NLU Jabalpur vice chancellor (VC) Prof Balraj Chauhan has been occupying the hostel room of a student of the law school who committed suicide on 9 September possibly under stress about his weak command over English, as first reported Times of India.
Chauhan’s move to the student’s hostel room had been made to allay the anxiety of other students of the hostel, who had begun vacating their own rooms on the same floor as the deceased student, following his death.
Eighteen-year-old Gagan Bhunderkar had been found hanging in his hostel room barely 15 days after the first ever academic session commenced at the nascent NLU and initial police investigations had revealed that he had “felt like an outcast”, was taking tuition to improve his English language skills and had failed an English test on the day he was found hanging his his room, according to the TOI report and News18.
Bhunderkar, said to have come from an area in Madhya Pradesh with a heavy Maoist presence, had gained admission to the NLU under the MP domicile quota.
Chauhan told us that he had asked a few times for permission to discontinue his stay at the hostel and go back home to his parents and each time the permission had been granted, but Bhunderkar eventually returned.
Chauhan also said that though he hadn’t personally interacted with Bhunderkar, his mentor had constantly been in touch with him and there had been no signs of depression.
“It had only been 15 days, we were just not prepared for this,” the VC added.
There are counselors present on the NLU Jabalpur campus who have done the psychological profiling of all students and this exercise too did not detect suicidal tendencies in Bhunderkar, according to Chauhan.
“I think the difference between older generations and now is that we used to live in joint families whereas children these days have nobody to talk to,” Chauhan commented. “They are lonely.”
Other students had begun vacating their own rooms on the same floor as Bhunderkar’s room after his death allegedly due to fears that his room was haunted, added the TOI and News18 reports.
Chauhan said that the students being a mere 17 or 18 years old, were not prepared for such an incident and were under stress, so he shifted residence to provide them emotional support and occupied Bhunderkar’s room for one week before he had to leave the city for other engagements.
He said on Friday that he would continue to occupy that room again after returning to campus later that evening.
If you or someone you know needs help, please consider contacting any of a number of Indian NGOs dealing with suicide prevention listed here.
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As for the shocking and regressive mindset about the rooms being haunted, this too is a sad reflection in the poor quality and low intelligence of students in these mushrooming NLUs, whether through quotas and merit lists.
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Or make English not compulsory, may be? Isn't English a colonial hangover that we are still under and a 'status'/'class' symbol?**
Not to make the same old argument BUT there are countries which do not speak English, at all. Not even in their court(s). Not sure how are they surviving (in fact) developing economically, socially and politically and sure as hell justice is done better and faster than our system.
Article 348 provides for Hindi or any other local language (used in a State for any official purposes of that State) can be used, in proceedings in the High Court of such State. May be - if we do not push English from day one and make the learning spread over the 5 years I think we may be able to still give everyone a fair chance to attend law schools like people attend IITs/ Medicine, etc. Learning a language is not that difficult and I am sure that in 5 years spent at any law school people will learn. I have and have seen many.
** Below example may not be relevant but I observed something today and generally keep observing such things.
There is this culture (I am sorry but for the lack of a better word - culture) to speak in English even if the other person does not understand or may not understand in entirety. One such example from today - I was at a diagnostic centre and a lady kept giving instructions to the boy there in English. She could see that he is uncomfortable and is not able to comprehend and also made a comment on him for being 'illiterate'. While that boy was a graduate in Chemistry. Well yes the management should have placed someone who is a linguist but I think that would have not justified the job profile. Such and many others I have seen are the people who make a language a barrier for communication contrary to what language(s) is supposed to be. I would have understood if she did not know Hindi but she kept talking to her husband in Hindi and to this boy in English. And then you have the likes of 'beta hands pakad ke chalo'; 'beta spit kar ke baat karo'; 'beta slap maar dunga/ dungi'.
Anyway, it is an infinite debate and I think I have written what I had to.
Thank you.
