Kolkata,December 30, (The New Indian Express): Downing the curtains on a stormy 19-month tenure, India’s first transgender principal Manabi Bandopadhyay of Krishnanagar in Nadia district of West Bengal tendered her resignation, citing non-cooperation from staff and students of the college.
Formerly a male called Somnath, Manabi created history by becoming the first transgender in the country to become principal of a college, Krishnanagar Women’s College, on June 9, 2015. She had undergone
operations in 2003 to change her gender while working as a professor in a college in the same district.
However, her tenure as principal was shrouded in controversies and allegations of graft. After the principal filed FIRs against two professors of the college stating they had assaulted her, the college administration and students erupted in protest and classes were suspended for a week in December this year. The resignation is seen as a fallout of that protest.
“I feel like a newly wed woman who was welcomed on the wedding night and burned a year later,” she said. “I am tired with continuous agitations. I came with a lot of hope but feel defeated,” she adde
Even though Bandopadhyay claimed her sexual identity overshadowed every decision of her’s as a tough taskmaster, the professors had maintained that her sexual identify was immaterial and they were against her administrative policies.
“Had I been a female, would the professors dared to assault me?,” the 50-year-old had said during the agitation in December first week.
A four-member team led by Joint Director of Public Instruction (DPI) R P Bhattacharjee had visited the college on a fact-finding mission, report of which is awaited.
The editor of India’s first transgender magazine ‘Ob-Manab’ (Sub-human) plans to return to her old college and work as a professor there.
(The featured image shows college Principal Manabi Bandhopadhyay, formerly a man named Somnath)
