Uniformity Will Never Work In India

Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit was appointed as the first woman Vice Chancellor of one of the premier institutions of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru University on 7th February 2022. Beginning in 1988 as a lecturer at the Goa University, her teaching and research career has spanned more than 35 years. Prior to joining as the VC of JNU, she taught Political Science at Savitribai Phule Pune University. In an exclusive interview to BW Education, she shares her vision for JNU. Excerpts:

Tell us about your appointment as the first women VC of JNU. What was your vision for the university?

I was very happy because I didn't expect it as I have no political godfathers. I come from a very middle-class, normal family from South India. My father was in the Indian Information Service and then later worked as a journalist for the Hindu. I was also happy because this is the university where I started. This university made me what I am today. I think JNU is a wonderful institution. We combine excellence with equality, empathy with equity, and inclusion with integrity. I think no institution in India has this combination and my vision was to make JNU have the best infrastructure.

You obtained your MPhil and PhD from JNU. How has JNU changed for you between that time? And how it to be a VC after having spent time here as a student?

I still feel like I'm a student. I don't feel separate from either my faculty or my students. The difference is in numbers - when I was a student, we were just 3,000. Students did not have so many facilities. But I think the character of JNU is still there because there is something about this campus that makes you very sensitive. 

NEP 2020 is set to be fully implemented this year. What steps has JNU taken to be in line with this vision? What part of the NEP do you think will be most challenging to implement in JNU?

NEP 2020 is a framework. Even the government is very clear that you implement whatever is beneficial for the university. Many of the things suggested in the NEP 2020 were already implemented in JNU. For example, the credit system, flexibility, holistic nature has been there and only Indian knowledge systems is something that we have added. We have a very good school of Sanskrit and Indic studies, where we have a five-year integrated course in Ayurvedic Biology. 

This is the only course in India, where we combine Ayurveda with modern science and that is a very good and innovative course. We also have a certificate course in Pali, Natyashastra, Yoga and wellness and we have also introduced the Ayurvedic clinic in our health centre, where the Ayush ministry is providing free medicines to all students. 

It is wrong to say that JNU is not nationalistic. This is a myth because every military personnel who gets a BSc, MSc or doctorate is a JNU graduate. 

Regarding NEP 2020, JNU has taken what is good, since we are very decentralised. Each centre and school does it differently.  

We are also focussing on Indian languages. We have got corpus from state governments and the Tamil Nadu state government was the first to give us Rs 10 crore for a special centre for Tamil Studies. I thank the CM of Tamil Nadu MK Stalin.

In JNU we are doing it all democratically. My 'six Ds' are development, democracy, dissent, diversity, dialogue and difference.

We do not impose things and in JNU nothing works on imposition. And I am also against any type of uniformity. We as a civilisation believe in diversity. 

India continues to remain at the lower end of the Annual Global Gender Gap Index released by WEF. How can we bring recognition of women's true participation in the economy?

The major thing is patriarchy. I came as the first woman vice chancellor of a university that claims to be the most radical. Even in JNU, my staff address me as ‘Sir’ and I had to correct them. And even here we have cases of faculty misbehaving with girl students. If this is the case in JNU, it can be worse in other institutions because JNU is a space where we have 55 per cent girl students. The problem is society, misogyny and patriarchy. 

Also, we have a number of women at the lower levels who are good, but when it comes to associates and professors the number of women is much less. Women don't want to pursue career like men do as they have to look after kids and home. There is no woman director at an IIT. Delhi University, one of the oldest universities, is yet to have a woman Vice-Chancellor. 

In JNU we also have a lot of transgenders. And we are very empathetic to them. We have friends and colleagues who immediately realise something wrong and they are able to save them in time. And a much more empathetic student population.

What role do you see JNU playing in shaping the future of India and what steps are you taking to ensure that it remains a leading institution of higher education?

JNU is giving the best in terms of merit without discrimination. We are the only university that has students from all over the country. This is the only institution that follows the Prime Minister's dictum of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Prayas’. 

The fees is still very low. The IITs get people at a 9.5 level of intelligence and make them into 9.6. But we do get even 2-pointers and make them into 8 or 9 pointers. So, we are bringing in social and economic transformation. And other than the Presidency College -Madras, JNU is the only higher education institution to produce two Nobel Prize winners.

JNU has a strong ethos of giving its student a voice, but protests can easily get out of hand. How can we ensure the safety of students on campus while also allowing them the space to express their values?

Protest is not bad. But it should not become violent. And you know India or Indic civilisation has celebrated dissenters from Gautam Buddha to Baba Saheb Ambedkar. We are very comfortable with chaos. JNU has had protests because you have the best minds coming and when the best minds come, they are not going to listen to and they're argumentative. But I think we also are known for our tolerance. Youth is an age where we think we can change the world. As long as they don't trouble somebody else, I think everybody has a right to his or her opinion the Constitution has given.

So JNU celebrates that dissent and diversity and I think it is necessary in any higher education institution. And if today people are criticising that India is not a democracy, show them JNU. They will know how deep our democracy runs. Students must protest for the right things, but it should not be political. Let it be academic, research-oriented or value-based. India cannot work on uniformity. One language, one religion, one colour, one race doesn't work for us because we are not that and we believe in the beauty of the rainbow colours. I think JNU represents it. So protest is a part of students' education.