In an incident that has caused embarassment for claimants of ‘Periyar’ soil, a question with casteist undertones was asked in an examination conducted by the Periyar University in Salem, Tamil Nadu.
The question reads as “Which one is the Lower Caste which belongs to Tamil Nadu” with students asked to choose the right answer from the four options – Mahars, Nadars, Ezhavas and Harjans.
This question was asked to the first year students of MA History who were taking their exam in the subject ‘Freedom Movement of Tamil Nadu: From 1800 to 1947’.
The Mahars are an underprivileged community in Maharashtra designated as Scheduled Caste while the Ezhava community belong to Kerala and come under Other Backward Classes (OBC).
The Nadar community from Tamil Nadu belonging to the Other Backward Class while the Harijans (also known as Dalits) is a name given to members of the Scheduled Caste in general.
This has now triggered a row in Tamil Nadu with Opposition parties coming down heavy on the ruling DMK.
Apart from the casteist question, there were several grammatical errors in the question paper set by the Tamil Nadu Government university.
The Vice Chancellor of the univeristy said that they were not aware of the question as the question paper was set by ‘other university college lecturers’.
““Question papers for exams are not prepared by Periyar University. Other university and college lecturers prepared the question paper. Usually, to avoid a question paper leak, we don’t read the question paper before the exam. I didn’t get any info regarding the controversial question. We will investigate this,” the VC was quoted saying in a report by ANI.
Tamil Nadu HIgher Education Minister K. Ponmudy has promised to form a committee and take action against the errant professors.
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