JAIPUR: Rajasthan University hostels are fostering divisions on the basis of castes. Majority of its 18 hostels are sharply divided on caste like Jats, Gujjars, SCs and STs and Brahmins. These hostels follow unwritten laws of reserving seats for students of particular castes and communities, leading to frequent conflicts among them. The university administration has further encouraged the trend by officially reserving two hostels for SCs and STs.

It is learnt that the vice chancellor of Rajasthan University and deputy secretary of UGC, Dev Swarop, had called a meeting of wardens and urged them to revamp the current casteist structure of hostels but the university is yet to see any development in the case. Swarop said, "Some students of underprivileged communities approached me and told me to stop this move of integrating hostels. I was shocked to learn that that they were opposing the move fearing once they move to other hostels, they will face the harassment and discrimination."

He said in most of the progressive universities, the division of students is seen on the basis of ideology but here it is based on caste and is very disturbing.

Swami Vivekananda Hostel is unofficially for Jats, Aravalli Hostel for SCs, JC Bose for Brahmins and DBN for Gujjars among others.

A similar divide is seen at girls' hostels. Here, Jats are majority in Kasturba Hostel, Brahmins in Saraswati Hostel for Brahmins and SCs in Mahi. In fact, some hostel seats are vacant but students of other castes dared not to fill them. The hostels have over 8,000 occupants from different regions in the state.

Rajiv Gupta, former head of sociology department, RU, who carried out a detailed study on these hostels, said, "The sense of insecurity among the underprivileged castes with the thought of being overpowered by the dominant caste was so high that the idea of integration is limited and they wanted to put up with same caste students from different regions. Over the years, this set-up has resulted in several inter-caste rivalries and conflicts."

Recently, RU had expelled 10 students for ragging students of ST and SC students in Swami Vivekananda Hostel. In a recorded testimony, victims narrated that they were subjected to casteist remarks and faced discrimination at the hands of students from the dominant community. The latest incident of suspension of seven students from Maharaja College on Tuesday only indicates how grave the situation has become.

The rivalries are not restricted to intra-caste but it has sunk to inter-caste rivalries based on regional identities. Such incidents are very common but rarely reach the ears of university or police.

