Abstract
N. Sukumar. Caste Discrimination and Exclusion in Indian Universities: A Critical Reflection. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2022, 185 pp., ₹13,569. ISBN: 978-1-003-09529-3 (Hardcover).
Education has a critical role in achieving egalitarian principles, justice, equality, and liberty, and in the overall development of individuals and marginal groups. It is crucial to acknowledge that higher education is also essential for the advancement of society. But in the Indian context, higher education institutes have been seen as eliminator institutes for the disadvantage section. In this book, the author exposes the eliminatory behaviour of Indian higher educational institutions in different phases of academia, such as using ‘Not Suitable’ during interviews, admissions, and classroom behaviour, and cutting marks in higher education institutions of marginalized students.
This book is a critical analysis of caste-based discrimination’s consequences and its implication in the Indian university sphere. Professor N. Sukumar provides an insightful examination of Indian academia that is hidden under the banner of Indian higher education institutions. He addressed the question of access to education for Dalits in NEP 2020. This book has six chapters, which are based on true incidents and experiences of caste humiliation in the Indian higher education system. Each chapter covers significant issues, including the suicide rates of Dalit students, the decline of Dalit students, the meritocracy and the social and academic behaviour of universities. These chapters also address the reality of the education system, policy and how NEP 2020 excludes Dalits students.
Chapter 1
In this chapter, the author provides a clear understanding of education as the process of imparting knowledge to enhance the substantial growth of society. In the last few decades, knowledge production and dissemination were exclusive to some privileged groups. Still, now the lower castes and women are challenged by the dominant paradigms of knowledge production. In this chapter, he focused on the role of the academic environment of higher educational institutions in India. Notwithstanding affirmative action regulations, the lack of teacher diversity places Dalit students at a disadvantage to academics from higher castes. This has led to social conflicts between identity-based student groups on campuses everywhere. The campus environment plays a crucial role in fostering diversity among students and has the ability to foster a pleasant atmosphere.
Chapter 2
In this chapter, the author exposes the continued presence of caste hierarchies in institutions. Along with this, he highlights the social space of the university by dismantling the concept of the ‘university’ as a system of open enrolment for the general public. In this section, he points out the declining ratio of marginalized students in higher education. Further, he emphasized that the essential change that has to be made to education is to make it relevant to people’s lives, needs, and ambitions while also transforming it into a potent tool for social, economic and cultural change.
Chapter 3
This chapter explores unequal behaviour in different phases on university campuses with underprivileged students. A university is a symbol of humanism and equality and the place for the exploration of new ideas with the pursuit of the truth. On the other hand, the research finds the stories mentioned above and reveals how Dalit students face more challenges to pursue education, along with several sociocultural obstacles. They experience a variety of types of prejudice, including verbal, emotional, cultural, and physical discrimination, which violates both their individual and collective rights to dignity. When it comes to the subject of ‘merit’, quota children, discipline, gastronomic customs and lifestyles, the Dalit students directly insult and identify collectively with the pronoun ‘you people’. This is a representation of symbolic group humiliation, which has an impact on the entire community and their collective consciousness, diminishing their humanity and further defiling their existence. The Indian Constitution provides equal rights and safeguards for marginalized communities. And this section provides the framework for the contemporary and coming generations of the marginalized sections to demand academic and social equality in higher educational institutions.
Chapter 4
This chapter illustrates the sufferings of students and investigators. Prof. Sukumar detailed how the caste system seized and trapped Indian educational institutions. And further, he emphasized that the Dalit struggle is a continuous effort to hold the wider community answerable for the disapproval of justice for the Dalits. There is a need to address the beast of the caste system because it supports oppression. In this chapter, the author explains field observation with some case studies. For some, this was their first chance to demonstrate a sense of belonging to the study and to voice their sentiments about social segregation. These cases are based on the student’s college life and personal life humiliation.
Chapter 5
This chapter discusses the reasons for suicide by marginalized students, such as academic stigmatization and rejection. It is often assumed that educational institutions are caste-neutral, but casteism is often seen as the social behaviour of institutions. The determinants of caste, religion or region are often read through language, lack of command over English, submissiveness, articulation, regional or urban nature, mode of dress, complexion and many other things. While most students overlook the provincialism of individuals, others suffer from systemic travesty. After analyzing these issues and challenges, it can be argued that there is a lack of institutional socialism.
Chapter 6
In this chapter, author builds a scathing critique of what he calls the social cosmology of ‘merit’ and the pervasiveness of structural inequalities by drawing on empirical data regarding the enrolment and employment of Dalit students and teachers in universities, as well as personal narratives of ‘betrayal’ and incremental ‘exclusions’ in educational institutions. While the merit discourse has taken on many different guises, the epidemic has widened the gaps where caste, class and gender have shaped Dalit lives. In fact, structural disparities are now visible in everyday humiliation and even in spectacles of social and material ‘death’. Affirmative action policies, grievance procedures and participation channels in universities, such as those used in the hiring process, all become symbolic rather than emphatic. The author is not only questioning access to education, but he is also highlighting the question of the survival of marginal students in higher education. This work is relevant because it exposes the unfairness in the sociocultural behaviour of Indian academia.
In this inspiring and challenging, book the following questions are explored: Does Dalits lives matter in higher Institutions? Can Dalits achieve higher education? Does Indian higher educational Institutes have a taste of caste?