Hyderabad: A controversy erupted on the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus after an alumnus lodged a complaint with the varsity administration against a faculty member for allegedly subjecting him to ‘casteist’, ‘classist’ and ‘communal’ abuse. The student is currently pursuing his PhD at a university in the UK.
Instead of academically engaging with the concern, (the faculty member) wrote an email on April 16, 2026, mocking Dalit students and those from Bihar and Jharkhand and commenting that ‘class’ cannot be acquired but must be inherited,” the SFI HCU unit said in its statement. “What began as an academic exchange over revisions to a book chapter turned into abuse when the student explained the ethical constraints that required him to anonymise individuals in his research. Copies of the emails exchanged between the student and the faculty member are with the TOI .
In the complaint to the varsity, backed by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) units in Hyderabad and the UK, the student alleged that the faculty member, during an academic engagement, not only berated him and his background, but also made highly objectionable remarks about Dalits and students from the Bihar-Jharkhand belt.