PARAGRAPH AND WORDS, AND MEANING
Symbols of a deeper stirring :-
The old and historically important university at Varanasi is passing through a significant moment. Educational institutions seldom serve as precise mirrors of historical change because pedagogic and administrative rituals keep their inner life tightly under control. Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is no exception. Rather, like Visva-Bharati, established by Rabindranath Tagore, BHU has maintained a veneer of normalcy governed by sacred customs and rituals that have nicely preserved an empty shell of a special inherited identity. The architecture too conveys a sense of permanent normalcy, like that of a temple. The decline in its institutional pride and standards had begun in the 1960s. Barring brief episodes of precarious recovery, descent into the shared hollow of higher education in the Hindi belt has been consistent. The recent sequence of events at BHU has an element of surprise because it points towards a new kind of assertion and attempt to claim institutional rights. The administration seems unprepared for this turn of events. Its reflexes constitute the time-tested moves to minimise, pacify and press forward. It does not seem to realise, and may not accept if it does, that it is faced with an unfamiliar kind of protester who refuses to be seen as a client. The young women who paid the price of mass protest by getting brutally assaulted and injured have already become symbols of a deeper stirring than the officials of BHU have the wherewithal and imagination to gauge.
WORDS/ VOCABULARY
1) Precise
Meaning: Marked by exactness and accuracy of expression or detail.
Example: Precise directions.
Synonyms: Exact, Accurate
Antonyms: Imprecise, Inaccurate
2) Pedagogic
Meaning: Relating to teaching.
Example: They show great pedagogic skills.
3) Veneer
Meaning: An attractive appearance that covers or disguises someone or something’s true nature or feelings.
Example: Her veneer of composure cracked a little.
Synonyms: Façade, Front
4) Barring
Meaning: Except for; if not for.
Example: Barring accidents, we should win.
Synonyms: Excepting, excluding
5) Descent
Meaning: An act of moving downwards, dropping, or falling.
Example: The plane had gone into a steep descent.
Synonyms: Drop, Dive
Antonyms: Ascent, Climb
6) Brutally
Meaning: In a savagely violent way.
Example: He was imprisoned and brutally tortured.
7) Wherewithal
Meaning: The money or other means needed for a particular purpose.
Example: They lacked the wherewithal to pay.
Synonyms: Money, Ready
8) Gauge
Meaning: A means of estimating something.
Example: Emigration is perhaps the best gauge of public unease.
Synonyms: Measure, Indicator