On 26th February, Yashada Sawant, a second-year student of M.A. Sociology and Mess Secretary at South Asian University, was physically assaulted and thrashed by a group of men for ‘serving’ fish in the college mess during Mahashivratri. Almost a month later, on April 1st, she received a show-cause notice from the college administration for “forcefully handling” and “verbally abusing students who were observing fast during Mahashivratri” along with “intentionally spilling” non-vegetarian food on the students observing the fast.”
In the video that surfaced of the altercation, Yashada was seen getting slapped by Ratan Singh, a PhD student of the university, while she was screaming for help. However, in the show-cause notice, she has been accused of “scratching Ratan Singh’s fingers” along with “shouting and insulting the fasting devotees.”
A request to provide satvik food for the people observing the fast was made two days before Mahashivratri and it was accepted by the Mess Committee.
“This food was kept in a separate counter in Mess Two, far away from the fish. The majority of the students observing fast had already finished their lunch and left the mess. That is when they came in,” Yashada said.
“They slowly started encircling me. Ratan Singh was trying to throw away the fish curry that was kept and I held it back. Then, he pushed me on my chest. As I resisted, Ratan Singh started hitting me while I was being held by Sagar Pradhan.”
Following the violence, Yashada dialed the Police Control Room and a team from Maidan Garhi Police Station reached the campus. After giving her statement, Yashada was taken to AIIMS to get her Medico-Legal Certificate (MLC) done.
By this time, the assaulters had called multiple news channels to the campus and accused Yashada of throwing non-vegetarian food on the fasting students, a claim repeated by the University in the show-cause notice.
While her statement was recorded, Yashada alleges that the police were reluctant to file an FIR.
“The investigating officer told me they cannot do anything since SAU is an international university. When I met the Station House Officer, he asked me to approach the Proctor and said he could only file a case after that,” said Yashada.
The next day, on 27th February, she emailed her complaint to the Proctor and the University Complaints Committee (UCC).
She was asked to appear before the UCC on 4th March. “I have put my case before the UCC. I even sent another detailed complaint on 7th March. There had been no communication and now I receive the show-cause notice,” Yashada said.
Administrative compliance in Hindu right-wing authoritarianism
“The event on Mahashivratri is a result of frustration building up for a long time,” Yashada said, adding that she was bullied and personally attacked during the campaign for the position of Mess Secretary last year in September. Ratan Singh was her opposition candidate. However, he lost as Yashada won with a margin of 126 votes.
“During the election campaign, the right-wing students added members of ABVP to the college WhatsApp group. They were also part of the election campaigning,” Yashada told Maktoob.
Since there is no party-based student politics in SAU, elections happen independently.
“However, there is a demarcation. Since I stand for progressive politics, I am a visible target of the right-wing.” She also alleged that there is a targeted attack against all student representatives by the right-wing students, with the support of the administration.
“Ratan Singh is a favourite of the administration.” Another former student, Apoorva Yarabahally, alleged that Ratan Singh has close ties with the current Proctor K.K. Aggarwal and Dean of Student Affairs, Navneet Jha.
Source – Apoorva Yarabahally
Complete ban on student freedom
The violation of students’ rights and the administration’s brutal attack on them did not start with the assault on Yashada Sawant. SAU has seen continuous violations of student rights and targeted attacks for some time, especially since 2022.
The campus witnessed student protests in October 2022 when the stipend for Master’s students was reduced from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 4000. As the protests flared up, three students were suspended and two were expelled on November 3rd, 2022. This led to a hunger strike from these affected students, which resulted in the subsequent revoking of the suspension orders in the same month.
“SAU has a violent culture against student protests,” says Yashada, adding that since 2023, they are made to sign an undertaking form promising not to be part of any protests against the university. In this declaration form, made to sign before admission, the students are prohibited from participating “in any agitation/strike for the purpose of forcing the authorities of the University to resolve any problem” along with barring them from “any activity which has a tendency to disturb the peace and tranquility of the academic environment of the SAU campus and/or its Hostel premises.”
