College festivals are a time of joy, celebration and learning. However, what went down at the college festival of Jain (Deemed to Be) University, Bengaluru last week was deeply shameful.
A group of students belonging to the university's Center for Management Studies performed a skit that the students probably thought was insanely funny and a biting social critique. But, if one were to go by the snippets circulated online, it was instead unfunny, unoriginal and absolutely casteist.
In the short clip shared on social media, one could see the staple of casteist humour – mockery of reservation policies, insulting comments about Dalits, and clichéd puns about Dr BR Ambedkar. And, for added measure, it also made light of the inhumane but widely prevalent practice of untouchability.
If we closely observe the skit itself and the response it attracted, we can conclude two things:
Our educational institutions have a long way to go in addressing casteism on campus.
The anti-caste movement is now pan-India and so robust that it will not let any such incident slide by any more.