Skit at Jain varsity receives flak

The skit revolved around an SC man trying to date an upper-caste woman. Several phrases like ‘Why be Dalit when you can be D-Lit’ were used in the skit

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A comic skit by a group of college students in the city has received much flack for allegedly having casteist overtones and making derogatory references to BR Ambedkar. An online petition demanding a public apology has also been initiated against the skit.

The petition that has been published on Jhatkaa.org says that the college contingent from Jain University’s Centre for Management Studies (CMS) “put forward an incredibly casteist and insensitive skit.” On the 6 February, Jain University hosted its college fest ‘Samyog’.

One of the events held under Samyog was Mad Ads – an event to advertise imaginary products along the lines of humour, with playful fun making of other colleges participating in the same. In this event, a skit was enacted by ‘The Delroys Boys’, the theatre group from CMS. The skit revolved around a man from a scheduled caste trying to date an upper-caste woman.

Several phrases like ‘Why be Dalit when you can be D-Lit’ were used during the skit. A reel posted by Jhatkaa.org on its Instagram features some of the snippets from the skit. A few have argued that towards the end of the skit, the students have tried to subvert casteism and it is not fair to judge the entire skit only through the controversial snippets.

The ‘Delroys Boys’ has maintained that the skit was conceived as satire and in the climax, the marginalised protagonist wins over his harassers, pointing that it was never meant to be discriminatory. They have also posted a public apology on their Instagram page.

“It's unacceptable that the script for the performance went through multiple rounds of approval before being enacted on stage. The same insensitive script was enacted on 5th February by the same contingent at another college fest, sponsored by Under25 in Bengaluru,” the petition read.

“We demand that they publicly apologise for their actions and take concrete steps to educate themselves and others on the importance of inclusivity and sensitivity towards marginalised communities. The promotion of harmful and offensive content has no place in any educational or public platform, and goes against the ideals that Ambedkar and others have fought so hard to uphold,” it continued. As criticism against the play grew online, a complaint was filed on Thursday