A social media post questioning the ideological stance of the academicians at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, has drawn mixed responses from netizens. IIT B for Bharat (@IITBforBharat) tweeted on Tuesday, May 14, sharing the question paper for the PhD Entrance Exam conducted on May 7 for admission into the Department of Sociology. This was posted on social media platform X.
Question number 4 in section II of the paper included a question as follows, "What does Antonio Gramsci mean by hegemony? Is Hindutva, hegemony or counter-hegemony? Discuss."
The post by the IIT B for Bharat stated, "The Anti-Hindu Professors of Sociology from @iitbombay Department of Humanities and Social Sciences openly insulted Hinduism by labeling it a "Hegemony.""
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The IITB for Bharat, is a self-proclaimed group functioning in IIT Bombay. Its X bio reads, "A group of Volunteers aimed at having a common space for Indic civilizational values."
They further claim that the paper was intentionally designed to segregate students on the basis of their beliefs, which might help them to make a decision that aligns with their own set of ideals. "The question in the PhD Entrance Exam in Sociology (Dt. 07.05.2024) was purposefully designed to identify candidates' ideologies and was essentially biased. The students who don't write in line with their malicious narrative are unlikely to be chosen," read the post.
They call on the administration to take suitable steps against this act as the student group deems the question to be against the laws of academic integrity, hence, they request for fines to be imposed on the panel of teachers who had set the question paper.
IIT Bombay Socio Professor ridicules the post
Suryakant Waghmore, a professor of Sociology at IIT Bombay, retorted by replying with a tweet:
"This twitter handle @IITBforBharat specialises in anti-intellectualism. In the interest of (minimal) academic freedom I request authorities @iitbombay to urgently restrain this group & @EduMinOfIndia to disable this handle." - (@Suryakant_Waghm)
In a consecutive post, Waghmore derides the post by IITB for Bharat by saying, "Recruit this person as professor of sociology and let them teach.. I am happy to take voluntary retirement if they give me old pension scheme."
This was in response to a part of the tweet from IITB for Bharat explaining the tenets of Hinduism and Dharma.
Netizens react
An ideological war of sorts also ensued in the comments section of the post.
A user named Sayak Dipta Dey (@sayakdd28) replied with an explanation of the concept, "It's a perfectly fine academic question. Antonio Gramsci referred to Political Hegemony as a condition in which a fundamental class exercises a political, intellectual, and moral role of leadership within a hegemonic system cemented by a common world-view or organic ideology. The same question also asks if it's a counter-hegemony as well, which also proves your point."
A user named Rohit Dhankar (@dhankar_r) lauds the question. "There is nothing wrong with this question itself. It asks to discuss if Hindutva is HEGEMONY or COUNTER HEGEMONY in the Gramskian sense. Students can build arguments both ways. This is a good academic question," wrote Dhankar.
Another user called out the technicality of the question saying that about Hindutva and not Hinduism.
"The question is on Savarkar's Hindutwa not Hinduism."
- Himanshu Dani (@DaniHimanshu)
Another user named Nov Kilo (@t_mkat) claims that section-2 of the paper is "loaded" with ideological profiling questions, and even political ones. He wrote, "The entire Section-2 is essentially for ideological profiling as the questions are quite loaded, and even political in nature. Yes, they'd be interesting discussions in the class. But, an entrance criteria? We all know how Humanities faculty function in India."
Many have criticised it by adding that questions of such nature can easily affect the marks obtained by the students, as the examiner can be biased towards the narrative of the student.
A user named Eminent Intellectual (@total_woke_), essentially an account parodying leftist narratives, said that the bias operating internally is quite palpable. They wrote, "This is so clever, they asked what seems like an academic question but will really use it to screen out those with opinions they don't like. Quite blatant @iitbombay, people can see through these games now, but well played still."
Apart from this, many are ridiculing the fact that the humanities department in a technology institute is perhaps unnecessary, drawing a different parallel to the argument.
A user named Toknow (@toknowmuch) wrote as follows,
"As a student of sociology, I can assure max questions that I can see are designed in such a way that it must reflect particular ideological bias in answer writing to filter the students....btw being a tech university what is the use of sociology dept in @iitbombay."
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