Open lectures in protest in Delhi University

It is 10.30 in the morning. P. K. Vijayan, dressed in an olive green checked shirt, is in the middle of dispensing a lesson on Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock to his second year students of Hindu College. As the senior professor of English reads from the British poet’s mock epic, a group of 20- odd first year students of St. Stephen’s College answer their roll call for a class in “ Analysis” by their mathematics professor Nandita Narain.

Located opposite each other in North Campus, the two colleges have a road dividing them. On Thursday, however, the two classes were being held right next to each other in front of the vice- chancellor’s office in North Campus. This is the newest chapter of the longest agitation by teachers in Delhi University’s (DU) history.

Though still against the semesterisation of the remaining undergraduate arts and commerce programmes of DU, college teachers have now agreed upon a peaceful way of registering their protest — public teaching. Thursday marked the first day of such a protest this year. Symbolic of widespread resentment, these public lectures ( holding classes in the open), which will also continue on Friday, are also a tool for teachers to mobilise student support for their cause.

So, sitting around the statue of Buddha situated right in the middle of the lawns just outside the V-C’s office, teachers from Kirori Mal College, Ramjas College, Miranda House, Hindu College and St. Stephen’s College held a maximum of three classes at one time between 8.40 am and 3.30 pm on Thursday. At the end of each class, students were informally told of the “ ongoing struggle” and this was followed by a tacit request for their support. Sloganeering was present, albeit just on posters and placards hung from the trees in the lawn.

“ The university has been successful in maligning the teachers. We did not want to go on strike but that was the best option available to make ourselves heard. Now, we are going to take lessons, but outside the classrooms to achieve the same purpose,” Professor Rudrashish Chakraborty of Kirori Mal College just after dismissing his class with third year students on literary theory, said.

“ Mobilising student support is the biggest problem we have had. This is because the current batch of first, second and third year students are not directly affected by the semester system which will be introduced for the fresh batch joining in July,” Vijayan, who took two classes in the open on Thursday, on why teachers are resorting to public teaching, said.

This, however, is not the first time that public lectures are being organised to drum up support for an issue in DU. In 1987, teachers had held classes in the open to mark protest against their pay revision. Eventually, they were able to mobilise a large number of students supporting their cause.