Remembering Vimukta Sharma, College Principal Who Was Set Ablaze By Ex-Student

21st February 2023. I open the local newspaper to a shocking reportage of a school principal set on fire by an ex-student of her college. The reason for this unspeakable crime I cannot read, as my eyes refuse to avert from the mug shot of the lady in the picture, clad in a traditional attire probably taken from some family event.

The caption informs me, that it was taken only a few days earlier, making the incident harder to believe. The contentment on her face presumably comes from the learning of reaching a stage where she should be reaping the benefits of dedicating her prime to educating hundreds of her young scholars.

Remembering Vimukta Sharma

But the picture takes me 20 years back to my graduation years at the college, where Vimukta ma’am served as a faculty member albeit in a different stream from mine. In the flashes of my memory from those years, a younger version of her radiant face always beamed back, flailing her long braided mane in a gesture of sweet laughter over sisterly conversations. 

Much to my family’s objection I had participated in a personality contest, a part of the college’s annual fest. My parents were against my participation in it over concerns for my studies. I had known Vimukta ma’am even before joining college, through a common acquaintance. I would visit her in the staff room sometimes to just say hello or if the time permitted, we would engage in hearty conversations about career plans and college in general.

When I told her about my wish to participate in the contest and my family’s disapproval, she offered to discuss the matter with my parents. Her assurance to my family, guaranteeing no loss of studies allowed me to be a part of the most unforgettable event of my education years, where I discovered my vulnerabilities and made a few friends for life.  

When I stood facing the audience, I was taken by a pleasant surprise to see my father sitting amongst the audience, nodding his head approvingly in my direction. My eyes darted towards Vimukta ma’am, who was smiling with a knowing look on her face. 

Our relationship since had grown into a warm and sisterly connection and continued being so throughout the course of my degree. 

I never knew, that after all these years, one day I would be seeing her on the front-page news for a reason that makes our conscience cry in pain. Why did I, even before gathering myself to read the full story, have an idea of the horror that would unfold? 

In a state where we take pride in running campaigns like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti padhao’ and chant shlokas holding a Guru equivalent to Brahma, who are we to blame for this cultural burden of allowing a hideous crime against a female guru, whose only fault was to report hooliganism in her jurisdiction and hope for justice?

The overall coverage of media makes me queasy, why is it so easy to put it in the alibi of entertainment? In which mocking a teacher in a classroom is just another meme and Kabir’s couplets surrounding a teacher fit only for a school scene? If the media claims it to be the reflection of society, then it is trivialising the immense power that it has to act as an antidote to poisoned morality. 

Vimukta Sharma died in a local hospital succumbing to her injuries. I will always remember her as an epitome of grace and a motherly figure. She was also injured by a failed education system where the roots that evolve out of the soil of innocence and constructivism are nurtured with only callous factual knowledge, without the real nourishment of value education that starts with primary schooling imparted not only in schools but also at homes. That teaches through example-leading and storytelling, the basic lessons of ‘gurur-brahma, gurur-vishnu’, respecting women at home as mothers, sisters, daughters, and maids to avoid protruding into a mentality that thinks women to be an easy target of acid attacks and immolation, of vengeance and retardation. 

While we strategise our long-term redressal systems to fill the lacunae in our education apparatus and women’s safety, for now at least the law must not loosen its grip on the culprit. The punishment should be such that if not in the psychological pulse of modern civilization, a little trust can be built in the way we look at justice.

Views expressed are the author's own. 

Dr Sneha Sharma is a professor of Media Management and a writer. She knew Vimukta Sharma through a common acquaintance.

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