“Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy “has become THE universal woke symbol of modernity and liberation. The former CEO of X (then Twitter) Jack Dorsey, while on a tour of Bharat in 2019, proudly posed with a group of journalists, activists, and writers, holding a placard that read “Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy”.
From universities to workspaces to civic and cultural spaces of Bharat, this woke slogan has gotten so popular that it’s hard to escape it. Yet, it stands for everything that’s terribly dangerous about the no-holds-barred import of wokeism into Bharat and its vile targeting of Hindu Dharma.
The toxic components of patriarchy certainly need to be dismantled but a phrase like “Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy” suggests that patriarchy is exclusive to “Brahmanism” or Hindu Dharma. That is where the problem lies. Patriarchy exists all over the world. Western countries are not immune to patriarchy, nor are other religions immune to it. But the far left coined this toxic phrase “Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy “to deviously target Hindu Dharma and demonize Hindus. It sends out a dangerous message to the whole world that patriarchy is synonymous with “Brahmanical privilege”, never mind the fact that most 21st-century Brahmins are some of the most progressive and non-patriarchal people you would ever meet. But then, logic was never the forte of the woke lobby.
No wonder then that Bharatiya universities have become an exhibitionary space for all sorts of subversive activities targeting Hindu Dharma and culture in the name of academic freedom. The latest to jump onto the bandwagon is the Azim Premji University in Karnataka. Visuals featuring the poster of an event held recently at the university have gone viral on social media. In the visuals, a student speaker can be seen standing beside a podium (the podium featuring the logo and name of Azim Premji University). In the background, there is a poster featuring Dr BR Ambedkar with a copy of Manusmriti in his hands that seems to be in flames. The poster features a slogan that reads “Annihilate Hinduism”.
The exact date of the event is not known but the poster has been shared widely on social media, and The Jaipur Dialogues has also done a story on this issue on their web portal. That a Bharatiya university can so casually host an event that calls for the annihilation of a religion followed by the majority of Bharatiyas should ideally come as shocking. But it doesn’t come across as a shock anymore; such events calling for the annihilation of Hindu Dharma, genocide of Brahmins, etc. seem to have become a woke fashion statement in Bharatiya universities.
The social sciences, humanities, and liberal arts departments of many Bharatiya universities are full of faculty members having affiliations with radical political groups of the far left. Biased, opinionated, and dangerously political, these faculty members start indoctrinating students in the tradition of far-left ideology, and that’s how the nexus gets widened, and students start getting brainwashed. Since social sciences and humanities are largely subjective, these become convenient battlegrounds for the propagation of dangerous and subversive ideologies. Anti-Bharat and Hinduphobic events have become a routine occurrence in the new woke bastions of Bharat like the Ashoka University, OP Jindal Global University, etc. Even IITs haven’t been left untouched by this menace. In November 2023, a group of students from IIT Bombay filed a police complaint against an online talk delivered by radical leftist Sudhanva Deshpande that glorified Palestinian terrorists.
The event was organized by a Professor from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay, who invited the radical leftist Sudhanva Deshpande to deliver an online lecture in the guise of screening a documentary. In his talk, Deshpande reportedly glorified Palestinian militants Zakaria Zubeidi and Ghassan Kanafani.
The campus of Ashoka University recently witnessed anti-Hindu hate speech as students demanding a caste census and reservation on campus raised slogans of “Brahmin – Baniyawaad Murdabad “. Apart from abusing Brahmins and Baniyas, the students also reportedly raised slogans like “Jai Bheem- Jai Meem” and “Jai Savitri – Jai Fatima”.
This is not the first such incident at Ashoka University. It’s the new JNU when it comes to Hinduphobia. Ashoka University has an impressive track record of anti-Hindu hate speech and Hinduphobic events, with its faculty members found to be insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses, Not just Hinduphobic, Ashoka University is also the bastion of motivated anti-Bharat research. In 2023, the university reportedly faced criticism over a research paper that made dubious claims about election manipulation. The research paper submitted by Economic Professor Sabyasachi Das claimed that the BJP had won elections by voter manipulation.
