NEW DELHI: A JNU student from a non-Hindi-speaking state has alleged her faculty member at Centre for Japanese Studies made her repeat the sentence “I will try my best to study Hindi” several times in front of her classmates as a form of punishment for not being able to comprehend the language, leading to a “panic attack”.A complaint was submitted to the dean of School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies Shoba Sivasankaran on Sept 8. There was no immediate response from either her or the faculty member.The MA second-year student from Karnataka, who belongs to SC category, alleged the teacher mocked her accent and difficulty with Hindi words, and encouraged classmates to laugh at her.She alleged she had been subjected to such behaviour since the beginning of her programme, creating “an increasingly distressing and intimidating classroom environment”. “In recent months, I have experienced severe anxiety, nausea, fear and panic-like symptoms before and during the class,” the complaint stated.She decided to file the complaint after a recent incident on Sept 1, when a confrontation with the professor over her attendance led to her breaking down. “When I returned to class on Sept 1, the teacher interrogated me in front of the class for missing lectures. I responded, ‘I was sick for two weeks, and I am still sick.’ He then asked why I had not submitted an application letter to the office,” she alleged. She claimed he accused her of “showing attitude” and disturbing the class, and eventually told her to either stop or leave. “By that stage, I was extremely distressed. I responded by saying, ‘You have been terrorising us,’ and left the classroom,” she stated. The professor then allegedly refused to take classes.The student has sought measures to prevent further “public humiliation, linguistic targeting and intimidation”.
