Forced to transliterate into Hindi: Non-Hindi speaking JNU students

Image
Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Jul 26 2017 | 7:28 PM IST
Several non-Hindi speaking students pursuing Phd and MPhil courses at JNU have alleged that the university administration was "blatantly" imposing the language on them.
They alleged that the administration told them their projects will not be accepted if they failed to transliterate their name, the name of the centre and topic of dissertation or thesis into Hindi.
However, JNU's Assistant Registrar (Evaluation) Sajjan Singh said the students were asked to transliterate into Hindi last year also.
"According to central government guidelines, degree certificates are issued in English and Hindi since last year," Singh told PTI.
A Tamil research scholar, Arun Kumar, whose dissertation topic is "Syntax of Tamil and Korean", alleged that he was "forced" to transliterate his name and the topic into Hindi.
"They are planning to issue degrees with our names transliterated into Hindi. There is institutional protection for Hindi despite it not being our national language," said Kumar, a native of Tamil Nadu's Tiruvannamalai district.
Today was the last date for submitting M.Phil dissertations and PhD thesis and the issue came to light when some non-Hindi speaking students complained of having trouble doing transliteration.
Another PhD scholar from Centre for Linguistics said it was "blatant imposition of Hindi".
"A lot of them (students) have faced harassment. We are forced to do this. Technical words cannot be transliterated," said the scholar, who is a Bengali.
JNUSU General Secretary Satarupa Chakraborty also alleged harassment at the hands of the administration and said many students wrote their dissertation/thesis titles in their local language script as a mark of protest.
"Whatever the government is trying to impose on people of this country, the JNU administration immediately tries to follow it without any discussion. This time, it's the imposition of Hindi in a central university," she said.

Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content

*Subscribe to Business Standard digital and get complimentary access to The New York Times

Smart Quarterly

₹900

3 Months

₹300/Month

SAVE 25%

Smart Essential

₹2,700

1 Year

₹225/Month

SAVE 46%
*Complimentary New York Times access for the 2nd year will be given after 12 months

Super Saver

₹3,900

2 Years

₹162/Month

Subscribe

Renews automatically, cancel anytime

Here’s what’s included in our digital subscription plans

Exclusive premium stories online

  • Over 30 premium stories daily, handpicked by our editors

Complimentary Access to The New York Times

  • News, Games, Cooking, Audio, Wirecutter & The Athletic

Business Standard Epaper

  • Digital replica of our daily newspaper — with options to read, save, and share

Curated Newsletters

  • Insights on markets, finance, politics, tech, and more delivered to your inbox

Market Analysis & Investment Insights

  • In-depth market analysis & insights with access to The Smart Investor

Archives

  • Repository of articles and publications dating back to 1997

Ad-free Reading

  • Uninterrupted reading experience with no advertisements

Seamless Access Across All Devices

  • Access Business Standard across devices — mobile, tablet, or PC, via web or app

More From This Section

First Published: Jul 26 2017 | 7:28 PM IST

Next Story