Majority Anxiety

IT HAD BEEN just a month since Aarti Kumari submitted her doctoral thesis when she and four other students were suspended by the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra, in July 2018. The first-generation scholar was from a Scheduled Caste, and those suspended alongside her were either SCs or from the Other Backward Classes. The university stated that the action was taken since they had been charged under serious sections of the Indian Penal Code, including voluntarily causing a woman to miscarry. “They didn’t even hear our side of the story,” Aarti told me. “My PhD evaluation was put on hold, even though we repeatedly pointed out that it was a fabricated case. The vice-chancellor refused to even meet with us.” 


By September, the case had been dismissed and the suspension revoked, but Aarti’s ordeal did not end. She said that her thesis was twice sent back to the department, without giving her any reason, and that her doctorate remained in limbo. But, by that stage, Aarti had clashed enough with the university administration to not have much hope in its internal procedures. In 2015, a Brahmin student had publicly hurled casteist slurs at her. Despite her complaint to the SC/ST cell, she said, a committee was formed against her based on their complaints. “Even after the committee found the same students guilty, it only issued a warning letter.” The incident left her distressed for several months. “I felt deeply humiliated and harassed,” she told me.

Aarti decided to escalate the case of her delayed thesis to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. “No one from the university administration used to come for the hearings, whereas I had to go to Delhi every twenty-five days,” Aarti told me. On 20 August 2019, the NCSC instructed the university to issue her degree within a month. The commission also underlined that this was a case of caste harassment. It decided to send the case to Maharashtra’s chief secretary, the seniormost bureaucrat in the state. “He is expected to take all action to ensure that the lady SC student should not be harassed and her PhD thesis should be evaluated in a fair & transparent manner.” On 16 September, it summoned the the secretary of higher and technical education department and the VC to appear before it on 24 September. A day before the hearing, Kumari was told that her thesis defence would be held on 25 September. She was awarded her PhD two days after the defence. But the harassment had taken its toll. “This process was so mentally devastating that, if one were to become even slightly weak, it would have been very difficult to recover,” she said.

Aarti’s experience is far from unique. Students from Bahujan communities routinely face caste discrimination and harassment from their peers as well as the institutions in which they pursue higher education. On 13 January 2026, the University Grants Commission issued the Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions Regulations to prevent caste-based discrimination in Indian colleges and universities. Its stated objective was to ensure an equal environment and social inclusion for all sections of society. The new regulations aimed to address discrimination against women, students living with disabilities and those from economically weaker sections, along with students from marginalised backgrounds.