Jamia Rises in Solidarity with the North East Community

[Following is an official Jamia press release dated Feb. 10, 2014]

In the aftermath of the recent crimes against members of the North East Community, students, teachers, staff of the Jamia Millia Islamia held a meeting today i.e.February 10, 2014 where the Vice Chancellor Prof S M Sajid along with deans/HoDs/Officers of the University discussed issues regarding the safety and security of the students of North East Region studying in Jamia Millia Islamia as also shared concerns about growing crime against members from the north east region with the objective of building confidence of one and all.

The meeting was addressed by Prof. S.M. Ashraf, Registrar, Prof. Sanjoy Hazarika, Director, North East Studies and Policy Research, Jamia Millia Islamia.

The meeting began with the members offering condolence to Nido Taniam, a student from Arunachal Pradesh who died in a gruesome incident in Delhi recently. The house observed silence in his memory.

The Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia in his remarks, condemned the incident and said that no life should be sacrificed because of prevalent prejudice and lack of understanding. He said “Being an academic institution, we can play a bigger role in educating people to live in shared spaces with people from not just other parts of the country but from all walks of life.”

He said, the university had submitted a proposal to the Ministry of HRD to establish a Museum of North East Region in Jamia Millia Islamia which will be open to the general public and will generate awareness about the cultures, languages, arts, crafts, literatures etc of the different states of the North East. He said it was his hope that since Jamia was the first university to set up the Centre of North East Studies, this initiative of generating awareness, will go a long way in people shedding their prejudices.

The Vice-Chancellor asked the students of the North East Region to approach him by Email Id, phone call in case he/she feels insecure or has any other concern.

Prof Sanjoy Hazarika too addressed those gathered and said that people do not know but the state that Nido came from actually adopted the Hindi language.

Thereafter, members of the university discussed their concerns about the issue with students over a cup of tea.