On November 9, 19-year-old Fathima Lateef, a first-year student pursuing a five-year integrated MA programme at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-Madras), committed suicide inside the college campus. When Sabitha, Fathima’s mother, said that she let her daughter choose IIT-M because she thought of Tamil Nadu as a safe place without discrimination, the common retort (especially across social media) has been: ‘Who said IIT-M is part of Tamil Nadu?’
Nestled in a 620-acre urban rainforest in the heart of bustling Chennai, the IIT-M is geographically and administratively very much a part of the state. The land, which was part of the Guindy National Park, was allotted by the then Chief Minister K Kamaraj who was particular that one of the five national engineering institutes of importance should come to Tamil Nadu.
So, how did the institute, once considered a pride of the state, turn into a blight in the eyes of the public? Home to some 8,000 students and over 500 regular faculty members with proven educational track records, the campus should have been looked up as a bright spot of academic brilliance in the state.
However, if it has become a target of ridicule and is looked down upon by political parties, activists, social media trolls, etc., it is because of the public perception that the social dynamics inside the exclusive and elitist academic environment is out of sync with the politico-cultural moorings of Tamil Nadu. To put it otherwise, IIT-M is seen as a place that cocks a snook at social justice, an idea that defines the socio-political thinking of Tamil Nadu.
More than public perception, it is the interaction between those inside the campus and the people living outside that has caused the current antipathy towards the institute, so much so that they are at the forefront demanding stern action against the faculty whom they claim are responsible for Fathima’s suicide.
Suicides have been disturbingly frequent in IIT-M — 14 in the last decade and four in 2019 alone. Many of these tragedies do not hit the headlines because families bear the loss and after a few days the campus returns to its usual bustle of academics, etc. This time, however, Fathima’s father Latheef demanded justice and put the institute in a bind.
In 2012, the suicide of another girl in the campus also put the management in a spot for a different reason, but it affirmed a public perception of the unwieldy power that IIT-M exercised on areas of the administration and media. It started with an IIT professor objecting to a photo journalist covering the suicide news. Events when downhill from there with a physical altercation between the photo journalist and the professor and other staff. Cases and counter-cases were filed with the media corps of Chennai demanding justice for the photo journalist and arrest of the professor. Subsequently, allegedly because of pressure exerted by the IIT-M, the media took a step back and the incident was conveniently forgotten.
Many years earlier, a popular Tamil magazine reported the plight of Vasantha Kandasamy, a mathematics professor in IIT-M, where she accused the IIT management of depriving her of due promotions and other privileges. She said that she was being discriminated because she was not an ‘upper caste’. The feedback the magazine and its editor received ranged from ridicule to threats on how it could take on the IIT-M. Kandasamy’s story gave an insight into the caste discrimination in the IIT-M, impelling the public to form an opinion about the institution.
For her valiant fight against the IIT management, in 2006, then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi bestowed on Kandasamy the ‘Kalpana Chawla Award for Bravery’. The day after the award was announced, we sent a reporter to the IIT-M to capture the mood. To our surprise, instead of celebrating a staff member’s honour, there was an eerie chillness on campus and faculty members who chose to speak expressed anger over the honour bestowed on their colleague.