I am one of the fortunate Ph.D scholars who studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). I am a Dalit woman. My mother is the breadwinner, my father struggles as a daily wager and I have two younger siblings.
My mother is a private school teacher today because of the education her mother provided her.
My maternal grandmother, who was widowed at a young age, works as a sanitation worker till date. It is the hard work of these women that has helped me reach where I am.
‘JNU stood by me’
My education was spread between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. I never studied in one school for more than two years. I started at a convent in Puducherry, after which I went to three schools before completing Class VI. I studied at government and government-aided schools till I completed Class XII. Despite this, I was good at studies. I was encouraged by my friends and was fortunate when it came to teachers; they stood by me all through and JNU has been no exception.
I ranked first all through school, but my Board exam marks were not sufficient for an engineering or medical seat. Since I liked English literature and my marks in the subject were high, I applied for a B.A. in English at Salem’s Sri Sarada College for Women.
When the results came, my parents looked for my name in the SC list. Not finding it there, they thought I hadn’t made it. Then my mother looked at the open category list and found my name. I stood first in curricular and co-curricular activities and was made secretary of the students’ union. I graduated with a first division with the additional honour of being the best outgoing student for 2013.
Thanks to my mother’s education, we were aware of Central universities. Admission to JNU had a huge impact on my life and my family’s living conditions. Her first daughter (me) wrote the JNU entrance for M.A. in Linguistics and was admitted with the help of woman’s deprivation points, a unique feature of JNU’s now scrapped admission policy, under the SC quota.
At JNU, I was exposed to Chomsky. I was always keen to apply whatever I learnt to my mother tongue, Tamil, and my second language, Malayalam. My curiosity about these languages led me to discover more about Dravidian languages and linguistic theories. The turning point in my career as a linguist was a research paper on Tamil, which I wrote in a Chomskyan syntax course. The topic has grown into my Ph.D work.
New admission policy
When I appeared for JNU’s M.Phil/Ph.D entrance examination, there were no seat cuts. This Dalit womanmade it through a highly-competitive selection, secured the first rank in the open category and also a JRF (I needed the money for my expenses and for my younger siblings’ education. I am frequently forced to borrow money, leaving me in debt for most of the year).
My achievement as a student is a matter of pride not just for me, my family and my community, but also for my institution.
Today, I am a proud independent woman who shoulders the burden once carried by her mother and her grandmother. Unfortunately, the new admission policy at JNU has dictated that there will be zero admissions to my Centre for this academic year. This move shuts the doors of social mobility for students from deprived communities like me.
Our success is not just an individual achievement, but a brighter hope for our families and community. Given that many Ph.D students in JNU are women, these regulations will have a great impact on women’s higher education.
If such a seat cut was implemented in my time, what would have I done with my M.A. degree? Given the high cost of education in other universities, I would have probably gone back to my hometown.
Society would have pressured my parents about my marriage and my dream to be the first Ph.D holder in my family would have been buried. Is this what we want the women in this nation to do?
(Rajamathangi S. is a Ph.D scholar at JNU’s Centre for Linguistics)
