In a fresh controversy over how the Mamata Banerjee regime takes criticism, the West Bengal Higher Education Department has sought an explanation from two government college teachers whether they took permission to take part in television discussions, in which they allegedly expressed “anti-government views.”  Debasish Sarkar, associate professor of Economics at Jhargram Raj College, and Shampa Sen, head of the Department of Bengali at Hooghly Mohsin College, have been asked to...

-The Hindu A petition submitted to Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairperson, NCERT Textbooks Review Committee, by leading Dalit and non-Dalit writers, scholars and activists. When NCERT's Class XI Political Science textbook, Indian Constitution at Work , came to the attention of some Dalit activists, they objected to the manner in which the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, had been depicted riding a snail representing the Constitution, with...

Highlighting the lack of empathy among the intellectuals towards the “Dalit viewpoint”, prominent Dalit and non-Dalit writers on Thursday submitted a petition to the NCERT textbook review committee to reconsider the “insensitive” cartoon of B R Ambedkar and make necessary changes in the text as well to ensure that the Dalit icon finds his due place. Stressing that textbooks can’t be treated as “above criticism” and cartoons as “sacrosanct”, they urged...

Call it a strategy to garner political support for passing pending key education Bills or a progressive measure to reduce caste bias in colleges and Universities—the central government has put in place a set of rules that can possibly stop grants or cancel recognition of higher educational institutes engaging in such discrimination. The new rules set out by the University Grants Commission (UGC) aim to provide safeguards to students of reserved...

The cartoon controversy provides the possibility of interrogating the functioning of the academic system to understand its relationship with the downtrodden masses. A new deliberation is needed in order to make the academic world more sensitive and responsive towards the issues and concerns of the subaltern-oppressed communities. This will be an ethical incentive for the present-day dalit movement in India and can bring greater democratisation to the education system. Harish Wankhede...