IIT Delhi professor Divya Dwivedi has become front-page news all of a sudden after her controversial comments on Hinduism amid the ongoing G20 Summit 2023 in the national capital.
Divya Dwivedi gave an interview to French media where she said that India of the future will be without Hinduism, leading to outrage on social media after the clip of her went viral.
“There are two Indias. Past India of racialized caste order oppressing the majority population and then there is the India of the future that is an egalitarian India without caste oppression and Hinduism.
"That is the India which is not yet represented but is waiting, longing for the world to show its visage to the world," Divya told France 24.
She went on with her rant, talking about the enduring influence of the caste system in India, where a minority of the population (the upper caste) maintains a stronghold on most of the country's lucrative and powerful positions, and this situation persists in the present day.
"India has been shaped over the 300 years by the racialised order of caste where 10 per cent of the upper caste are a minority but they occupy 90 per cent of the lucrative and powerful positions that continues even today,” she is heard saying, with special emphasis on the words ‘even today.’
Who is Divya Dwivedi?
Divya Dwivedi is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.
She is also a philosopher , Marxist and an author who writes about Hinduphobia, ontology, metaphysics, literature, and philosophy of politics.
Divya has in the past as well, made controversial remarks against Hinduism and described it as a "false religion invented in earlier 20th century".
Divya hails from Allahabad and is the daughter of Rakesh Dwivedi, who is a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court.
Divya holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and did her Master's from St. Stephen's College.
She pursued her M.Phil from University of Delhi and received her doctorate from IIT Delhi.
