Dialling Ambedkar at IIT Delhi

Why coming out as a SC/ST matters 'more' at IITs

Before being a research scholar at IIT Delhi, I was a master's student in sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, where the robust voice of anti-caste student collectives such as BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association) surrounded the university's walls. I never joined BAPSA despite understanding what the collective symbolized. In hindsight, I felt safe at JNU, knowing that other spaces with Dalit Adivasi expressions existed on campus.

Coming out as a Dalit in any institutional space invites spectatorship of a peculiar kind, where you're always seen as an 'outsider' or a 'rebel' of the system, especially in a university space, where your bargaining power remains limited. Interestingly, I chose to reveal my Dalit identity at IIT Delhi despite the stigma it invites and carries on my "meritorious self" (who scored 75% during my masters). What compelled me to take the "intentional" steps of being a visibly loud Scheduled Caste woman at the IIT Delhi campus? Why did I place my Scheduled Caste identity before every conversation, every achievement, every complaint, or experience? Was this essentializing myself or my 'image'? Perhaps one has to read the entire article to understand the extent of erasure of socially marginalised caste groups that exist in university spaces in India.

The university resumed normal functioning in 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 202o. When I physically entered the campus for an entire year from 2021-22, I searched for connections and friends who understood my language of articulation and assertion at the campus but did not know how to find them. One must pause and ask, What channels do SC/ST students find to connect on-campus spaces in India? Why must they connect with each other in the first place, especially when the annihilation of caste means contesting caste-based coalitions and groups? An essential difference between caste coalitions and marginalised students is the purpose. While for the former, the purpose is connecting to maintain the hold of caste, students from caste-oppressed backgrounds gather and connect to challenge and annihilate caste as it works to disempower them. Unfortunately, SC/ST students find no channels on-campus spaces, so it is all the more critical for us to take Ambedkar's name against the backdrop of systemic discrimination and routine institutional murders of DBA (Dalit Bahujan Adivasi) students, especially at the IITs, which have statistically proven to be spaces with Brahmin-Baniya hegemony. An RTI filed by APPSC Bombay revealed that in IIT Delhi, six departments have no SC, ST or OBC faculty members. 22 departments have no ST faculty, 14 without SC faculty, and 9 without OBC representation. The current faculty composition reveals that out of 564 general caste faculties, only 69 SC/ST/OBC faculties exist.

Therefore, this article is significant for two reasons. First, it is written to recover a historical event that may be lost if not recorded. Anne Frank's diaries are a testament to Nazism and the horrors of the concentration camp. It has also been an inspiration to preserve the journey of articulating one's life struggle amidst social persecution and outcasting due to belonging to a social identity. I have written this article to share my story about the SC/ST cell formulation at IIT-Delhi, which started with my anti-caste assertion and held the administration accountable due to the absence of a functional SC/ST cell (mandated by the constitution). Second, it shall guide the generations of SC/ST students to take the legacy of Ambedkarite principles of equality, justice and fraternity forward.

Dr. Ambedkar believed, "Unlike a drop of water, which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society where he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of society alone but for the development of himself too" (Ambedkar, B.R. Writings and Speeches, Volume 17, p. 325.) At the centre of Ambedkar's writings and speeches, individuality and society are examined in depth. Keeping this at the backdrop of this article, I analyse through Ambedkar's lens how SC/ST students' identity and development are not subsumed in institutional spaces despite their contributions. Casteist use of language and suspicious gazes is what one finds as they reveal their social identity. When I could no longer be complicit in being a 'consumer' of the mainstream culture riddled with brahminical aesthetics reflected at the campus, I requested the institute to screen the movie Fandry. One hundred students attended this event, and surprisingly, many connected. This was to introduce conversations regarding annihilating caste on campus.

