{"id":2954,"date":"2016-04-19T11:52:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T11:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/?p=2954"},"modified":"2023-09-08T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:12:36","slug":"the-instigator-a-portrait-of-nivedita-menon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/the-instigator-a-portrait-of-nivedita-menon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Instigator: A Portrait of Nivedita Menon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How this JNU professor became a powerful figure of dissent against the Hindu right<\/strong> \nNeha Dixit<\/i><\/p>\n
Ten years after Bela finished her BA from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, she wanted to get in touch with one of her teachers. It was the late 1990s, and Bela had to wade\u00a0through several telephone directories in order to get in touch with her former batch mates and the college administration before she could finally get through to her teacher. \u00a0After reintroducing herself, she said, \u201cYou used to say that we should explore different ways of living. I am happily married, I have a child, but I am still not happy.\u201d The teacher advised her former student\u00a0to get out and learn something new. It could be computers, or anything she liked. \u201cAbove all, do something that is only for yourself,\u201d she told her. Bela said she would. The teacher didn\u2019t hear from her again.<\/div>\n
At a time when\u00a0the Bharatiya Janata Party has made the valorisation of Mother India \u2013 and, by extension, maternity\u00a0\u2013 \u00a0the touchstone of national belonging, the teacher\u2019s advice to a young woman to look beyond the role of motherhood sounds strangely subversive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If the task of\u00a0a teacher is to\u00a0open the minds of her\u00a0students to new ideas and ways of thinking, Nivedita Menon has been on the job for nearly three\u00a0decades now.<\/div>\n