Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been in news for the last couple of years. Sloganeering and poster display against the nation were repeatedly orchestrated. The administrative block near the Vice Chancellor’s office has been converted into August Karnti Marg: every evening a section of students belonging to the leftist organisations gather and invite political leaders of their ilk and stage protests against the smooth functioning of the university. This is a regular phenomenon. Norms and discipline in the university have been put at risk. Such incidents which have affected academic life have left thousands of students who came from different parts of the country to study in the prestigious university frustrated
It’s ironical that such “secularists” celebrate birth anniversaries of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh — the freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for the nation — and at the same time talk about dividing India into thousand pieces. Reading Annihilation of Caste by Ambedkar and Why I am an Atheist by Bhagat Singh do not bring these students closer to their understanding of India. The discourse on nationalism taught in JNU has certain loopholes. One of the leading thinkers of RSS Krishna Gopal said, “Many Marxists consider him to be a believer in the class struggle, while Ambedkar himself had denounced communism and declared himself as the enemy of communists and communism.” He continued to mention that Ambedkar had strong faith in Indian culture and Dharma. “Ambedkar himself said that he believes in Dharma, and without the values of Dharma, society would turn into a place of constant struggle between the jealous and power hungry individuals.”
leftists are known to be the most intolerant of dissent. There are many instances when the leftwing students’ union did not allow other ideologies to be heard and spoken on the campus. Arvind Gupta, Deputy National Security Adviser, has not been allowed in JNU recently. In 1997 lK Advani was not allowed on the campus. Indeed, the separatists and ultra-leftists are speaking the same language in certain campuses. The radicals in JNU campus demand beef in messes and worship Mahishashur. Ideas of Ambedkar and Gandhi are completely misrepresented by theses leftist students’ union, as both of the leaders fought for the cultural identity of India.
It is utter nonsense and nauseating that handful of extreme left brigades are holding the JNU campus to ransom and not allowing the academic discourse on the campus. It is important to see why it has been happeningIJ It is not merely the students of a particular ideology, but a large chunk of JNU teachers is involved in this subversive narrative. They are desperate and frustrated with the current BJP Government at the Centre. The desperation is not merely ideological but their social and economic predominance are at risk. Over the period of time, they have carved a safe haven for their academic luxury. Ambedkar wanted the university to be a guiding spirit for society. As he himself was a professor for many years, Baba Saheb was well aware of the issues pertaining to students. While delivering a speech for students, he observed, “Knowledge is the foundation of a man’s life and every effort must be made to maintain the intellectual stamina of a student and arouse his intellect.” For Ambedkar, education was meant for generating self-confidence. He insisted on value education and said that besides knowledge, students should inculcate character, politeness and discipline while studying. Ambedkar highlighted the limitation of acquiring degree. Ambedkar differentiated success in examinations and acquiring degrees from being intellectual and well educated. His expositions duly explained the current status of JNU where nation-building and value system are not part of the education.
Ever since its inception in 1969, the university has been a breeding ground for the leftists. The process of turning institutions of higher education into Marxist fiefdom had started under the tutelage of then Education Minister S Nurul Hasan and JNU fell in that trap. In fact, JNU is on its way to become a torchbearer of the Marxist ideology. Hasan’s policy ensured even faculty members were wedded to only the leftist ideology, and the university is yet to get out of the clutch. From this stranglehold developed three predominant narratives in the JNU: secular vs communal, conflicts and divisions, and third the narrative of a whiner. These narratives are ingrained in new and existing students by the leftist students’ unions, and also by teachers, albeit in classrooms.
Secularism is a western concept. The Western religions have always operated on a different plane from those of other institutions, such as science and Government. There has been a constant struggle among these institutions wherein each tries to supersede the other. This struggle of power led to the rise of a concept called “secularism”. Eventually, religion represented by the church became the most dominant institution. This power equation left little room for any meaningful discourse, intellectual or otherwise, outside the gambit of religion and church. A secular state does not have a state religion and it does not favour one religion over others in matters of state policy. The leftist intellectuals and politicians have tried to inaccurately apply the concept of secularism to India, which historically has been a pluralistic Dharmic society. Dharma is very much part of Indian culture and hence is non-separate. Dharma, however, does not threaten nor is it in conflict with state. Thus secularism, in Indian context, seeks to separate the culture of the nation from its people. The opposite of secular is religious. However, in JNU context (for that matter, in Indian left-liberal parlance) opposite of secular is considered communal — one that creates conflict between different communities. In JNU, every argument on secularism ends up in a binary of secular vs communal. But there is an additional element to this binary, it is reserved primarily for the Hindus. This effectively means that any Hindu who has a penchant for his/her faith, culture, history and traditions becomes communal, and hence contemptuously hate-worthy.
The other predominant JNU narrative is of conflict and division. This narrative is presented in the form of “exploiter” and “exploited”. Marxists generally view literature as “products” of the economic and ideological determinants specific to that era. In doing so, they completely ignore and discount the timeless artistic criteria in such literatures. Karl Popper claims that Marxism is unscientific in its methodology as it cannot be tested and possibly be falsified mainly because it sees the replacement of Capitalism by Communism as “historically inevitable”.
The third major narrative revolves around the over-emphasis on the evils of society, particularly the Hindu society. Indian intellectuals in general and JNU academicians in particular have a fetish for the ills for society for which they keep complaining and whining all the time. Prof Kapil Kapoor, the former Pro-VC of JNU, aptly calls these intellectuals Rudalis of our time. Rudalis, as you know, were the professional mourners. Nearly a decade or so has seen a perceptive decline in the leftists’ clout over the institutions of higher education all over. With such developments, it is only a matter of time that the new JNU narrative will become part of a positively India & Dharma-centric grand narrative. It is in the interest of the nation that the left must not dictate its terms in academic institutions.
(The writer is Head of the Department of Political Science, Central University of Haryana)