This is the story of Dr Sameena Dalwai, educator and writer, and Renu Bhatia, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women.
—
A raging controversy at the OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana has provided a timely opportunity to explore some very basic but extremely important concepts.
What is the purpose of education? What is feminism and how do we define a ‘women’s rights advocate’? How do gender, caste, sexuality, politics and education intersect and criss-cross and is there a ‘proper’, ‘codified’ way to grab the strands of this mesh? Or should everyone be able to unravel the mesh as they deem fit? Is that the purpose of education?
It all started when Dr Sameena Dalwai, who is a professor at the university and whose work focuses on gender, sexuality and law, opened the dating app Bumble in the classroom.
Over her academic and research career, Dalwai has engaged extensively with sexuality and law in reference to caste. Dalwai has worked as a lawyer with human rights organisations in Mumbai and health-related organisations in rural Maharashtra.
In her doctoral thesis, she analysed the legal ban on dancing in the bars of Mumbai. She regularly writes on caste, gender, sexuality, communalism and the law and is a newspaper columnist.
The lecture was part of a module to understand the dating language used on such apps to illuminate the intersection of caste, religion and gender politics with sexuality and desire.
The lecture was part of a module to understand the dating language used on such apps to illuminate the intersection of caste, religion and gender politics with sexuality and desire.
Dalwai created two fake profiles on the app using a mobile phone. The male one with a profile picture of Rahul Gandhi and a female profile with a shadow of a woman as the profile image.
Dalwai projected the two profiles onto a screen and as they searched for ‘matches’, the profiles of some of the students in the class and their friends started flashing across the screen.
As many students have testified, the lesson received a generally positive response from the students.
Also read: Why India needs a robust content deletion procedure to repress revenge pornography
However, after the class, there were a few posts on X and other social media platforms decrying the classroom lesson for making a few students “uncomfortable”.
In jumps Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women.
Feminism: Marginality and power
The Haryana state government appointed Bhatia as the chairperson of the state commission on January 17, 2022. She has been the chairperson for three years.
Previously, Bhatia has served as the general secretary of the Mahila Morcha (Haryana), a women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Bhatia is also the former mayor of Faridabad Municipal Corporation.
In April this year, Bhatia spoke at a college event on “counselling” girls at a college event on how they could “save themselves” from sexual crimes.
Bhatia remarked that girls who accompany their “boyfriends to OYO hotels” cannot complain later of being raped and blackmailed. “The girls know very well that when they go to such a place, they are not going there to recite Hanuman ji’s aarti,” Bhatia stated.
Renu Bhatia has served as the general secretary of the Mahila Morcha (Haryana), a women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bhatia has also advocated for stricter laws to deal with live-in relationships, claiming that such relationships lead to an increase in crime rate.
In respect of the dating app lecture by Dalwai, on November 8, Bhatia visited the university to speak with the “affected” students, and was “appalled by such actions”.
Bhatia visited the vice chancellor of the university, C. Raj Kumar, and asserted that the display “compromised” the privacy and dignity of students and amounted to “harassment”.
Bhatia also expressed “concern” that Dalwai, the “accused”, purportedly has an issue with certain Hindu slogans, specifically ‘Jai Shri Ram’. According to Bhatia, Dalwai’s behaviour allegedly breached the right to equality in the practice of religion.
Bhatia’s concern extended to a lecture of Achin Vanaik, a former professor of international relations at Delhi University, on the history of the Israel–Palestine conflict, titled ‘History and Politics of Palestinian Present’, at the university.
In an email thread leaked on X, Dalwai explains Vanaik’s stance on the conflict to another faculty member at the university, who had warned that the talk might “conflate Hamas with all Palestinians”.
To this, Dalwai asserted that Vanaik sought to explain that “if you keep people in an open air prison for generations, you breed terrorism. Israel has been doing to Palestine what was done to Jewish people in World War II: the wall, ghettos, killing, humiliation, erosion of identity and humanity.”
On November 8, Bhatia visited the university to speak with the “affected” students, and was “appalled by such actions”.
Further in the email, Dalwai added, “We don’t like each other’s political or other opinions, but we accept that each one of us has a right to hold those opinions.”
The Scroll.in further reports that though no one had complained to her about the Vanaik lecture, Bhatia said that she raised it with the vice chancellor. “I asked him how can someone shame the Indian army and talk about suicide bombs inside the campus,” she is quoted to have said.
These then were the contours of the controversy. An interrogation of a discussion on sexuality in class and its linkage with protests against the ongoing genocide in the Gaza strip.
An assistant professor of history in Delhi, who spoke on a request of anonymity because she feared official censure, told The Leaflet that it is ironic that “sarkari feminists are sitting in judgment over people whose ideological forebears fought vehemently for women’s rights in the country to create the kind of institutions which people like Bhatia now occupying and perverting”.
“People who mock women’s expressions of sexuality or their right to make independent choices, how can such people be women’s rights advocates?” the assistant professor asked.
In the nineteenth century, the pioneering feminist movement in India challenged the cultural practices that pertained to “women’s mobility and control of sexuality”. With the rise of women’s groups in the early twentieth century, women’s greater political and economic participation was ferociously demanded.