After the screening, we called for an open discussion. One of the students stood up and said, "Yeh discrimination itna hai ki mein padhai nahi kar paata hoon dhang se" (caste discrimination is so rampant that I am unable to study). The attending students shared their experiences, and although the incidents varied, they had the same bottom problem: feeling like the campus belonged only to the Savarna students. The existence of such harsh realities dictated by caste, class, and religion on educational campuses is not shocking. What remains strikingly important here are stories of how, despite being made to feel 'different', a tiny glimmer of community support and organization at IIT-Delhi opened up the path towards the formation of not only the SC/ST cell but also of friendships and more spaces of belongingness and joy for everyone, not just the students belonging to oppressor caste backgrounds.

The first display of the informal SC/ST student body presence on campus-Ambedkar's photo's transformative effect

In educational spaces, caste visibly disempowers those who oppose mainstream ideology and culture. This was visible when we publicly displayed Babasaheb's photo and a Jai bhim flag beside the LGBTQ+ collective, Indradhanu's stall, displaying the rainbow flag during the campus's Office of Diversity and Inclusion inauguration. Still, it was the display of our flag that invited the sheer casteist gaze of students (Not undermining the struggle of the LGBTQ+ students on the campus). The day was marked as Diversity and Inclusion Day, and all the verticals under the Diversity and Inclusion office set up their stall. and it was our vertical that joined the office at the end. When ours was a flag that conveyed our principled support of the values of liberty, justice and fraternity and was not a deification of a figure, then why did it invite hate?

When we set up our stall, a security guard arrived to check, followed by one who interrogated, "Why have you put Ambedkar's photo?". Some of our professors gathered to protect us; they told us they would handle this. One professor said, "How is displaying Babasaheb—the constitution maker's photo—doing politics?" We felt shocked that a visual of Dr. Ambedkar invited this interrogation; other verticals and their symbolism were welcomed within the university space. We put on some anti-caste music by Ginni Mahi, and the stall invited students interested in learning about caste discrimination and history. Still, on the flip side, it revealed the dark side of centring caste on campus.

During the busiest time of the stall, many SC/ST and non-SC/ST students began to visit and connect with each other. They started conversing, and light-hearted joy entered the collective student atmosphere. A disruption occurred when a male student started shouting while looking at our stall. This student believed we were doing "politics" on campus. He got so aggressive on seeing Dr. Ambedkar's visual that our team had to gather and safeguard each other to ignore his remarks and comments. The second time, after we ignored the first male student, another male student asked us, "What is the need to do what you are doing?" When we started educating the students about anti-caste politics and intellectual tradition by sharing relevant coursework and pamphlets detailing historical struggles, he said, "I know everything, and I support the caste system; it also has a logic to it as a division of labour is so well-defined." This threw all of us present at the stall in a fight or flight response mode, and some of us began the performative labour of explaining the crippling effects of the caste system to him—and how it must be annihilated. After 20 minutes of heated arguments, I realized this student was present to gaslight and was not interested in a conversation. A conversation demands the other to listen. Learning and unlearning go parallel in a conversation. This is a common experience in the life of most SC/ST students at university campuses. A massive chunk of their time goes into explaining to students who come from oppressor caste backgrounds, the 'need for reservations and for holding space for marginalized identities' until the students realise the astute endurability this performative labour requires and how it then impedes into one's existence and begins to make one perpetually mentally and physically exhausted.

Display of the designed pamphlets at Diversity and Inclusion Day

The SC/ST students were only creating a safe space on campus, yet certain elements hated the mere assertion of anti-caste belongingness. Ensuring caste recognition on the IIT-Delhi campus was done by drafting an informal demand charter borrowing from The Thorat's Committee recommendations for fair implementation of reservation policies and forming support mechanisms for marginalized SC/ST students and IIT-Bombay's anti-discrimination policy guidelines. This former report was instrumental in highlighting the systemic caste discrimination SC/ST students face within medical colleges in India after Payal Tadvi's death at AIIMS. However, what this report testified to is not limited to medical colleges in India.

