Nandita Narain's Letter to her Students

Not too sure what I can do about this though I agree with it all. Seems to me like College is changing for the worse and in the same way as the "democracies" everywhere.

It is ominous that things like - banning blogspot and rolling back the Right to Information Act, implementing 50% reservation despite widespread protests and Banning Fana coz Aamir Khan spoke up for the need to resettle people getting displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam – are forced onto people without hesitation.


It is essential to question authority at all times (not that I can claim any historic achievements but so what). I think all of us loved College the most in our first year before drinking in Rez with friends was made out to be criminal... before ragging was banned (ragging was the first real "experience" for most of us I think when we at least started to come of age)... before College took up a holier-than-thou attitude of fascists everywhere… before authority became synonymous with tyranny.

I don't have Nandita Narain's email ID.. if any of you
do.. please append my two bits to your response as
well.

Thanks.

Vaibhav.
(Class of 2004)




A Letter to all my Students*
>
> * *
>
> * *
>
> Dear Students,
>
> * *You may be surprised to hear
> from me, but I think that I > have reached that juncture in my life when I need to > get back to those who > have always been my source of greatest joy and > sustenance. You might > remember how I used to tell you (in my very first class with the pictures of 'mountains'!) that the most important aspect of our > interaction was the > forging of human bonds. Many of you have kept in > touch and continued to > share your good and bad times with me.
>
> Next month, I will have completed twenty-five years
> of teaching in College. > Add to that five years as a student, and it will be > an unbroken stretch of > thirty years in St.. Stephen's. Whew! I remember the > time when our students (was it Madhabi Puri's batch?) had given mementoes to the teachers who had > completed twenty-five years of service. At that > time, I thought of them as > Really Old. Now that I'm in their position, I don't > feel old at all! In
> fact, at this time of year, I invariably feel like a > fresher entering > College for the first time! There must be something
> about the nature of our > work that gives this illusion of a Peter Pan like existence. >
>
>
> When I look back on the last thirty years, events
> flash before me as if they
> happened yesterday. Those magical student days with
> endless rounds of caf้
> and coffee house, debating everything under the sun,

> lazy afternoons in the
> Allnutt lawns discussing vector spaces, neebu pani
> at Rohtas' Dhaba after
> judo, singing Geeta Dutt songs in the then LCR in
> our free periods,
> rehearsing Shakesoc plays till late evening,
> laughing over highly
> irreverent( but not yet obscene) pieces in KT and
> Spice, Wodehouse Soc's
> Practical Joke Week, the romantic foggy mornings of
> Winterfest, the fire and
> fury of Hindu-Stephen's Cricket Finals, lobbying to
> get good seats at
> Sports' Dinner( i.e. not next to any teachers),
> hectic Student Council
> meetings (we took ourselves very seriously)in which
> even karamcharis were
> invited to tell us their grievances, endless
> arguments with Principal Rajpal
> at his house, who listened patiently, gave us
> ice-cream and sent us off,
> packed general body meetings and token strikes in
> support of karamcharis,
> cooking in the mess (and turning it into one)
> because the workers had
> struck, our performance of Macbeth turning into a
> Comedy of Errors, sneaking
> kisses in the fiction section of the
> Library……Sometimes I feel as if I'm
> walking along the corridors and lying on the lawns
> with the ghosts of all my
> friends, mine among them as well. What is nice is
> that I remember all of us
> laughing a lot.
>
>
>
> As a teacher, I remember Piya Pallav and Jayant
> Bhushan (my first
> batch)helping me with the medals case, joining the
> DUTA strike in1982-83 in
> 'our own way', traipsing all over Delhi with Nandita
> Misra, Daman Singh and
> Som's batch having classes at the Boat Club, Rajghat

