, they go on to support the bureaucracy. They go on to support the oppressive system. Because during CAA protests, Assam was the first affected during the CAA, because of the NRC. There were about two Assamese professors in our department. Nobody opened their mouths. So this is what I’m talking about, even when their own people are persecuted, they don’t open their mouths, even if they are sent to detention camps or whatever.

So this is the problem I’m talking about: representation has to be there, and nobody has any obligation towards the movement, but it does not make a change unless people are sensitized politically.

We can fill all the representation requirements and people can feel safe that okay one of us in the department, so we can reach out to them, we can talk to them, that is a different sense of feeling. But if you are talking about an actual change such as standing up to the administration regarding something, then without political sensitization of students who become faculty, nothing can actually happen.

NotA: What are the forms of assertion that are visible in these campuses from bahujans and how have they evolved over time?

AX: Previously, as far as I know, bahujans are often clubbed along with the left. I believe it was Rohit Vemila who organized ASA in Hyderabad, after lack of support from the Left organizations.

So as I told earlier, the celebration, the acknowledgement of days of the Dalit Bahujan calendar, celebration of icons who are not celebrated like Savitribai Phule, Jyothirao Phule, IyotheeDas Pandithar, Rettamalai Seenivasan because once we introduce these icons to people, people will find time to somehow learn about them.

Because it has changed dimensions. Previously it used to be like gathering in a study circle, and then it took a digital form – people started making digital posters on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter handles; talking about creating and starting a conversation.

If in a class of fifty people, even if thirty people save your number, when you share a single poster from an organization talking about Jyothirao Phule, at least ten of them will come to know such a person exists and will try to know about them.

This is a change. Assertion happens in various levels, this is at the micro-level. Macro-level would be standing up for something. If a faculty blurts out any absolutely casteist remark to someone using say a casteist slur, standing up to the faculty in a campus, it is a powerful assertion.

For example in PU campus for women’s day, the right wing usually uses Lakshmi and Saraswati photos for women’s day.

It was not until 2017 or 18 the ASA PU started using Savitribhai Phule, Fathima Sheik, Phoolan Devi – all these people’s images for pushing women’s day.

The Communist SFI uses different images, those of their women community leaders.

So assertion of icons and taking the ideology forward, giving people a variety of choice to be showing them the books which they can refer to, all those things come under assertion. And most of all, not being ashamed of taking a counter-cultural punching-up label, because people often mistake valid assertion with caste assertion.

The thing is, the identity of Dalit is a punch-up banner. Like how India was just a collection of states, princely states, etc and to fight against the British they needed to take a common banner. They took up this India banner. Likewise Dalits are broken people.“Dalit” means broken. All the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes- they needed a banner, an assertive banner to counter the identity, which was forced on them, identity such as Harijan or untouchable. To counter all these identities created by the oppressors, the oppressed themselves created an assertive label. Like the people of Afro-American origin use black to assert their identity, likewise Dalit is a label, an identity assertion label, a counter-cultural label to fight against authority that people can gather under.

So in all these cases, if a person is unapologetically assertive about their Dalit identity, it gives so many people confidence. If a classroom of fifty has one assertive Dalit there, the rest of the ten closeted Dalits will still feel safe under this premise. It is an idea of giving hope to people that they are safe. That they are not alone. Someone is there. The assertion is essential to sensitize they are their own people, the oppressed, to be there for each other, they are not alone singled out and they have someone to talk to, giving that sense of security, that feeling.

NotA: In your social media handle, you had mentioned that you will be doing your research on Dalit studies. Do you have an opinion on the kind of Dalit studies already happening and what would you like to change about it?

AX: In Indian campuses they club Dalit studies with subaltern studies mostly. And all these Dalit studies or subaltern studies faculty talk about Gayathri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak” etc.¹⁰ All these subaltern studies scholars like Ramachandra Guha, Gayatri Spivak, these academic scholars push forward a post-colonial identity and diasporic identity, which talks about the Indian identity and how they were oppressed by the British and calling themselves subalterns and so on.

Now Dalit movement and Dalit academia started, because the subaltern studies did not give them enough space to assert themselves. The subaltern studies did not have enough space for Dalits to assert themselves because it was dominated by the savarnas. Given that in academia, the Dalit studies department are still dominated by the savarnas, it was again appropriated. People who work on Dalit studies and all those stuff, view it only as a Branch of study, mostly as something historial (denying it still happens). So, the Dalit study space is not safe. There is no honest assertion there. Many Dalit studies scholar work on the line of Gandhian ideology, even. So these are certain things which need to be taken into account.

