On February 12, as students sat outside Delhi University’s Arts Faculty listening to anti-caste poetry and speeches, a bucket of water was hurled toward 73-year-old historian Irfan Habib. Minutes later, bricks came flying from inside the Arts Faculty.

Habib was speaking at the “People’s Literature Festival – Samta Utsav,” an All India Students’ Association (AISA)-led event held outside the Arts Faculty. It was organised in protest against the first-ever Delhi University Literature Festival (DULF) – a Ministry of Culture collaboration themed ‘Nation First: Unity in Diversity’ that ran from February 12–14.

Tensions escalated the following day, marked by a viral video capturing YouTuber Megha Lawariya leading a crowd outside the Maurice Nagar police station and chanting “Brahmanvaad Zindabad”. The standoff followed a confrontation involving another YouTuber Ruchi Tiwari; while AISA alleged she assaulted one of their student leaders, Ruchi maintained that she was the one attacked.

Two festivals, one campus

The DULF was organised from February 12-14. Star guests included TV anchors such as Anjana Om Kashyap, Rubika Liyaqat, Anand Narasimhan, and Smita Prakash.

Other speakers included former National General Secretary of the BJP, Ram Madhav; BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi; Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri; Piyush Mishra; Pankaj Tripathi; and more.

Apart from a ‘Bhajan Clubbing’ event organised in the university stadium, a few of its sessions were titled: “Global Relevance of Vedic Knowledge Today”, “India and the Global Reset”, “Understanding Bharat Beyond Colonial Frames”, and “Vande Mataram: 150 Years of Awakening Nation's Soul”.

Claiming the festival to be “a mouthpiece for regressive propaganda and communal rhetoric,” the All India Students’ Association (AISA), meanwhile, organised a “People’s Literature Festival – Samta Utsav” outside the Arts Faculty in DU.

The festival featured historian Professor S. Irfan Habib, who spoke about a “systematic attempt to rewrite India’s past”, and literary critic Professor Hemlata Mahishwar, who addressed the “marginalisation of Dalit voices”. Additionally, Professor Keshav Kumar recited selections from his new anti-caste poems, while Professor Uma Gupta read verses on the “everydayness” of caste violence.

. ⁦@irfhabib⁩ पर ये जो पानी डाला है बुज़दिलों ने वो पानी भारत के लोकतांत्रिक Values पर डाला गया है , इरफ़ान साहब को इससे फ़र्क़ नहीं पड़ता पर समाज को पड़ना चाहिए, ये कल आपके........

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