> and the Ridge,
> Stephanian students showing their support for
> teachers in a big way at the
> UGC, Madhukar Sabnavis being upset about the
> money-making 'lists'that I
> talked about in class (he was right), the lewd
> article in KT about me that
> made you very angry, our trip to Dudhwa with Oona
> Mansingh with Madhu
> Ramnath teaching us how to read the night sky and
> eat ants, Sanjay Saigal
> being stabbed outside Hindu, our magical judo days,
> grappling, writing
> poetry and learning calligraphy from Sensei in the
> beloved dojo( it still
> looks the same, with Jigoro Kano's photo still
> hanging there, but I've been
> told that it will be converted into a Sports Lab),
> the vandalisation of
> College during one Holi and the subsequent girls'
> movement leading to
> Jyotsna Kapoor first winning the Presidentship and
> then, after a recount,
> being defeated by two votes, the trauma of the '84
> riots and our work for
> rehabilitation of victims at Kalyanpuri, your
> insistence on coming with me
> to Anandamayi Ashram, where you had long discussions
> with a sadhu who turned
> out to be an M.Sc. in Physics from Stephen's, the
> awful incident of the
> mentally retarded boy being mistaken for a thief and
> tortured by hundreds of
> res guys, the deep gender divisions in the College
> during the 'chic chart'
> days in 1985 leading up to the infamous raid of the
> LCR and women's
> undergarments being hung on the College tower, the
> manhandling of the press
> and the subsequent month long reaction in the
> national media, the DUTA
> strikes of 1985 and 1987 during which Hasmeeth wrote

> supportive letters to
> the editor and Geetha collected contributions to the
> fighting fund, my
> fracturing my toe and your visiting me everyday in
> hospital plying me with
> goodies and gobbling up all of Pranay Gupte's
> chocolates, my hobbling around
> on crutches and making you write on the board for my
> algebra lectures,
> teaching you your Analysis paper on my nephew
> Nikhil's ABC board at home in
> the October hols, my having a baby in 1989 (my
> daughter Nida who often
> attended classes with you at the age of three, and
> is now seventeen!), the
> anti-Mandal agitation in 1991 when I had arguments
> with many of you, the
> fall of the Babri Masjid in 1992, my terms in the
> University Academic and
> Executive Councils between 1992 and 2000 when I must
> have been less
> accessible to you outside of class, our relief work
> in Wazirabad after the
> North Delhi floods and your chagrin at the money
> that you collected for a
> Sulabh Shauchalaya being given for the Latur
> earthquake victims instead,
> visiting the Urdu scholar O.P.Bhatnagar and his wife
> sitting on dharna, the
> massive demonstration by students after Graham
> Staines' murder in 1997, the
> Teachers' strike in 1998 and our classes for
> different groups during the
> October and December holidays, the birth of my
> second daughter, Nabila, in
> 2000, the Gujarat earthquake and then the riots in
> 2002, the anti-Iraq war
> mobilisation with music and poster campaigns, our
> relief work at the Kashmir
> Refugee Camp where Pranav Karol took pictures and
> almost got dragged off by
> the Special Task Force who mistook him for a
> terrorist(!)……
>
>
>
> Through all of this, you patiently attended extra
> classes whenever and
> wherever for which I am grateful. You responded with
> enthusiasm (that waned
> a bit in your third year) to my attempts to instil
> in you a love of the
> subject and its methods, its magic and mystery, and
> how it can be an ideal
> medium for developing powers of critical, creative
> and independent thinking
> and articulation. With examples drawn from real life

> situations familiar to
> you, I tried (often with much histrionics) to make
> the subject come alive
> for *all* of you. With discussions of other issues
> and actual interaction
> with the world outside the classroom whenever
> possible, I tried to expose
> you to the dilemmas and concerns of real people in
> the world around us,
> something that doesn't come automatically from
> studying Mathematics.
> Wherever you are today, I hope that some of what we
> shared together has been
> of some use to you professionally or personally.
>
>
>
> The education that one has access to in an 'elite'
> institution has its
> limitations, but I firmly believe that our college
> has had some great
> strengths that should not be underestimated in a
> fractured society. The
> ethnic 'plurality' that Shashi Tharoor referred to
> in his brilliant Jubilee
> Lecture, is one such strength, even though it is
> circumscribed by class
> boundaries. However, this plurality comes from much
> more than merely being
> an eclectic melting pot of diverse religious,
> regional and other ethnic
> categories of students. The real plurality intrinsic

> to St. Stephen's
> (unless wilfully subverted) has been its ability to
> generate and to nurture
> every shade of opinion. The only creed that
> Stephanians have ever accepted
> is that of non-conformism. While submitting to
> various forms of discipline,
> one freedom they have guarded jealously is the
> freedom to debate, analyse
> and express an opinion on any issue. In the St.
> Stephen's that I remember, a
> dissenting voice, even if in a minority of one, was
> given respectable space.
> College was a haven for eccentrics. The mere fact of
> _expression of a view,
> however unpalatable, did not invite disapproval,
> leave alone retribution,
> from the majority. As for the authorities, they did
> not breathe down our
> necks but left us alone to argue about anything and
> everything, criticise,
> ridicule and laugh at each other and at them. It was