A renowned academic who studies caste discrimination on educational campuses, Professor N.Sukumar, who teaches Political Science at Delhi University, raises an important question in his book, Caste Discrimination and Exclusion in Indian Universities (2022), "Why does it take the death or suicide of a student to force the bureaucracy and institutes to act?". His research is significant in understanding the structural and systemic exclusion and discrimination faced by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students on campuses. Kumar uses the word "gate-crashing" in academia for SC/ST students. One can comprehend his language only when one remains open to observing the routine alienation SC/ST students face as they enter institutes. They feel they have 'gate-crashed' as their belongingness is found to be in question. Much research has focused on reservations as a form of caste but not on the social exclusion SC/ST students continue to face in institutes or even the agency and resistance that manifest through the symbolism of Ambedkar or his principles. Ambedkar is dialled to—by invoking his principles and constitutional morality that focus on reviving social harmony.

Ambedkar's name advocates for Equality

From a body that existed before I entered IIT-Delhi and runs across IITs in India voicing the concerns of SC/ST students—Ambedkar Periyar Phule Students Collective—to the formation of the SC/ST cell, and finally, the formalization of the Initiative of Caste Equity—one thing didn't change: Ambedkar's name couldn't be used for a formalized student body despite the continuous struggle to claim that as a formalized name by the APPSC student body. It showcased how Ambedkar continues to challenge caste hegemony everywhere, and taking his name invites a struggle of its own in the university space. An important point made by students from APPSC was that "We advocate for caste equality, not merely equity." I argue that Dalit students advocating for equality on campus enables the creation of support groups and networks essential for their survival and the upcoming generations of students arriving at these campuses. Ajanta Subramium's work, Caste of Merit (2019), establishes how caste functions by asking one's JEE rank or through caste markers that remain visible to the naked eye on IIT campuses. When research and a thick body of lived experiences and unfortunate deaths have already proved how caste dictates students' experiences on campus, let me now come to the moments where connections formed and explain the trajectory of the development of the anti-caste voice at the campus.

Monumental moments whereby SC/ST students connected on campus

Darshan Solanki's death as the connecting force on 18th February 2023

The first time SC/ST student mobilization was witnessed in IIT Delhi was after the news of Darshan Solanki's institutional murder came to the APPSC IIT-Delhi. More than 150 students gathered at the central point of the campus and waited for the director to invite us for a conversation to acknowledge the presence of caste on campus and listen to students' experiences.

Narratives of caste-based discrimination post-revelation of Dalit students' caste location are many. One student impacted by caste trauma shared with the APPSC IIT-Delhi the sharp contrast between how his professor treated him before he knew his identity and after. This professor told the student to "apna use kiya bartan dhokhe jayega jaate waqt" (clean the utensils as you exit the room). The same student keeps asking, "Kab tak sahengey hum yeh anyaye, hum insaan nahi hai kya?" (Till when will we tolerate this injustice? Aren't we humans?"

Unfortunately, this article will not end if I begin to write or share stories of caste discrimination rampant on the campus. I do not wish to perform my Dalitness here. Instead, I wish to convey how student-led community organization is central to survival for students from SC/ST backgrounds on IIT campuses. After implementing measures, some tough questions were asked from the administration; for example, in 2021, I emailed a professor asking, "May I please know where the SC/ST cell is at this campus and who heads it?" The reply was not shocking: "There is no such functional cell at the moment," conveyed the email.

At that moment, I decided I would not let any institute treat my existence as if it didn't exist. I come from a Scheduled Caste Community, and I am incredibly proud of the historical and present resistance of the community in battling casteism and contributing to building an equal space. Suppression of my Scheduled Caste identity meant the suppression of the collective marginalized student identities on the campus. While a Savarna student easily chants hegemonic religious slogans and participates in religious congregations and rallies at the campus, why are marginalized students not welcome to celebrate their icons? Or even take their name? Why was no one there to listen to the pleas of these students or see how they required extra care within institutes? Such questions disturbed my sleep for days, but I kept dialling Ambedkar's number at every instance of indifference and erasure of the single and collective Dalit self at the campus. He would often pick up my call of assertion and dial back in distinct forms, sometimes in direct messages I received on Instagram from SC/ST students at the campus or instances where I would bump into someone. They would convey their struggle to exist as an SC/ST on campus, and if not, we would at least know each other. This connection only unfolded because of the coming out.