Which language should the SC use for penning judgements and arguments ?
Same with counsel and attorneys with regards to documents and arguments. The same dilemma is occurs at the HCs. (In Bombay for example Marathi rules the roost up to the HC. Then it's all English).
Just throwing my 0.2 paise out there.
PS The woman you mention is a typical nouveau paisa aagya class nahi. There's no excuse in not conversing with servants and class Iv workers in the vernacular. Ignore her.
Some universities do allow one to write papers in state languages/Hindi in addition to English. Mumbai University is an example. While Mumbai University's education leaves much to be desired, at least they allow students to write papers in Marathi or in English.
Also, with reference to the woman at the diagnostic centre, I would hardly consider a graduate chemist a class IV worker or a servant, and if that's the only occupation he can obtain (which seems untrue anyway, from the original poster's comment -- he seems more like a technician -- and he's likely overqualified for that as well), it's a tragedy. It is interesting that you associate fluency in a particular language with knowledge, education, occupation, skill or class.
Try wrapping your head around organic chemistry (it's tough but elegant), rather than making random presumptions.
It is neither difficult nor unfeasible to be bilingual. Indeed, if one wishes to be a part of the higher civil services in India, it is essential to be fluent in English and Hindi, and in the case of selection in the IPS or IAS, fluent in the state language as well. Why can't judges be held to the same standard?
Translating judgements is not as difficult or expensive as you make it out to be, especially with the evolution of good AI tools.
The argument here is not about the superiority of any language, but the ability of the common man to communicate, and the humiliation that a person who may be very gifted may have to undergo because of the perceived correlation between his overall worth and fluency in English.
I think your point about arguments requiring translation are irrelevant in the model that I had outlined above, which is why I spoke only of the need for translation for record:
If one is practicing in Maharashtra, for example, the three major languages in use are English, Hindi, and Marathi. It is, in my opinion essential for a judge to be fluent in at least two of these. Lawyers can be then be matched to judges who are fluent in the language(s) they are comfortable with. Yes, that would mean that we would require more judges, but we are ridiculously underserved anyway. If we get into the need for judicial reform, we could likely go on all year.
I think there is an onus on all public servants who interact with the public (and I include judges in that subset, even if they wish to differ), to be able to understand and communicate in the language predominant in the state, besides being fluent in English.
Making the education system bilingual will mean deploying resources (which we don't have) across all Indian villages. Where will you get decent teachers? How will you train them? Is learning another language that important for a (wo)man who doesn't intend to use it over a skill or profession where it is not required? If (for example) you wish to prioritise technology to bring people out of poverty etc. or to create tech-based industry, would you prefer to spend money on an English teacher or a maths teacher?
It makes more sense to just train judges or people who interact with persons from all walks of life to learn another language. It costs less, and the people who are expected to learn have the resources to do so. They are likely bilingual anyway.
May he rest in peace. We as a society have failed in so many ways.
This news is quite saddening. was the kid under some pressure to compete with the other ones from bigger cities or prestigious schools, who had better command over English. Yes, English is important for all reasons that we discuss here. But is that a deal breaker?
Say if his mates were to talk of getting placed in Top Law Firms as the ultimate career option, where a lot of emphasis is given over command of language, he would have broken, so would have been his aspirations after going through a lot in life to secure a place in a law school.
Would that be the case?
Do law schools have systems in place to check on stress levels/psychological aspects of students. I would vote for such a system to have in place even at work places.
Yes, I work for a tier 1, not from a top law school, but each one of us go through hell meeting our deadlines and what not ! ... Isnt this the reason why we see our colleagues/peers die young.
When there is already one NLU in Bhopal which more or less remains mediocre and average in quality, what was the need to set up another sub-standard institute.
One State One NLU should be the rule. Maharashtra has set a bad example by setting up three. Why other states following?
Where are the jobs for these law graduates? Be ready for more protests and suicides if you are not going to have a uniform policy and control in setting up NLUs.
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