> this environment that
> fostered a spirit of free enquiry, debate and
> _expression, which was
> responsible for the fiercely individual and creative
> qualities of so many of
> its alumni.
>
>
>
> Over the last few years and especially in the last
> two, that space has
> shrunk remarkably. Patronage has completely replaced
> a neutral
> administration. All positions such as Vice
> Principal, Dean, Registrar of
> Societies, Tutor for Admissions, Chairman of Library
> Committee, Building
> Maintenance Committee, Staff Advisers of Societies
> are rotated between a
> chosen few, some holding multiple positions for
> several years. Repeated
> pleas, over the last fifteen years, that *all*
> teachers should be asked
> about their interests and then given an opportunity
> to participate in the
> total life of the college, have fallen on deaf ears.

> Queries regarding
> administrative procedure and contracts with private
> bodies running
> activities such as the Centre for Mathematical
> Sciences, Media Studies,
> Legal Studies etc. and MOU's signed with foreign
> universities are met with
> hostility. Not only is information not provided, but
> vicious rumour
> campaigns are unleashed against those who continue
> to ask questions,
> attacking their personal integrity in an attempt to
> undermine their
> credibility. Not surprisingly, voices of protest are
> now few and far
> between.
>
>
>
> The situation is no better among students. Those
> daring to question College
> policy especially in matters regarding Societies'
> funds are sought to be
> isolated, demonised and intimidated. A girl who led
> a University rally that
> passed through college (with police permission),
> asking for minimum wages
> for workers, was even threatened with dismissal from
> residence. Even issues
> such as the University Ordinance on Sexual
> Harassment (which the College has
> violated by having a non-elected Complaints
> Committee) have been treated as
> taboo. A reference to this issue in the manifesto of
> a Presidential
> candidate was censored by the Principal, and a
> handful of students
> attempting to have a meeting on this issue in a
> corner of the Allnutt Lawns
> were given a dressing down. Discussion groups set up
> to discuss all kinds of
> University issues evaporated overnight in the face
> of such hostility.
> Patronage has bitterly divided the students as well-
> something unthinkable
> in the Stephen's that I remember. Yes, there were
> gender wars and
> ideological divisions, but there was no pro- and
> anti-establishment split.
> There was an unspoken solidarity among students vis
> a vis the Powers That
> Be, that is now a relic of the past. For every set
> of students trying to
> have a meeting on an issue not to the liking of the
> authorities, there is
> another set of students demanding that the meeting
> should not be allowed.
> While there is enthusiastic moral policing by the
> authorities during the
> Rock Show in Harmony, there is remarkable leniency
> shown towards obscene
> forms of harassment inflicted on a woman President
> in the form of simulation
> of rape of her team members during Mocktaves and
> sexist posters and leaflets
> pasted all over College asking her to "go back to
> the kitchen where she
> belongs". I have recently learnt that the she has
> been denied admission to
> an M.A. in History in the College, despite having
> got a first division in
> B.A.(Hons)History with a high rank.
>
>
>
> Even during the 125 years celebrations the College
> Union was marginalised
> and almost a parallel union was set up to organise
> the events. Students were
> dragged into a dispute between the Principal and the
> Bishop (who is the
> Chairman of our Governing Body) by being made to
> sign a letter in support of
> the Principal during (hold your breath!) assembly.
> Similar campaigns were
> conducted among teachers (including ad-hoc ones) and
> karamcharis(including
> daily-wagers). Those who didn't sign were seen as
> being 'against' the
> Principal. It's really bizarre.
>
>
>
> We now have a college in which students are pitted
> against students,
> teachers against teachers, students against teachers
> (I even received a
> nasty anonymous letter in June last year,
> purportedly written by students,
> with copy, significantly, to the Principal,
> carefully misspelt as
> 'Principle'. The class to which this was attributed
> was outraged when they
> heard about it), karamcharis against karamcharis -
> every possible
> permutation and combination of one group against
> another. The air is so
> thick with tension and hostility that you can cut it
> with a knife.
>
>
>
> In his reply to a PIL filed against the College in
> the High Court for
> violation of the Ordinance on Sexual Harassment, the
> Principal has stated
> that he doesn't want elected committees(as laid down

