JNU VC Remarks: Weaponising Institutions Of Higher Learning Against Dalits Is Epistemic Violence
Pradeep Shinde | 07 March 2026 [Updated on 09 March] | Outlook
One of India’s premier institutions of Higher learning, JNU often makes the headlines which are attributed largely to its highly assertive and vibrant students’ politics. Again, the institution is in the news, but this time for its Vice-Chancellor Shantishree Pandit’s remarks against Dalits and Blacks on the Sunday Guardian podcast. “Dalits and Blacks”, she asserted, “are drugged with victimhood”.
One wonders what could have occasioned her to make such remarks that are now being expectedly construed as casteist and racist. Despite having taught political science at the Savitribai Phule Pune University for decades and having come from the Other Backward Class, she would be expected to be sympathetic to socio-economically deprived communities such as Dalits and Blacks….