Nupur argues that teaching at a women’s institution comes with its share of questions. Young women in these colleges are not domiciled in metropolitan cities alone but are from different parts of the country. Does a particular character of the classroom emerge, as geographical, cultural and gender marginality coincide? What are some challenges faced by an educator in such a space? What is the relevance of such a space that is a melting pot of identities? In line with this thought, her paper will reflect on the emergence of universities as alternate spaces that increasingly pose a challenge to the majoritarian discourse. How do the political and the pedagogical intersect? Does the conventional understanding of the term ‘student’ and ‘teacher’ undergo a redefinition? What role do institutions of higher education have in dismantling majoritarian politics? These questions will be examined in the light of recent protests, including dissident voices against the introduction of the NEP 2020.

The experience of teaching in a private college with an upper class/caste Hindu majority, with about 80 teachers and 3000 students pushed Shabeeh to interrogate the space in which Indian Muslim women operate in academia. Only two teachers and a handful of students were Muslim minority. While state governments in India are upholding the ban on hijab as part of uniforms and making the Gita compulsory reading in schools, there are also celebrations of Hindu festivals in educational institutions, which are essentially neutral public spaces. It was not surprising to see a change in the gaze of co-workers when my alma mater, Jamia Millia Islamia, was attacked in the wake of NRC/CAA protests. Being seen as an outsider and/or overtly sympathized with was extremely discomforting. She attempts to question this lack of diversity vis-à-vis the Sachar Committee Report and NEP 2020, to interrogate the impact on the state of Indian Muslim women in academia.

Billie contends that the absence of voices from the northeastern region poses a herculean challenge to the vision of India. Her paper focuses on India's education policy and problematizes the non-inclusion of narratives from the northeastern region in the curricula of school boards and higher education across India. She will also discuss her pedagogical experiences of teaching in a Muslim minority institution as an ethno-religious minority woman to examine how absences in the education policy have impacted pedagogy and how the classroom becomes the perfect site to resist the idea of a monolithic India.

Asiya argues that a critical encounter with contemporary South Asian literature, especially Kashmir, is long overdue under the impact of a globalized discourse of world literature. There is a need for pedagogy and literary reading, in the ‘global classroom’ one reconstituting the other. Such a space imagined by the idea of inclusive classrooms shall bring about a globally accredited cultural inclusivity. One would expect this change to begin with the Indian curriculum, but there is a lack of focus on the marginalized regional languages and literature within the educational policies in India. The case study comes from Asiya’s pedagogical experience of teaching “Revisiting Kashmir: A Study of Literature and Culture” and “South Asian Narratives: from Ghazal” at Cornell University. She problematizes the absence of a theorization or a well-developed pedagogy while teaching in a global space.