The polarising debate on the politics of pronunciation at a recently held Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak lecture on ‘WEB Du Bois and His Vision for Democracy’ at the Jawaharlal Nehru University broke the internet. Here’s what transpired: Anshul Kumar, a student of Sociology, who described himself as the founding professor and chairperson of the Centre for Brahmin Studies , began to ask a question to Spivak after her lecture when the forum was opened for audience members. On hearing him mispronounce Du Bois’s name, and him insisting on moving on from what he called 'trivialities' to the actual question, she shot his question down, and skirted past to the next person with a question.
Kumar argues that it’s out of irony and satire that he uses a made-up designation and department where the privileged get studied from the gaze of the underprivileged as opposed the reverse, which is usually the case in academia and how power flows through it. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD Ceasing To Be Subaltern His intended question as per his post on X (formerly Twitter) was: "Spivak claims to be middle class. She said in her lecture that Du Bois was an upper-class elite.
How is she as a great granddaughter of Bihari Lal Bhaduri, a close friend of Ishvar Chandr Vidyasagar, supposed to be middle class?" This led to seismic shocks through South Asian academic Twitter and WhatsApp Groups dividing students, pedagogues, researchers, and audiences alike on whether she was right in silencing and disall.