Articles by Nonica Datta

Disciplining and surveillance are some of the ways in which universities have responded to women's needs and desires to enter public spaces in and around campuses. At the Aligarh Muslim University Women's College, students have been forced to demand that they be allowed into the main university library and also that the university lift oppressive hostel rules. The academic institution almost becomes an extension of the conservative household and demonstrates a paternalistic notion of protection that reinforces moral policing.

For long 'secular' vs 'communal' and 'national' vs 'communal' have been used in our nation's official history. To contextualise these terms might mean to dispassionately understand the politics of labels, stereotyping and castigation that shapes our narratives of nationalism. Sadly, narratives of nationalisms, inclusive or exclusivist, have permeated people's cultural and political consciousness at the expense of tolerance, dignity and equality in everyday lives.

the chuhras said,