12k students, 800 gold medallists: Jamia holds first convocation post pandemic

Student activist Asif Iqbal Tanha, whose six-semester exams were cut short after his detention in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots case, was one of the students eligible to receive their degree from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) during its centennial convocation ceremony on Sunday. In the main conspiracy case brought under the UAPA, Tanha (27), was detained. The Delhi High Court granted him bail in the matter in 2021.

Around 12,500 students, including about 800 gold medalists and PhD students, finished their coursework during the interval leading up to this, JMI's first convocation since the epidemic, according to the university.

Tanha remarked on how he finished his course work while spending 13 months in jail, even though he was unable to receive his degree. In 2017, he had enrolled in Jamia's BA (Honours) Persian programme.

Due to my arrest in May 2020, I was unable to take three tests in my sixth semester. I wanted to make sure I could accomplish as many duties as I could in case I ended up in jail, he added, so I made sure I could when we were called for investigation in April of that year.

He said, "I studied for one of my tests from prison and took it when I was given reprieve by the court in June 2021 for 15 days.

Additionally, he said that the lack of material availability caused his grades to decline. "My lawyers would send messages to my classmates... While incarcerated, planning was challenging. There were no teachers to dispel questions... I needed a dictionary since I was learning a language, but not much reading material was permitted inside the cell. It was restricted to literature covered in the course syllabus, Tanha continued.

Tanha is currently employed for the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights as a researcher. He is a Jharkhand native. His mother was a housewife, while his father worked as a teacher in a private school.

The Indian Express also interviewed gold medalists who were presented with awards at the event. One of them, Sadaf Zareen (29), earned the prize for being the Mass Communication class of 2020 best student.

"It's nice to return to my alma mater after a three-year absence and see old classmates, teachers, and other Jamia staff members. This medal sort of belongs to everyone I worked with on various group initiatives, not just to me. My mom and family, who saw a live feed of the ceremony, are quite proud as well," said Zareen, a Delhi native who is currently an associate producer at a media company in Mumbai.

Her mother is a retired public school teacher, while her father is an engineer. She has two master's degrees total. Her undergraduate degree from Delhi University was in Modern Indian History.