In an incident more suitable for a satirical play than an institution of higher learning, a Delhi University college principal’s recent act of coating cow dung on classroom walls—ostensibly to mitigate the effects of summer heat—prompts serious questions about the state of education in India.
Last week, a viral video showed Dr Pratyush Vatsala, principal of Lakshmibai College, coating classroom walls with cow dung to ‘cool’ them. As the video triggered huge criticism, she defended her bizarre act as a part of a “faculty-led research project investigating indigenous and sustainable cooling methods.”
While seemingly isolated, the cow dung drama in Delhi is a potent symbol of the deeper issues plaguing India’s education system where traditional beliefs often supersede scientific temper and threaten to drag academic discourse into the realm of pseudoscience.
The principal's justification that this was part of a research project on “indigenous methods” raises grave questions about the institution's approach to scientific knowledge and problem-solving.