The SC/ST cell constituted on 16th March 2023

Like most other institutes in India, IIT-Delhi did not have a functional SC/ST cell when I walked into the institute. I'm thinking about where I started from—a slight move of screening Fandry at IIT-Delhi—to how that became a starting point for interacting and collectivising on caste sensibilities and awareness within the campus. I started negotiating with the administration in 2022, and due to the consistency of my demand for creating a SC/ST cell, I got elected as a student representative in 2023. Over the next two years, by 2024, an informal Ambedkar Students' Collective turned into a formal student vertical, The Initiative for Caste Equity, that grants the Position of Responsibility (this is a recognition acknowledgement given to students who work under the vertical for a minimum period of a year). The SC/ST cell found its physical space in an office in 2024.

After we were overjoyed to witness the office space one afternoon, two staff members passed casteist remarks as they walked outside the office, saying, Look, they even came here. What the two staff members muttered sounded like compliments; they proved why the space was all the more important to construct. To know SC/ST students have a room they can come in anytime. They share their concerns, talk, network, find joy, and never feel alone, especially during a grievance. This took additional time and labour during my doctoral journey, but I have only learnt that theory makes no sense if it is not accompanied by social change. I'm genuinely overwhelmed because this made me believe that social change begins with minor changes, not big ones.

This is the power of a single student's efforts, which transform into the community's efforts in only a few days. I only lit the candle; the flame kept burning with the sustained efforts of professors and students who worked together to ensure we reached this position. Mohit, Yatendra, Harshit, Shubham, Sridhar, Ananthu, Ankana, Soma, Rohan, Tikendra, Rishika, Rushabh, Vihang and Nove are instrumental scholars who have shown their dedication in ensuring the campus is an equal space, as they have worked without expecting any returns before and after the establishment of the cell and vertical.

I often run into people who recognise me for my effort in advocating for a policy change on the campus. I wondered if my efforts had been 'instrumental' during my time on the IIT Delhi campus. I might never get an award from IIT for doing this labour for years or appreciation from a cohort of scholars or professors who cannot fathom how this invisibility impacts selfhood. I don't believe Dalit women contribute their labour to receive awards. We do this so that another marginalised student never feels alone in the room. My efforts have never been mine alone. This is the anti-caste tradition of sustaining what has always been there; it is a part of the more considerable resistance voicing against caste stigma, discrimination, and segregation.

Some days, this visibility haunts my existence as I feel unsafe on campus, especially if I am alone in spaces. Still, on most days, I find the love and care double itself, to the extent that some wonderful friendships form for marking one's presence. These friendships provide the laughter and senselessness one requires to make the day brighter. Sharing a cute tradition our study body has formed, where we gift a flower to a graduating friend. The entire group gathers and bids them a sweet goodbye. Even if the arrival isn't that sweet at a space, the least we can do in our abilities is to ensure the farewell is beautiful and memorable.

My story of assertion as an SC female student or documenting the long struggle of creating the SC/ST cell body at the campus is highly significant, for it reveals the power of a single marginalized student. It is to send a message to students not to back down in the face of the loss of humanity. Nobody can make us feel complete or accepted in this world unless we accept and negotiate with ourselves. We are responsible for taking the cycles of resistance forward and creating more spaces of belongingness for each other because no one is coming to save us or understand how caste impacts our existence mentally and physically. We must give a loud call to humanity from where we stand if we see inequality, bias, or violence surrounding us.

Jai Bhim isn't just a slogan; it is an emotion, and when this emotion is invoked in a space, transformative constitutional changes take place. This is an attempt to claim my story and effort, albeit a niche story for a niche audience. The memory of Darshan, Ayush, and Anil shall forever remind the world that it isn't identity politics that we do; it is survival politics. It is our arrival to formulate survival strategies in the everyday registers of life. When no one saved me, I dialled Ambedkar's number, and he came to rescue me. He always does. You must also dial him in theory and praxis at your educational institute if you are impacted by caste inequalities.