My name is Sanjana Chettri, and I grew up about 12 km south of Gangtok, Sikkim. I recently graduated from SOAS University of London with an MSc Degree in Development Studies under the fully-funded Chevening Scholarship.
I was the youngest scholar from my cohort and was awarded the scholarship at 23. The point of the above line might sound like a flex on meritocracy, but it serves as a precursor to deconstructing the role of social privileges that worked towards my favour.
I attended a low-resource private school in a suburban neighbourhood. The school was simple, and spoken English was the only marketable tool to persuade parents to distinguish it from public schools. The teachers also came from humble backgrounds, and hence their goals of mentorship would be limited. Their student could perhaps become a football coach, but would not have access to study abroad.
However, in my favour the school engineered sufficient confidence in me to cultivate ambitions—of better education, opportunities and knowledge production. At school, even though we had limited access to resources, I was driven by the accountability and mentorship of my teachers. Hence, confidence is not inherent but cultivated based on your socio-economic circumstances.
I understand the confidence geared in me solidified as social capital. This capital lets you dream, aim, and gain access to the network which then multiplies opportunities for oneself. Unfortunately, this form of social capital is inequitably distributed, because schools do not invest in everyone’s confidence equally.
When I dreamt of attending Lady Shri Ram College for Women at the University of Delhi, I perhaps had no knowledge about it barring its rank. It was a superficial way to understand its importance, but I lacked the network to know more about the college in detail. No one from my school, or my vicinity had attended the said college.
However, when I got to attend college—-courtesy of the loan, and the unwavering resilience of my unemployed mother—I suffered from depression. LSR is notoriously an elite space with its stark liberal feminist agenda. However, I was able to find a space eventually among young students from across the country who engaged in social and political activism.
Nobody should be able to deny the newly formed/exaggerated social capital when you graduate from a prominent institution in New Delhi. You form networks and friendships. Your senior has attended the University of Cambridge at the age of 22/23, or they have bagged a 34 L annual package from Bank of America.
You already have a pool to borrow dreams from, and the added benefit of mentorship from them if you want to materialise those dreams. These are social privileges and are more often than not—direct consequences of economic privileges.
I developed similar networks, but LSR profusely hampered my confidence to an extent. I was a fresh JNU reject and started working post completing my undergraduate degree. Throughout my time at LSR, I never imagined applying to universities abroad, that is until I graduated and heard of a college senior from Sikkim having gained acceptance to study at the University of Cambridge.
This generated motivation in me. And while I am not a fan of representation politics, at least then, it underlined the importance of representation for me because she belonged to a similar class, and the community as I did. This motivated me to make an application to Chevening first—still doubtful of myself.
I only started applying to universities after I got invited to an interview for Chevening. I did not imagine getting through it. Eventually, I was awarded the scholarship, and I went on to attend SOAS University of London.
Even at self-proclaimed radical spaces like SOAS, I could not find any other Indian Nepali. I and a friend from Arunachal Pradesh solely represented the North-East to mainland Indians. But in terms of numbers alone, SOAS still did better than the University of Oxford, which did not have a single student from the region.
However, I did not experience any isolation and in fact, went on to have a great time with friends all over. This confidence to approach people, and widen networks are also a result of your social capital, and this cements further and multiplies. I studied at LSR and met a senior there, her admission motivated me, and I got to study in London. But what about folks who are not able to reach Delhi in the first place? Is it not unjust to deprive people of necessary access to knowledge production?
I am not a huge fan of communities based solely on identities without incorporating the class angle into it, but I understand the importance of mentorship whose cultural and economic contexts are relatable.
Folks from marginalised communities from the NE are seriously under-represented across quality higher educational spaces in India. Economic disprivilege, the central government’s induced militarisation and a lack of culture-sensitive mentorship may be some of the prime reasons behind the said gap.
There are radical fights to lead for the first two problems, but Project EduAccess may be working to address the aforementioned lack of mentorship. Project EduAccess aims to improve access to higher education, leadership and professional opportunities for individuals from marginalised communities in the Global South.
It has a dedicated vertical for ‘North-East’ being co-led by members of the community from the region. We have been met with challenges around a) the low number of applications and b) the over-representation of applicants from people who already share access to study at places like Delhi.
We aim to decentralise knowledge about this mentorship platform even further and invite you to a webinar in collaboration with EastMojo (keep an eye on EastMojo’s social media handles for more information). We are also planning capacity-building workshops for young folks from the region and will hope to keep you posted.
If you are a students’ union interested to engage with us, please feel free to write to us at projecteduaccess@gmail.com.
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The panellists for the session are:
- Oonmona Das is from Assam and will be joining the University of Oxford this year to pursue an MPhil in Global and Area Studies to study traditional conflict resolution mechanisms prevalent in Africa and South Asia. Prior to her MPhil, she worked with the Ministry of External Affairs as a Research Associate in the area of International Migration and Diaspora. She also served briefly as a Public Diplomacy Officer at the Embassy of Brazil in New Delhi. She pursued BA (H) in History from Indraprastha College for Women and has a Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from Lady Shri College for Women.
- Mamoon Bhuyan is a Doctoral Researcher at Brunel University London. Originally from a small village in Assam, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the prestigious University of Delhi and completed his post-graduation from Jamia Millia Islamia. His research focuses on international migration, detention camps, vulnerable children, and decolonisation at large
- Sanjana Chettri is currently working as a Communications Consultant with the School Mental Health Initiative, an initiative of the Government of NCT Delhi. Additionally, she is also an Oxfam Young Leaders Fellow and will be working with 50 young folks from various states in the NE on thematic issues of human rights and social justice. She graduated from SOAS University of London in 2022 and her degree was funded by Chevening Global Awards.
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Hi Sanjana. Your brother is proud to find your writing on East Mojo. Congratulations on completing your Masters abroad. I was wondering where you had gone.
You have precisely explained the reasons of us from Northeast not pursuing further studies abroad. I once thought of pursuing my PhD outside of India too. Alas! I had to leave the plan.