The Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-Delhi) has asked “concerned faculty” to explain the “choice of speakers and content” at a conference on caste and race organised by the institute’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences earlier this month.
The conference, titled ‘Critical Philosophy of Caste & Race (CPCR3): Celebrating 25 Years of Durban: Indian Contributions to Combatting Caste and Racism’, was held between January 16 and 18 in the Senate Hall of the main building of IIT-D.
In a statement posted on its official X handle early on Monday, IIT-Delhi said: “Serious concerns have been raised over the choice of speakers and content of the conference. The Institute has sought an explanation from the concerned faculty, and a fact‑finding committee with independent members has also been set up to investigate concerns raised about the conference. Appropriate actions will be initiated in accordance with institutional protocols, based on the committee’s findings.”
The post added that IIT-D “remains committed to national goals, academic integrity, and established institutional guidelines”.
The statement followed critical posts on X objecting to the allegedly “one sided narrative on caste”, and alleged “woke nonsense” discussed at the conference by “radical activists”.
According to the official programme schedule, the conference opened on January 16 with an introduction by Divya Dwivedi, professor (Literature Philosophy), and a welcome note by Abhijit Banerji, head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The three-day conference included keynote lectures and panel sessions by scholars and activists from Indian and foreign universities on the themes of caste-, race- and descent‑based discrimination.
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On the third day, in Session 5 chaired by Gajendran Ayyathurai of the University of Göttingen in Germany, one of the papers was by Aarushi Punia, an independent researcher, titled ‘What’s common between Dalits and Palestinians?’
Other speakers in the same session included Indian American Dalit rights activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan on ‘25 Years of Racial and Caste Equity Impact of Durban on Dalit Americans’, Smita M Patil of the School of Gender and Development studies at IGNOU on ‘Intensifying the Culture: Rethinking Race and Caste’, and the Tamil writer P Sivakami on ‘The Intersectional Struggle: Decoding Caste and Gender in P Sivakami’s Narratives’.
Responding to a questionnaire over email, Professor Dwivedi wrote to The Indian Express: “The conference is academic in its aim and scope, which is to generate critical thinking on social inequalities towards an egalitarian and sustainable world, and it builds on existing academic research and publications including mine which can be looked up. The conference is devoted to promoting the constitutional values of equality, liberty, dignity and fraternity through scholarly discussion of the past and present Indian contributions towards combating social inequalities and social injustice.
“The speakers include scholars, award-winning academics, writers and artists, and participants of WCAR 2001 in Durban who have contributed to this area and have been the subject of existing academic researches.”
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Meanwhile, a member of the humanities faculty at IIT-D told The Indian Express that “this is not the first time that the CPCR conference is happening, and in the past too there have been many members inside and outside of IIT Delhi who have written to the Institute’s director expressing concerns about discussing caste and race.”
However, this professor said, “This is the first time that the Institute has ever reacted by stating that it would set up a fact‑finding committee”.
The professor said “CPCR is an academic conference and has been taking place for years”, and “Just a few weeks ago, there was a conference on Hindutva on campus and no one raised any questions against such conferences.”
In its concept note, the organisers said the conference focused on “the histories and futures of the arduous and brilliant efforts of the oppressed groups,” and aimed at “comprehensive documentation, understanding and theorization of descent‑based discrimination”.
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Vidheesha Kuntamalla is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in New Delhi. She is known for her investigative reporting on higher education policy, international student immigration, and academic freedom on university campuses. Her work consistently connects policy decisions with lived realities, foregrounding how administrative actions, political pressure, and global shifts affect students, faculty, and institutions.
Professional Profile
Core Beat: Vidheesha covers education in Delhi and nationally, reporting on major public institutions including the University of Delhi (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia, the IITs, and the IIMs. She also reports extensively on private and government schools in the National Capital Region.
Prior to joining The Indian Express, she worked as a freelance journalist in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for over a year, covering politics, rural issues, women-centric issues, and social justice.
Specialisation: She has developed a strong niche in reporting on the Indian student diaspora, particularly the challenges faced by Indian students and H-1B holders in the United States. Her work examines how geopolitical shifts, immigration policy changes, and campus politics impact global education mobility.
She has also reported widely on:
* Mental health crises and student suicides at IITs
* Policy responses to campus mental health
* Academic freedom and institutional clampdowns at JNU, South Asian University (SAU), and Delhi University
* Curriculum and syllabus changes under the National Education Policy
Her recent reporting has included deeply reported human stories on policy changes during the Trump administration and their consequences for Indian students and researchers in the US.
Reporting Style
Vidheesha is recognised for a human-centric approach to policy reporting, combining investigative depth with intimate storytelling. Her work often highlights the anxieties of students and faculty navigating bureaucratic uncertainty, legal precarity, and institutional pressure. She regularly works with court records, internal documents, official data, and disciplinary frameworks to expose structural challenges to academic freedom.
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An Indian Express investigation found that since 2011, JNU has appeared in over 600 cases before the Delhi High Court, filed by the administration, faculty, staff, students, and contractual workers across the tenures of three Vice-Chancellors.
JNU’s legal wars with students and faculty pile up under 3 V-Cs | Rs 30-lakh fines chill campus dissent (November 2025)
The report traced how steep monetary penalties — now codified in the Chief Proctor’s Office Manual — are reshaping dissent and disciplinary action on campus.
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