Archive · 13 Aug 2026
JNU VC calls Draupadi India's first feminist at BHU conference
A very important person at a big university in India gave a speech at another university.
Her name is Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, and she is in charge of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In her speech, she said that Draupadi, a brave woman from the very old Indian story called the Mahabharata, was India's first feminist.
A feminist is someone who believes women and men should be treated equally.
She said people should not think that Indian feminism started with Western thinkers or ideas.
She also said that India has moved past treating women unfairly, and that people are even scared of India's mother goddesses.
In the old story, Draupadi asked her husbands hard questions after they lost her in a dice game, and the Vice-Chancellor said nobody would dare ask such questions today.
She also said her own university has money problems and joked that building a temple there could help bring in money.
She criticized some people at her university who, she says, care more about their own ideas than about facts.
Some people will agree with her, and others will have different opinions about what she said.
JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit called Draupadi India's first feminist in a keynote address at Banaras Hindu University.
She argued Indian feminism should not be viewed through the lens of Western feminist thought and said India had transcended patriarchy.
Pandit cited Draupadi's questioning of her husbands after they wagered and lost her in a game of dice in the Mahabharata.
She attacked the Left and JNU's historians, saying she is against 'wokeism' and declaring that 'facts are sacred.'
Pandit described JNU as a campus of 'beggars,' suggested building a temple there, and said the Indian Right has under-invested in institution-building.
- Who
- Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit
- What
- Called Draupadi India's first feminist, argued India transcended patriarchy, and criticized the Left, 'wokeism,' and JNU historians
- When
- At a three-day international conference that began on 10 August
- Where
- Banaras Hindu University; the report is datelined New Delhi
- Why
- She was the keynote speaker at a conference themed 'Indian Knowledge Tradition and the Thought of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya: Global Perspective and Contemporary Relevance'
Western and Left intellectual perspectives
Traditionalist Indian perspective
Origins of Indian feminism
Western and Left intellectual perspectives
Feminism is commonly traced through Western feminist thought, such as the work of Simone de Beauvoir, which Pandit explicitly rejects as the starting point for Indian feminism.
Traditionalist Indian perspective
Feminism in India began with Draupadi in the Mahabharata, and should not be judged through the lens of Western feminist thought.
Patriarchy in India
Western and Left intellectual perspectives
The Western feminist framework Pandit opposes treats feminism as a response to patriarchy rather than something separate from it.
Traditionalist Indian perspective
'Indian feminism has nothing to do with patriarchy'; India has transcended patriarchy, and its tradition of mother goddesses 'whom everyone is scared of' reflects reverence for female power.
JNU's intellectual culture
Western and Left intellectual perspectives
Left-aligned scholars and historians at JNU consider their intellectual tradition the only valid one on campus, according to Pandit.
Traditionalist Indian perspective
A monopoly of one ideology prevents a university from functioning and flourishing, and 'wokeism' and the Left value interpretations over facts, which Pandit rejects.
- Speaker
- Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit
- Role
- Vice-Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University (appointed 2022)
- Event
- Three-day international conference
- Conference theme
- Indian Knowledge Tradition and the Thought of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya
- Organizer
- Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Chair, Banaras Hindu University
- Start date
- 10 August
- Chief guest
- Mithileshnandini Sharan
- Central claim
- 'Draupadi is India's first feminist'