Post-independence, feminism demanded the recognition of intersectionality between caste, class and culture. Subsequently, the movement also advocated the rights of Dalit and marginalised women.
Women’s rights activists came into frequent ideological conflict with right-wing conservatives of all religions, including Hindutva proponents.
During the period 1970–80, the achievements of the women’s movement could be seen in legal reforms, particularly in the laws for dowry and rape.
State institutions such as the National Commission for Women were established in 1992 to represent the rights of Indian women and to provide a platform to voice their concerns. The state commissions for women are empowered to receive and investigate complaints from women who are victims of discrimination and violence.
As per a statement by Bhatia, “HSCW (Haryana State Commission for Women) is a symbol of woman empowerment and represents the rights of women in Haryana state.”
Education: Comfortably numb?
The central premise of the debate, that Dalwai’s lecture had left some students ‘uncomfortable’ does not sit right with the opinion of educators in various universities and the historical theory of education.
As Raushan Tara Jaswal, who is an assistant professor at OP Jindal University, told The Leaflet, “The purpose of education is to challenge your beliefs and not to just solidify the beliefs that you have. It is so to step out of your comfort zone and your bubble or echo chamber and interact with the ground realities of the world around you.”
Ayushi Vashisht, a faculty member at Jindal Global Law School, told The Leaflet, “Education is not just limited to conveying facts but also about exposing the process of how we gather that information.
Bhatia also expressed “concern” that Dalwai, the “accused”, purportedly has an issue with certain Hindu slogans, specifically ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
“Acknowledging that the world may differ from a student’s existing perceptions, education should foster discomfort associated with unlearning and accepting alternate ideas, which is an inherent and transformative aspect of education.
“In the realm of education, discomfort is intrinsic to the learning process, a sentiment familiar to all of us who have undergone the rigours of intellectual exploration as students.”
Also read: Shariat versus POCSO Act: Supreme Court must resolve the conundrum
A faculty member at the OP Jindal Global University, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Leaflet, “There shouldn’t be an inhibition in teaching. The point of certain courses, such as sexuality and desire, is to make students uncomfortable; comfortable notions are anyway incorrect.
“The only way to change those notions is to disturb the existing work and to push students beyond what they have already been taught and to challenge the already established perspectives towards certain ideas.”
The faculty member also shared, “Sexuality and politics are essential and are not topics that we can choose not to engage with. It is not possible that 20-year-olds will never come across discussions or debates on certain topics such as sexuality. Young people cannot be held in a vacuum from these discussions.”
The faculty member was of the opinion that rather than having the youth confused with unresolved sexuality, it is better that somebody who is trained introduces these concepts to not only sensitise them but also to make them uncomfortable by challenging the established notions.
“Unfortunately, schools are not discussing controversial topics such as sexuality and politics. Once you enter a university, it is the university’s responsibility to sensitise students and introduce them to this realm of possibilities to express political opinions and sexual inclinations,” the faculty member opined.
According to Vashisht, “Law students already possess an opinion and have preconceived notions on issues surrounding sexuality, politics and themes related to gender and society.
“Thus, the educator is not filling an empty vessel but the responsibility of an educator is to provide knowledge that equips students to critique, question and come up with their own conclusions.”
Perversity in politics
Experts also highlighted the ‘political’ nature of the debate and drew connections between the different threads of the events that had unfolded at the university.
Hafsah Masroor, a psychotherapist based in Delhi, opined, “Everything is politics, including how we live our lives, who we interact with and how we interact. Sexuality is a nuanced and complex issue, especially when young people are not imparted with sex education.
Also read: Shraddha Walker murder: Live-in relationships not a crime, but violence is!
“Dating app choices reflect the intricate interplay of individual preferences, desire biases and societal norms. Individuals are inclined to connect to those who share similar attributes, contributing to the embedded values that they hold on to.”
She felt that it takes reflection and emotional labour to see difference just as a difference and not as a problem or disability. It is important for people, especially young people, to engage in introspection by examining one’s own dating preferences and uncovering biases that are shaped by culture, family and society.
“Self-awareness can lead to a profound comprehension of individual choices that can lead to challenging societal structures and breaking biased patterns,” she said.
The educator is not filling an empty vessel but the responsibility of an educator is to provide knowledge that equips students to critique, question and come up with their own conclusions.
Holding discussions on dating apps, particularly in academic settings can “foster a safe environment for open dialogue where students can explore cognitive processes that underlie these choices”, Masroor stated.
“In this way, through academic discussions, young people can develop cultural empathy and have a nuanced perspective on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of others,” she said.
However, she was of the opinion that the need to empower students to navigate these complexities should be balanced with securing their privacy.
The faculty member of the university who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “It is not a coincidence that the attack on Achin Vanaik’s lecture on Palestine came from the same quarters who attacked Dalwai for her module of dating apps. The condemnation is directed at what goes against the State’s primary interests.”
He felt that such condemnation of “reflection” promotes a constant attempt to centralise a homogenous outlook. People who problematise controversial notions become easy targets for trolls.
“Questions on Palestine and caste-based decision-making in dating apps call for reflection, but reflection promotes diversity and decentralisation,” the academic said.