> in the Ordinance)
> because a section of the teachers has "antipathy
> towards Christian students"
> and would victimise them if elected to these
> committees. Even such a
> defamatory statement with the potential to
> communally fragment the College
> (which has had a proud secular 125-year-old record)
> has not elicited a
> protest from more than a handful of teachers. Leave
> alone criticism, even
> queries are considered a criminal activity (Saurav
> Sen, you would have been
> beheaded today!) So much for the Right to
> Information, and so much for
> promoting independent thinking and articulation,
> prerequisites for
> excellence, in any academic institution. We are now
> promoting passive
> subordination to authority and a value system that
> trains us not just to
> sneak but to trample on each other to get ahead
> (infinitely worse than what
> you saw in the film 'Dead Poets' Society')
>
>
>
> I have written this long letter to you because I
> believe that you care about
> what happens to our College, because each one of us
> has gained something
> from it, however small. Just as patriotism can never
> be mistaken for
> chauvinism, true loyalty to the College cannot mean
> simply basking in its
> 'reputation' while being blind to its decline
> especially in terms of
> intellectual freedom. Love of the College would
> entail preserving our
> strengths and working on our weaknesses. What is it
> that you can do? I leave
> it to you to think about, being the creative
> individuals that I know you
> are.
>
>
>
> On my part, I have done my best to keep the space
> for dissent and discussion
> alive, but it's a losing battle. The divisions among

> teachers have
> emboldened the Principal into resorting to the kind
> of retributive action he
> would have hesitated to take in the past. On May 31,
> without any prior
> warning, he gave me a letter removing me from the
> Headship of the Maths.
> Department (a post I had held for eight years, being
> the senior most Maths.
> teacher) with effect from. June1. When continuously
> pressed for reasons, he
> finally replied on July 8, stating that there had
> been a growing demand for
> periodic changes in Heads. So he had worked out some
> kind of contrived
> scheme of 'Change with Continuity', in which I was
> the only one he actually
> changed (despite some other Heads having been there
> for longer). I'm not
> personally unhappy with a change because I have
> always argued for rotation
> of Headship. But the action is arbitrary and,
> clearly, vindictive, and is
> therefore ominous for the institution.
>
>
>
> Given the spate of rather nasty letters I have begun
> to receive from him on
> issues of medical leave, housing rules etc., and
> given verbal campaigns
> against me with outrageous allegations of
> 'threatening' some BA Pass girl
> whom I'd never seen or heard of, the anonymous
> letter mentioned earlier and
> rumours about my mediocre and "routine" teaching
> being sought to be planted
> in the press, I wouldn't be surprised if charges of
> academic dereliction of
> duty are somewhere on the anvil. This is an area
> that only ones students
> have authentic knowledge of, and we do not have any
> official system or
> record of student evaluation.
>
>
>
> I have unburdened myself to you as your teacher,
> friend and fellow
> Stephanian. Do consider these issues carefully, make

> your own enquiries
> (since I have never expected you to accept anything
> I say to you
> uncritically), and see if you would like to do
> something about the situation
> as alumni.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, I will continue to do my bit in the
> College. Last year, the
> harassment in the form of personal vilification had
> reached such an extreme
> that I went into clinical depression. It took the
> form of a nervous
> breakdown and I had to be hospitalised. When I
> regained consciousness in the
> hospital last year, I asked for the PIL papers
> prepared by Jayant Bhushan
> (on the Sexual Harassment Ordinance) so that I could

> sign the petition
> before anything happened to me. My father asked me
> why I wanted to take on
> all the stress of fighting a court case when it was
> telling on my health. I
> told him that for me, a moral death was worse than a

> physical one.
>
>
>
> I'm much better now but still on medication. My
> daughters Nida(17) and
> Nabila(6) are a delight. My husband, Rashid,
> 'Sensei' to many of you,
> explores new territory all the time. He now has his
> own theatre and music
> group, called 'The Mobius Strip" (guess why?) and
> 'Earth Rhythms'. We have
> four cats and two dogs and live in Mathur Saab's old

> house, A-7. Teaching is
> as exciting as ever, and is still the unfailing
> silver lining in College. At
> present, I teach Analysis (I never let go of it
> after Ann James berated me
> for changing to Algebra for a few years) to first
> year, Mechanics (!!) to
> second year and Boolean Algebra to third year.
>
>
>
> I would love to hear from any of you or, even
> better, to see you here. Take
> good care of yourselves.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> With all my love,
>
>
>
>
> 24th July,2006
> Nandita
> Narain