পার্থ বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় গোটা বিষয়কে নির্ম্নবর্ণের বিদ্রোহের বিরুদ্ধে বর্ণবাদী হিন্দুত্ববাদী প্রতিবিপ্লব হিসেবে। এবং বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় গুলোর উপরে আক্রমণকে দেখছেন এই ভাবে...This is the place where I should dwell briefly on the question – why universities? After all, the BJP has always prided itself on its preoccupation with schools and primary education – in the time of Murali Manohar Joshi as much as in the time of Smriti Irani. Catch them young has always been the RSS motto. Why then this interest in universities and in higher education? This is because the Indian university today is no longer the Indian university of the 1970s – elite islands of higher education in a sea of mass illiteracy. India’s silent revolution has changed it beyond recognition. The extension of reservation to higher education institutions in the last couple of decades has turned universities into a deeply diverse space with complex social dynamics and heightened social and political relevance – with lower-caste students, first-generation learners and vernacular languages challenging the erstwhile dominance of upper-castes in education. The late Sharmila Rege’s reflections on teaching caste in caste-ridden classrooms demonstrate this beautifully. Needless to say, since Brahmanvad was historically based on a systemic denial of knowledge, lower-caste claim to higher education shot the university through and through with unmistakable political charge. After all, not for nothing did Ambedkar put so much value on education early on and at a time when communists thought of so-called bourgeois education as no more than mere means of coopting the proletariat! This new politicization of the university space – evident in Hyderabad, JNU, Banaras Hindu University and elsewhere – worry Hindutvavadis no end

		Sushanta Kar February 25 at 10:33am
পার্থ বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় গোটা বিষয়কে নির্ম্নবর্ণের বিদ্রোহের বিরুদ্ধে বর্ণবাদী হিন্দুত্ববাদী প্রতিবিপ্লব হিসেবে। এবং বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় গুলোর উপরে আক্রমণকে দেখছেন এই ভাবে...This is the place where I should dwell briefly on the question – why universities? After all, the BJP has always prided itself on its preoccupation with schools and primary education – in the time of Murali Manohar Joshi as much as in the time of Smriti Irani. Catch them young has always been the RSS motto. Why then this interest in universities and in higher education? This is because the Indian university today is no longer the Indian university of the 1970s – elite islands of higher education in a sea of mass illiteracy. India’s silent revolution has changed it beyond recognition. The extension of reservation to higher education institutions in the last couple of decades has turned universities into a deeply diverse space with complex social dynamics and heightened social and political relevance – with lower-caste students, first-generation learners and vernacular languages challenging the erstwhile dominance of upper-castes in education. The late Sharmila Rege’s reflections on teaching caste in caste-ridden classrooms demonstrate this beautifully. Needless to say, since Brahmanvad was historically based on a systemic denial of knowledge, lower-caste claim to higher education shot the university through and through with unmistakable political charge. After all, not for nothing did Ambedkar put so much value on education early on and at a time when communists thought of so-called bourgeois education as no more than mere means of coopting the proletariat! This new politicization of the university space – evident in Hyderabad, JNU, Banaras Hindu University and elsewhere – worry Hindutvavadis no end.http://kafila.org/2016/02/25/why-caste-is-the-crux-and-hindutvas-fall-is-imminent-prathama-banerjee/ Why Caste is the Crux and Hindutva’s Fall is Imminent: Prathama Banerjee kafila.org Guest post by PRATHAMA BANERJEE The return of BJP to power in 2013 was the return centre-stage of th...