IIT Bombay veg only tables’ draw ire, professors says fining student ‘disgraceful’ | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: The decisions to mark separate tables for vegetarian students in an IIT-Bombay mess and impose a fine on a student protesting against the move drew sharp reactions from some of the institute’s teachers.
“The fine on the student who protested this (referring to the segregation of spaces based on food) is disgraceful. Academics who care even a little bit about their institutions ought to resist this in speech and act. I certainly will,” Anupam Guha, assistant professor from the Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies at the institute, posted on ‘X’.
A fine of Rs 10,000 was imposed on a student by the mess council of hostels 12, 13 and 14 comprising of 4 professors and 3 student representatives.
Suryakant Waghmore, professor of the department of humanities and social sciences, also posted on social media on Wednesday. “Bhartiya vegetarianism of purity and segregation is a social illness… it needs to be cured, not institutionalised,” he wrote.
In a column in a news portal earlier, Waghmore had written: “The idea of purity attached with vegetarian food tells us about the ideology of caste and its influence on food preferences in India.”
Guha had criticised the decision earlier on September 28 in another post. “Segregation of spaces based on food is irrational, ingrained in purity-pollution practices which are casteist. To sanction segregation, which mine and other academic organisations do in the name of accommodating students, should be illegal.”
A student said a few other professors are also peeved. One of the professors told TOI that government spaces cannot institutionalise segregation. “Eating non-vegetarian food is not a crime and it is not illegal. Such decisions will not stand in the court of law. Students should be taught to live in diverse surroundings. What is private for an individual and practised at home, cannot be made public. It is a simple thing about adjusting in public places,” said the professor. The institute’s administration has not commented on the issue.
In a meeting of the mess council held on Sunday, the members decided to impose the steep fine on a student of hostel 12 who protested against the designation of six tables in the common mess of hostels 12, 13 and 14 for vegetarian-food only. The student, along with two-three others, protested on September 28 by eating non-vegetarian food on the separated tables. A few others joined them in solidarity with vegetarian food.
The mess council said the fine was imposed for “unruly behaviour” and “flouting the mess norms”. It further resolved to initiate disciplinary action against two other students once they are identified. They have sought other students’ help to identify these students. The protest took place a day after the mess council issued the new set of norms, which spoke about segregation of eating places and warned students of disciplinary action if they are flouted.