Dev 360 | Shun prejudice, racism, or India will pay heavy price | Patralekha Chatterjee

Talk about solidarity with the Global South is all very well, but unless India counters prejudice in its myriad forms, on the street and in university campuses aggressively, it risks more reputational damage. Anger rages on in Nepal, more than a week after a 20-year-old woman student from that country died by suicide inside her hostel room at Odisha’s Kalinga Institute of Information Technology (KIIT).

The death, front-page news both in India and Nepal, has sparked widespread protests. The young woman was allegedly subjected to intense harassment and blackmail by an Indian student at the university. Her death sparked protests by Nepali students. A flurry of media reports, both in India and Nepal, suggest mistreatment of Nepalese students at the institute. A video clip which has gone viral on social media captures the heated exchanges between students and KIIT staff members. In the clip, female staff members can be heard taunting Nepali students. One claim -- “the university provides free meals to 40,000 students, which is more than Nepal’s GDP”.

The institute, now in damage-control mode, is on the dock not only for crass, abusive behaviour but also coercing many of the Nepali students to leave the campus. There has been a rash of public apologies from the institute’s administration, stern words from the Odisha government which has ordered a probe to determine the circumstances that led to the 20-year-old woman’s death and what prompted the institute to issue suspension letters to students who were seeking justice. KIIT has dismissed two of its officers for making “extremely irresponsible” statements. At the time of writing, the police in Odisha has arrested nearly a dozen individuals, including an engineering student, booked for allegedly abetting the suicide. The matter reached the Odisha Assembly, with Biju Janata Dal chief whip Pratap Deb blaming the state’s BJP government for the deteriorating law and order.

Diplomats on both sides are now frenetically trying to douse the fire. But Nepal continues to seethe. Condolences and expressions of deep sorrow continue. The clamour for justice gets louder every day. The Nepal government has said it may stop issuing “no objection certificates” (NOC) to students who wish to study in institutes in Odisha if the situation stemming from the death of the student at the Bhubaneswar-based university is not resolved in a “justifiable and legal way”. On February 23, the Kathmandu Post, a leading English-language daily from Nepal, carried a report flagging serious accusations from the family of the deceased. The family accuses the university “of hiding crucial details about the incident”. Concerns about the safety of Nepali students in India remain. “Students who returned home in distress are now hesitant to resume their studies. It is vital for the Nepal government and relevant stakeholders to take immediate action to ensure their safety,” the deceased’s maternal uncle told the Kathmandu Post.

According to the most recent All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE, 2021-22) report, a total of 46,878 foreign nationals/students from 170 nations were enrolled in various courses in India. Out of this, 25,000 are from Africa. There are around 1,000 Nepali students studying in KIIT, Odisha. The survey conducted by the Union education ministry covered 1,162 universities, 42,825 colleges and 10,576 stand-alone institutions.

The death of the B. Tech. student who had hoped that her education in India would be a passport to upward mobility and enable her to buy her father a car -- a surprise gift -- is heartbreaking, but not an isolated instance of vicious harassment. It is part of the bigger picture of intimidation, bullying, harassment, and “othering” of young students who are visibly and culturally different from the dominant community.

How did we get here?

The short answer lies in looking at what some Indians do to other Indians whom they perceive as too different, and to many foreigners, especially those without rich world passports. Universities are meant to be safe spaces which promote exchange of diverse ideas and nurture the mind and soul. That is the hope that lies in the heart of students who travel long distances, sometimes cross international borders. But for many young women and men these turn into hostile terrain.

What happened to the Nepali student is part of the mindless arrogance and toxic prejudice which leads to the targeting of so many students from India’s Northeast when they move to the country’s megacities for higher studies. A similar mindset is behind the targeting of African students. Consider some well-known incidents. In January 2014, shopkeepers in a South Delhi market taunted Nido Tania, a 19-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh, for his blond, streaked hair when he asked them for directions to a particular place. Unable to bear the stream of humiliating words coming his way, Tania reacted. He broke the glass pane of one of the shops. The shopkeepers responded by beating him so brutally that he died the next day. Bystanders watched a young boy being bludgeoned, In November 2015, this column flagged the persistent racism towards African students in India. “Racism is legally unacceptable, morally reprehensible, and socially regressive. Unless there is zero tolerance wherever or whenever it pops up, we risk denting the very image of India that can work to the country’s advantage. There have been far too many instances of African students being at the receiving end of racist barbs and even assaults. This is not new. It existed when I was a student way back in the 1980s. African students in my journalism class in New Delhi often complained of discrimination and racist slurs on the street. Sadly, the problem persists,” I wrote.

The common thread running through these incidents is the inability of many Indians to accept that it takes all types and shades and looks to make this world and no one is better or worse as an individual because of the colour of their skin, the shape of their eyes, their faith, their cultural norms, or their country’s gross domestic product. This is not only about India’s image. It is equally about the kind of India we want to live in. Despite all the “unity in diversity” talk, many Indians still do not accept or celebrate diversity. The insults tossed towards anyone who is visibly or culturally different are markers of this intense prejudice. The loser is India. If we do not course-correct, this ingrained prejudice, and false sense of superiority stemming from ignorance and arrogance can and will blow up into a political and diplomatic kerfuffle from time to time, as the death of the young Nepali student shows.