OP Jindal Global University is another center of Hinduphobia that routinely gives space to anti-Hindu talks in the name of academic freedom. In February 2024, an event titled “Ram Mandir: A Farcical Project of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism” was organized on the campus of OP Jindal University. The event was organized by a group called the Revolutionary Students League which claimed that the Pran Prathishtha Ceremony at the Ayodhya Ram Temple on January 22nd, 2024, exposed ‘the inherent violence and anti-people nature of the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist state”.
OP Jindal Global University was in the midst of another controversy when Sameena Dalwai, a Hinduphobic Professor teaching at OP Jindal, dissected a female student’s dating account in the classroom, raising concerns of harassment and violation of privacy. Professor Sameena Dalwai (daughter of Congress leader Hameed Dalwai ) reportedly has a track record of harassing students whom she calls “right-wing” and opposing Jai Shri Ram slogans on campus.
These are just a few examples. Hinduphobic talks and events have become such a routine occurrence in Bharatiya universities that these don’t even surprise one anymore. Yet, instead of confronting their own inadequacies and biases, these universities try to justify such blatant anti-Hindu hate in the name of academic freedom. Despite numerous such Hinduphobic talks coming out in the open due to social media, none of these universities have taken any concrete steps to put a stop to this blatant misuse of their social sciences and humanities departments as vehicles of subversive anti-state and Hinduphobic propaganda. Such events continue unabated. Had it not been for social media, these wouldn’t have ever been exposed. The mainstream media usually doesn’t take up such stories. Only when the topic has gotten really huge through social media, do they feel compelled to report such news.
Azim Premji University, the site of the “Annihilate Hinduism” event also has had its fair share of controversies. In 2022, a student called Rishi Tiwari reportedly had a minor argument with a Muslim student over some issue. Following this, Rishi Tiwari faced extreme discrimination and harassment from both faculty members and students. He was labeled a “Sanghi “and a “radical Hindu” due to his faith and his association with Banaras Hindu University.
What followed was a social media smear campaign against Tiwari; he was endlessly bullied and harassed. The university authorities too did not give him a fair trial as he was eventually expelled from campus activities and accommodation.
The hijacking of the social sciences and humanities discourse at Bharatiya universities by far-left sympathizers and propagandists is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with using a multi-pronged strategy. Firstly, the government must issue a binding circular to universities regarding activities and discourse that do not come under academic freedom. Under this circular, talks or slogans calling for the annihilation of any religion, talks seeking the dismantling of Bharat itself, speeches encouraging the Balkanization of Bharat, etc. shouldn’t be allowed on university campuses.
Secondly, the hijacking of the social sciences discourse of Bharatiya universities by far-left forces needs to be checked. It’s not an easy process but can be tackled by bringing in more diversity in faculty hearings in terms of the ideological orientation of the faculty members. Mostly, non-leftist academicians with nationalist leanings face a hostile climate in many such universities. Having leftist leanings guarantees you better job prospects in the humanities and social sciences; such is the ideological apparatus. This systemic rot needs to be fixed.
Finally, all those giving lectures about academic freedom, would you dare to host such talks and events talking about the annihilation of religions like Christianity and Islam? You wouldn’t because you know then, what would happen to your so-called freedom of expression. I rest my case.
A seminar on the ‘Politics of Emotions’ was held at the University last month. This was a presentation by Akhil Kang, a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University, USA as part of a panel on ‘Power, Politics and Affect’. His presentation was called ‘To be Upper Caste/To Be Victim’..
Publicly available images were used by Akhil Kang, a visiting speaker in his presentation during a social sciences seminar titled “Politics of Emotion”. The image is publicly available. The image is by an artist named Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring). The post on X has taken a select image and placed it out of context to sully the reputation of the University.
Azim Premji University did not host any lecture or seminar by the title claimed in the original post. This is fake news being used to defame the university.
Namaste
We’ve used whatever information is publicly available & haven’t made any commentary accusing the University. Countering it is your prerogative but our news report is based on publicly available facts.