There was a recent issue¹¹ actually during the pandemic, one of the professors from one famous university started using slurs on Dalit students and her specialization was on Dalit studies. The woman was called out publicly, the lecture was recorded. So that clearly shows how Dalit studies work in Indian campuses.

You know people can quote Ambedkar or Periyar verbatim but still they can’t understand the essence of it. That is another thing. Another problem happening there is since they are the accomplished academicians, when the self representational voice when put forward something they are tone policed.

Like one can’t say, “I am more experienced in this field, and all this stuff”. We need to listen to our own people and allies as well to take the movement forward and not make it an echo chamber.

There cannot be experts because the paradigm of caste is evolving constantly. Therefore the ways by which we approach caste must also be subjected to change. So people should continuously unlearn and learn and not claim to be an expert in this area, but rather be respectful, be receptive and listen to the lived experiences of people.

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Arunesh X is a Dalit Poet/Activist/Scholar from Pondicherry, India. He completed his Master’s degree at Pondicherry University. It is notable that he interned at IIT Madras and worked with Oxford University Press for the ILAP (Indian Languages Acceleration Programme) as an Editor. He worked as an Assistant Professor in English recently.

His areas of specification are Masculinities studies, Dalit studies, Film studies and Indian Theatre. He is a photographer, theatre artist and a filmmaker, actor, model and a lead singer of the Bedroom Band.

His pen name is Hsenura. He’s currently working on his Poetry Collection Volumes which deals with Depressive Realism. He is one of the very first Indian poets to discuss Depressive Realism, which will be out in markets sooner.

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1. Ghosh, S. (2020, July 22). Pondicherry University’s prospectus leaves out a few SC, ST, minority fellowships, to students’ chagrin. Edex Live. https://www.edexlive.com/campus/2020/jul/22/pondicherry-universitys-prospectus-leaves-out-a-few-sc-st-minority-fellowships-to-students-chagrin-13415.html ↩︎

2. N.Arunesh Babu vs The Registrar on 14 October, 2020. (2020, October 14). Indian Kanoon. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/5877777/ ↩︎

3. See Deeksha, J. (2019). The new 13 point roster system could mean no SC, ST, OBC teachers recruited for the next 100 years. Here’s how ​. Edex Live. https://www.edexlive.com/news/2019/feb/12/the-new-13-point-roster-system-could-mean-no-sc-st-obc-teachers-recruited-for-the-next-100-years-5290.html ↩︎

4. See Ghosh, S. (2019, March 13). Pondicherry University increases MBA fees by 125 per cent. The New Indian Express. https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2019/mar/13/pondicherry-univesrsity-increases-mba-fees-by-125-per-cent-1950580.html and Dominique, B. (2020, February 14). Pondicherry University student council’s strike against fee hike enters day 8. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/puducherry/pu-student-councils-strike-against-fee-hike-enters-day-8/articleshow/74125012.cms ↩︎

5. It called for interviews finally in November 2021. ↩︎

6. Rs. 30,000/- by now. ↩︎

7. Yadav, S. (2019, January 17). Reservation candidates are under-represented in Govt’s upper rungs. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/education/reservation-candidates-are-under-represented-in-govts-upper-rungs-5540310/ ↩︎

8. Unnithan, P. S. G. (2019, March 4). Pondicherry university VC clicks pictures with students in ‘Modi once more’ T-shirts, draws ire. India Today. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pondicherry-university-vc-click-pictures-with-students-in-pm-narendra-modi-once-again-t-shirts-draws-ire-1470031-2019-03-04 ↩︎

9. Ghosh, S. (2019b, December 12). People with BJP flags enter PU to intimidate students buring Amit Shah’s effigy, CAB copies. Edex Live. https://www.edexlive.com/news/2019/dec/12/people-with-bjp-flags-enter-pu-to-intimidate-students-buring-amit-shahs-effigy-cab-copies-9526.html ↩︎

10. Spivak, G. C. (2003). Can the subaltern speak?. Die Philosophin, 14(27), 42-58. Read it at https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~sj6/Spivak CanTheSubalternSpeak.pdf ↩︎

11. Tribune News Service. (2021, April 27). Video from IIT-Kharagpur shows professor abusing SC/ST preparatory students. Tribuneindia News Service. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/video-from-iit-kharagpur-shows-professor-abusing-sc-st-preparatory-students-245007 ↩︎