Trolling Academics: Public Forums of “Judgement”?
Image Source: Women Unlimited
In November of 2023, Sameena Dalwai was trolled on social media, accused of being “anti-Hindu” and violating students' privacy by showing dating app profiles in class. The matter was taken up by the Haryana Women’s Commission and an FIR filed against her which traced the issue back to an intra faculty pro-Palestine email she had sent. The following are her observations presented at a public meeting, “Report Card on Academic Freedom” organised by IAFN on 06 April 2024 at Jawahar Bhawan.
Thank you for the opportunity to present my views in the India Academic Freedom Network (IAFN) meeting. The network has been very helpful in my case and without ever meeting most colleagues here, I have felt supported. This reiterates the value of such a conglomeration of academics.
Last year, I was targeted for an intra faculty pro-Palestine email that leaked to trolls and the media. Thereafter a video of me teaching went viral. I was teaching the subject “Gender and Society” and the module discussed was “Desire and Sexuality”. With the help of a dating app named Bumble, I was exploring the significance of caste, class and religion in the dating market. This video provided further fuel to the trolls and the matter was taken up by the Haryana Women's Commission Chairperson. The Commission visited the university, conversed with students in my absence, and declared me guilty of “sexual harassment” and “religious discrimination”.
The university served me a notice and a warning.
The Commission posted everything on Twitter and other social media handles. They sent me summons to appear before them in Chandigarh. I countered this by sending my lawyer and seeking an online hearing. Enraged by this, the Chairperson filed an FIR against me in the Rai Police station. The police has not taken any action since and the case is currently dormant.
While this was going on for nearly three months, I learnt many lessons.
Trolls cannot hurt us in reality. They exist in online spaces where they exhibit bravado, but they do not come home to beat us up or arrest us. So we need not pay heed to them. Turning away from social media might actually help.
The problem starts when trolls pressure academic institutions or when they occupy chairs of authority. Then they can pursue illegal and unethical cases against academics and it gets real. For that time, we have to be prepared. How to prepare ourselves? By surrounding ourselves with colleagues and students that care.
I was lucky to have a lot of emotional support and, to some extent, action support. Everyone was scared and did not take any action. The problem of enormous talk and little action plagues academia. Hence, I learnt to forgive colleagues for their inaction, though not their justifications.
There is no point in beating oneself up for the mistakes one made. So I learnt to forgive myself, not to get myself sick by overthinking what I could have done differently or how I could have been smarter, etc.
Academic freedom is a myth in a society where no other freedom exists. Academics tend to view themselves as away, above or different from society, as we are supposed to analyse it. But if farmers, women and Dalits are not free, can the education sector or academia ever be free?
We academics are like tigers in the zoo. Many of us were student activists and were formidable. Then we got jobs, cars, promotions. Too much to lose and too much fear. The tiger was fierce when in the jungle. Everyone noticed when he roared. Now he lives in a zoo, with food, water and AC. No need to run and hunt. The tiger is scared of the jungle. Will he survive there? This case made me realise that I am this tiger, living happily in a posh zoo. Little noise from the jungle startles me. So I decided to face the jungle bit by bit.
Existing social capital is relevant here. While my case was underway, I watched Dalit teachers and students in Maharashtra being hounded, suspended, even arrested. My social class, writing in English, political background, active networks, etc. saved me from much more trouble. That said, acknowledging social capital cannot be an exercise in guilt. Social capital increases as we grow in age and stature. It can be built and ought to be used. I realised the importance of my own positionality and decided to use it for any other cases I come across, rather than hide away in a campus.
I was blessed to have the mentorship and support of the best legal minds in India. As a lawyer, I had worked with some and knew others. That made the legal journey feasible. Cultivating legal counsel, reading up on relevant law seems like a necessity.
As teachers, students are the beacon of hope for us. Even when they are being turned, acting as spies against their own teachers or generally seem disinterested in learning, we come across many students who grasp exactly what we are teaching, go that extra mile in reading and thinking and, after a few years, meet us on the street or in court and remind us why we are in the education sector in the first place.
Lastly, laughter and love are both essential in life and at any point of struggle. If we can keep humour alive, not get melancholy, it will protect our mental health and keep us vital for the long fight.
Thank you.
Sameena Dalwai is Professor and Assistant Director, Centre for Women, Law and Social Change. She specializes in gender, sexuality and law. She has published in Indian and international journals. Dalwai has worked as a lawyer with human rights organisations in Mumbai as well as health NGOs in rural Maharashtra. She envisioned and heads Development and Human Rights Institute (www.dhri.org) a human rights education and exposure programme for students of western universities. Dalwai is a Research Consultant with Manndeshi Mahila Bank, where she is assisting research on financial inclusion of rural poor communities. She is a bi-linguial writer and her fortnightly column published in Marathi is called, “No Taboo Please”.
