India: bsCEM Denounces Sexualized Violence By Professor.
We hereby share a statement published by Bhagat Singh Student Union Platform (bsCEM) on November 7.
On October 29 a complaint was filed, two days after the alleged incident took place on the Daulat Ram college premises. A student alleged that the professor had sent her inappropriate messages for three months. The complaint also mentioned several accounts of sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct, coercion and molestation. This is not a lone incident. We have seen multiple such cases of sexual violence against women in academic spaces; be it sexual harassment of students within the University premise or be it inside the campus where a 17 year old girl was sexually assaulted at Astha Kunj park in Delhi. During recent clashes and demonstrations at Jamia Millia Islamia over student union elections and campus restrictions, a female protester alleged that she was physically assaulted and had her hijab pulled in front of professors. Sexual harassment is used as a tool to dominate minor women, muslim women and dali women to “show their place in society”.
The “authorities” present inside these university spaces try to quash the matter or completely resolve them by “temporarily suspending the perpetrators or shifting the classes for students on online mode. DRC’s vice principal has assured of “strict action” against the professor but we must ask what does such strict action include?
Will simply suspending the professor solve the root cause of this problem? Will women ever feel safe inside university spaces? Many students come to such central universities with hopes of getting better education but instead they are faced with continuous sexual harassment both inside and outside the University premise. These increasing number of cases of sexual violence against women, many of which go unreported are a systematic way of preserving patriarchy. Since the beginning of class society, raping women, sexually harassing them has functioned as an instrument of patriarchal oppression, but also as a tool for political subjugation of entire communities. Inside university places, women are deliberately targeted and sexually assaulted.
This sexual violence against women is a direct consequence of Brahmanical Patriarchy. Women are only expected to fulfill sexual desires and do domestic labour. Women who come to universities breaking this chain are subjected to misogyny and Brahmanical Patriarchal violence. It is to continue their subjugation outside homes in the society where they are educating themselves. Asking for justice from such an administration that openly upholds Brahminical Hindutva Fascist ideology and favours the ruling class, is not the solution.
In fact, it only provides room for reification of such ideology as it’s this very administration that appoints professors who uphold and perpetuate this Brahminical Hindutva Fascist ideology with impunity. This administration is infamous for appointing professors like Sangeet Rahi, who used casteist slurs during a live television debate on November 3, 2026, against Samajwadi Party spokesperson Manoj Kaka. Such administration cannot be asked for justice. This fight can only be won by a revolutionary transformation of society that brings with it a revolutionary change in the thinking of the people that will mean freedom for all exploited and oppressed people. Without a change in the social relations that underlie women’s oppression and subjugation, women cannot achieve true freedom and democracy.
It is only by revolutionising existing social relations that the objective conditions for the emancipation of women can be created. Our society, our campuses spread the same corrupt ideologies. In addition to a curriculum full of backward ideology, unscientific ideas, our institutions are plagued by curfews in hostels, surveillance and policing, and sexual assaults on campuses.
Our struggle for a democratic society will coexist with our efforts to democratise our campuses. We urge the youth, the revolutionary minded and democratic students, especially women to participate in this radical transformation of society. As part of the democratisation of campuses, which cannot be trusted to the admin, students should form a united struggle. We will reclaim our campus from classroom to walls and fill it with progressive, democratic, revolutionary thought. We will form our own defense teams wherever necessary. We will integrate students struggles go broader societal struggle. We urge all progressive, democratic, and revolutionary minded students to rise in rage against sexual violence and rape culture.
Arrest sexual assaulter Manish Chaudhary immediately! Smash brahmanical patriarchy! Women hold up half the sky!