“This declaration was the administration’s response to the protests in 2022. Since then, there haven’t been any sustained protests or agitations due to administrative repression,” says Snigdha, a former law student of the University.
Apoorva Yarabahally, a former student of the University, added that the University has an “unofficial ban on student/professor-led debates, lectures and discussions.” Apoorva was among the students suspended in February 2023 for demanding medical assistance to Ammar Ahmad, who was one of the suspended students in November 2022, and who is alleged to have attempted suicide from the mental pressure of the suspension. He is currently paralysed.
“In the same declaration form, the University has mandated students to declare that they are not suffering from any kind of psychological diseases. This was in response to Ammar’s incident,” Snigdha added.
Clause nine of the declaration form asks the students to declare that they “are not suffering from any serious/contagious ailment and/or psychiatric/psychological disorder.”
This attack is not limited to students. In response to the student protests in 2022, thirteen faculty members had written to the University, saying such actions have affected the academic space. In retaliation, four faculty members – Irfanullah Farooqi, Ravi Kumar, Srinivas Burra and Snehashish Bhattacharya – were suspended in June 2023, accused of “inciting” a student protest against the administration.
“The professors were neither protesting nor standing in solidarity; they were asking the University to initiate a dialogue,” said one of the students who was suspended in November 2022, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Another professor, Sasanka Perera, a Sri Lankan cultural anthropologist and one of the founders of the Department of Sociology, was forced to take voluntary retirement when one PhD student under his guidance quoted a statement by Noam Chomsky (from a private interview between the student and Chomsky) against Narendra Modi in a research proposal. The student eventually left the University as well.
Administratively supported hooliganism
Along with the curbing of student rights, right-wing hooliganism is also on the rise on campus. A candle-light vigil organised by a student from Afghanistan against the genocide of the Palestinian people on 7th November 2023 was also disrupted by the same group.
“Almost fifty of us had gathered for the event. After this, they came in and burnt the posters,” Yashada said. She also received a written warning from the administration following her participation.
The screening of When Pomegranate Turns Grey, produced by Maktoob, which was to take place under the Film and Photography Club, also had to be cancelled due to opposition from this specific group.
“This right-wing group has their way of getting things done on campus,” said Yashada. “They wanted cameras to be installed in the campus—now there is no place that is not under surveillance,” she added.
One of the accused, Ram Sharma, had even announced in the WhatsApp group that they would not let anybody have non-vegetarian food on 26th February.
Hierarchisation and the deafening silence
Even though the University is jointly owned by all the SAARC countries, there is an attempt to Indianise it—majorly through administrative and academic appointments.
In an article, Prof. Perera wrote after his forced retirement, he says: “In its cultural and social outlook, the university has become blatantly North Indian, to the extent that it is making students from other regions in India feel extremely unsafe.”
In an interview with Colombo Telegraph, Prof. Perera points out the hegemony of Indians in the bureaucratic positions of SAU – “SAU’s President is Indian. Its Vice President is Indian. Its Registrar is Indian. Its Director and Deputy Director (Finance) are Indian. Most of its bureaucrats are Indian. The Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies is also Indian. SAU’s rules specifically prohibit this kind of appointment, especially at the top level,” questioning what is South Asian or international about this place?
This hierarchisation is present among students too.
“There is serious discrimination among different student groups. This has adversely affected student unity, providing easy access to the administration to curb dissent,” Yashada added.
Prof. Perera also talked about the silence of his colleagues, which was echoed by Yashada. “The irony of all this is that we currently have a course on food politics. We are discussing the caste and other social constructs of food. The professors are all teaching this but are completely silent when an issue happened. That’s disheartening,” Yashada said.
“No attention has been drawn to this issue. It is just me and one more person fighting this.” Yashada took to social media to draw attention to the mass scale of violations happening in the University. “I wanted the students coming in the following years to know what is really happening.” Since her social media posts garnered support and solidarity from various groups, she has been blocked by the University from most social media sites.
