New Delhi: In a classroom discussion on the text of Umrao Jaan , the political correctness of the word prostitute came up. Prof Rita Kothari then reminded the class that word ‘R***’ is used in the original Urdu version of the text. The question then was: should we stay with the text or expunge the word?

The online campaign over the word has reached university classrooms.

Content creator and psychologist Divija Bhasin, who started the discussion, has made the entire internet uncomfortable. Bhasin has started a ‘proud r**’ movement**, which seeks to dis-empower the word by owning it. The word ‘Proud R’ is in Bhasin’s Instagram bio, and her reels discuss the word. A lot of her followers, some of them minors, have started adding the word in their bio. It’s a slur used against any wo

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