Opinion Protests against UGC equity guidelines invoke hypothetical situations, not lived realities of marginalised students
They are marked by virulent overreaction and aggressive posturing while framing Savarnas as under siege. And this finds a sympathetic audience among the older and institutionally placed Savarnas in media, society and even the judiciary
Savarna attitude is one of impatient paternalism against marginalised caste students. (File Photo, enhanced with AI) On January 29, the Supreme Court put a stay on the new UGC guidelines, which aimed to curb caste-based discrimination in institutions of higher learning. The bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that if they did not intervene, there would be “a dangerous impact” and it would “divide the society”. Their concern is perhaps a response to the vociferous online clamour and protest from the Savarna “general” caste groups, who felt the new guidelines left them vulnerable.
In and of itself, this is a strange anxiety that is rooted in what-if hypotheticals but not based on actual day-to-day sociological experience within Indian campuses. In fact, many SC, ST, and OBC groups felt the regulations were bare minimum and needed to be stronger to make a real change. That the SC, along with the mainstream media and civil society, immediately felt the urgency of this what-if anxiety, and not the decades of demonstrable pattern of caste-based discrimination on campuses mapped out in macabre detail of countless student suicides, depression and dropouts, tells everything one needs to know about the cultural calculus of a caste society.
Perhaps no other issue polarises caste discourse like reservations in admissions for higher-education learning. The bitterness of the Savarnas against the SC, ST, and later OBC quota is quite public and well-documented. So it should not be surprising when students from these communities enter the campus after availing such quotas, there would be lingering resentment from at least some quarters. This manifests in many forms, from angry rants to sarcastic jokes, from social media to physical and psychological intimidation and insult. In 2019, Dr Payal Tadvi, from a tribal Muslim community, died by suicide, allegedly due to consistent humiliation and psychological torture meted out, particularly by Savarna seniors. In 2016, Rohith Vemula died by suicide amidst sustained casteist discrimination.
The current petition was filed jointly by the mothers of Rohith and Payal, seeking stronger protection against caste-based discrimination on campus. The petition is not just about these two cases of bright talent lost due to caste harassment. There have been hundreds of campus suicides in the last decade, with no real data to even map the total number of dropouts and traumatised persons. To suggest that these are structural patterns playing out, in part because the administration is predominantly Savarna and foregrounding Savarna codes of academic labour and knowledge-production, is not an accusation. It is an inference.
The Savarna response to these discriminations is broadly dismissive, as either an exaggeration or worse, a proof of the inherent lack of merit of the students and their unsuitability for competitive higher education. This framing infantilises the struggle of students from historically marginalised communities with no tradition of formalised education, and positions them as constant whiners. Not as underdeveloped human resource capital whose capacity building is vital to national interest and growth.
As a result, the Savarna attitude is one of impatient paternalism against marginalised caste students. Irritation stems from the perception that these students, instead of being “thankful” and subservient, are asserting and questioning institutional norms. This betrays a core mindset that institutions belong to the Savarnas. That they have allowed the rest to participate, and hence they should not exceed themselves. Any attempt to bring equity and accountability to the subject of caste immediately feels excessive. The new UGC guidelines add OBC alongside SC and ST as communities that face caste discrimination. This leaves only “general” Savarna castes outside the ambit of caste discrimination. While sociologically sound, this nonetheless instils among the Savarnas a feeling of being sitting ducks who are vulnerable to misuse of the regulations.
The anatomy of Savarna protests is hence one of virulent overreaction and aggressive posturing while framing themselves as under siege. And this finds a sympathetic audience among the older and institutionally placed Savarnas in media, society and even the judiciary. These same persons understand the judicial principle behind skewing regulations towards the aggrieved in the issues concerning gender based discrimination or, for instance, exclusion of the differently abled. However, in matters of caste, this principle is not acceptable to them.
The intensity of the protests, the coming together of Savarna spokespersons across ideological lines, the sympathetic gaze of mainstream media and the reaction of the Court, all may suggest that taken together the Savarna anxiety centres itself in ways which belie constitutional morality and invert democratic ethos for othering even legitimate policy proposals. To build a just, inclusive and equitable society, this Savarna exceptionalism and its constant mollycoddling need to be reviewed.
The writer is professor of cultural studies and author of Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything
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