Hindu Mai Maal Aur Maal Dono Milta Hai: DU College’s Sexist Poster Is Outrageous!

The battle between patriarchy and women has raged on for centuries and it’s sad that we have not gotten anywhere in all these years. Crimes against women are rising day by day, owing to the unabashed objectification of the women by the society who thinks the place of women is just as a sexual object.

This ancient mindset took the form of a sexist and shameful poster in one of the prestigious institutes of the country which addressed the freshers coming in to their institution as ‘maal’.

The incident occurred in Hindu college, in North campus, University of Delhi when the preparations for the much awaited freshers party were underway on 4 October. The freshers of the college were in for a rude shock when they saw a poster on the campus which read “Hindu mein Maal aur Maal dono milta hai.”

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This sparked an outrage among the students of the college, especially freshers who did not welcome the blatant sexism of the poster.

‘Pinjra Tod: Break the Hostel Locks’, a Facebook page which seeks to fight the patriarchal dominance through its empowering posts posted the response of the student body of the college on its page, while condemning the poster.

This is a sign that welcomed students in a recent fresher’s event in a ‘famous’ college in North Campus, University of Delhi.

The many ways in which patriarchy reinforces itself everyday in our campuses to convey the message that we may be studying in a university, we maybe sitting in classes together, but women are to be primarily seen as sexual objects of exchange amongst men.

Its tiring to fight this everyday, but yet we must and we shall, and collectively!

pitrisatta ki khol de pol, pinjra tod, pinjra tod!

UPDATE (5.10.2017): HINDU COLLEGE PARLIAMENT (Brijesh Tiwari – Hindu College Prime Minister) CONDEMNS THE USE OF THIS POSTER IN THE STATEMENT BELOW:

This is with reference to the “Yaha Maal aur Maal Dono Milta Hai” poster on the Freshers Day at the Hindu College campus. The Hindu College Parliament unanimously condemns the usage of such shamelessly gendered and misogynist phrases on campus or anywhere else. We at the Parliament consider it our utmost endeavour to arrive at a stage of gender equality, withering of misogynist practices and tendencies and an overall climate of equal opportunities for all genders. We recognise how such phrases and their usage become an impediment in trying to achieve all of the above. The Parliament ensures that it will do its best to nip all such practices in their bud and to ensure that the student-driven crusade against misogyny must never be weakened.

Having said all of the above we would also like everybody affected by the issue or following it to consider these :

1. The structural patterns of misogyny that lead to these phrases being coined are so deeply entrenched and function so insidiously that the incoming batches of students on our campus hardly realise the brutally gendered connotations of such phrases. The phrase has unfortunately been used for decades and is not a new invention. We will work though, to do everything in our mandate to ensure that these phrases are rendered out of fashion and unprincipled for anybody to use.

2. ‎This is an issue of administrational lapse on part of the organisers, who should have paid attention in good time and got the poster removed. It will be an endeavour for the parliament to stay vigilant in this regard in the future.

3. ‎We take pride in the Hindu College student body, the boys and girls who elected us, and who have rightly so taken offence to the aforementioned phrase, who considered it their duty to bring it to the direct notice of the Parliament that they have chosen.

With the support of our student body, we will keep marching, unabated and boldly against misogyny.
Thanks and regards.

 

It is unfortunate that these phrases which degrade not only women but humanity as a whole, are so deep-rooted in our conditioning that people have ceased to realise their connotations and the youth still use them owing to their ignorance.

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