Universities and the Right to Debate
Do I dare to write this
article? My mind has been in a swirl since the JNU row started. I neither have
all the facts to display Solomon’s wisdom in judging who is right and who is
not nor the courage to take sides on this controversial issue without being
flogged by one side or the other. Every conflict, every controversy needs to
have two contending issues; otherwise there cannot be any dispute. Hence it is
best to leave it to the investigation team to find out the truth as to who was
behind the anti-national chorus indulged in by a small group of slogan mongers.
Yet the events that are daily reported and shown on the national TV channels
create a sense of unease and disquiet in the minds of all those who are
patriotic though they do not wear
patriotism on their sleeves. It is surprising that the police was on the dot at
the venue from where the anti national slogans were emanating. Did the police
have prior information that they suo moto
descended on the University campus or did they come on the request of
University authorities? I have served
Delhi University both as Principal of one of its constituent colleges and Dean
of Students Welfare besides teaching for four decades. Not even once was there
a law and order situation that warranted police presence and action. Students
who at times engaged in shouting and entering the Dean’s office and resorting
to breaking the chairs were treated with good humoured indulgence towards their
young and spirited action. I used to call the TV crew into the room so that
these young agitators got free photo-ops and they would go away soon after that.
There have been many occasions when these students had returned late in the
evening after 6 to my room with apologies saying that nothing was intended
against us but they had to do so at the bidding of their political masters.
“After all, we are the student wing of the party” they would say in defence.
No student is anti
national even if s/he were to disagree with the policies of the establishment. Youth by nature has the tendency to rebel
against anything imposed or anything that it regards as anti-youth. But this
does not mean they are anarchic or unpatriotic. All of us have gone through
that phase when we were university students and questioned anything and everything that had a
paternalistic rigour. We have rebelled against parental authoritarianism as much as that of
the establishment till such time we crossed over to the other side. This is
what Aristophanes(450B.C) had written in his play The Clouds where he talks about a Think-Academy run by Socrates who
promises the youth to learn to think critically about all norms and conventions
and to construct arguments heedless of authority. Socrates was criticized and
punished as a heretic to question regimented views imposed in the name of
tradition and to encourage independent thinking.
Nearly 2500 years
later, we are still on the warpath with youngsters for starting a debate on
capital punishment that has kept hanging since Afzal Guru’s execution. That
debate has snowballed into an issue related to sedition against the nation. Once again knives are out as to what
constitutes sedition and how is it different from dissent and debate that go by
the pejorative “subversiveness”. Either
we suffer from a loss of memory or lack of historical knowledge since we do not
recall the flower power of the late 1960s
and the early 1970s that was a symbol of resistance of the American youth to Vietnam war following the Gandhian path of passive
non-resistance. Ten thousand youth from different American Universities joined
this ‘Flower Power’movement, which by its name symbolized ideals of universal
humanity, peace and harmony. So was the Velvet revolution in Eastern Europe, a
student led peaceful pro democracy protest that overthrew forty-one years of
authoritarian communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989.
Young adults are always
in the vanguard of movements that herald a change in society and politics. They
debate, deliberate, dissent and out of this churning, they emerge as mature
adults. University provides the platform to discuss and interrogate traditions
and unchallenged mores of society. But in India universities have become
handmaids to politics. Every political party makes use of universities and
colleges to influence the young voters. Students’ union elections are regarded
as a mini referendum on their party’s popularity but unfortunately they are bereft
of political ideas and ideologies. In
some universities party leaders address the student community extolling the
virtues of their respective parties. Students have also come to look upon these
elections as the stepping stone for their movement upwards in the political
hierarchy. The result is universities have become a hotbed for political
clashes. The Lyngdoh Committee (Lyngdoh was former Chief Election Commissioner)
on University/ college elections has made it clear in its recommendations that
student elections and student representations have to disassociate from
political parties(6.3). It is this political affiliation that is at the root of
all that has happened in JNU and all that had happened earlier in other
universities. Having been at Delhi University for forty years, I affirm that
student union elections in a majority of
women’s colleges( exceptions are just a few) have always been fought on issues related to the institution
and no political campaigning have ever taken place till date.
Students come to the
University to learn and they learn as much from the classroom as from the
debates and dialogues within the campus. The argument that students are the
future leaders makes sense if they are allowed to study, learn and are exposed
to different points of view to arrive at their own mature conclusion. Universities
are often labeled ‘ Liberty Halls ‘ where the right to express is recognized as
the inalienable right of the student. Only after completion of their graduate
programmes can they attach themselves to a political party of their choice.
What is happening today is students are not given the time and opportunity to
think and mature, but are lured into joining political outfits to enhance their
future prospects. It is a moot question as to how many new ideas are
germinating from the universities whose primary function is to generate
ideas. We are back to pre-Socrates world
where students had no choice but to implicitly pay obedience to what is told
rather than question, argue, debate and accept or reject it.
I make this plea to the universities to adopt
Lyngdoh’s recommendation in letter and spirit and disallow entry of political
groups to contest elections. The mass youth movement against Vietnam war was
the result not of any political influence of the Democratic or Republican
parties, but of a natural surging of protest in the name of humanity. So was
the Velvet Revolution. Vaclav Havel became president only after Czechoslovakia
was liberated. Let our universities take the lead in nurturing young minds and
protecting them from being brainwashed and prejudiced for or against a
political party. If political leaders stop interfering with the academic
institutions, the university remains true to its objective to enable students
to develop critical thinking which forms the basis for discerning judgement.
The Universities should aim at building thinking
skills which, according to John Dewy would benefit the individual learner,
the community and the entire democracy. In the UK school system, critical
thinking is offered as a subject at the A-level examinations, to make students think critically about,
and analyze issues on their deductive or inductive
validity, and bring forth their own arguments. It also
tests their ability
to analyze certain related topics such
as credibility and ethical decision-making.
JNU row can prove an important milestone for higher education in India if
Universities implement Lyngdoh’s caveat against political interference in the
university elections. Some of the women’s colleges have organized open debates
on the model of American election debates
and this is a healthy practice where the students are told not to
descend to low levels of name calling
and name bashing, and where they are expected to address the genuine
difficulties faced by the student community. It is time for our universities to
set a model code of conduct of elections and enable the contestants to focus on
issues relevant to the students with respect to curriculum, examination system,
reforms in pedagogy, facilities in the campus for self development, placements
etc.
Liberal Arts course as a compulsory course in the second and the third
years ( and not in the first year)should be introduced where the study of
political ideas, ideologies, economic theories that stress on equity and
development, historical narratives, sociological concepts, study of world
religions, Literature and Humanity and
the relevance, influence and negative fall-outs of Science and Technology will
enable students to have a breadth of understanding of issues that have a
bearing on Man and Society. Our universities have to come forward to provide
quality education cutting across disciplines to make a wholesome individual of
the student. General lectures should be in place for an hour and a half thrice
a week either before lunch break or at the end of the day by leading
academicians and these should be supplemented by uploading these lectures along
with additional study material and reference books to enable
students to study on their own. Debates, discussions, paper presentation and
seminars on related topics should be a part of evaluation of the students. This
calls for a dynamic curriculum on Liberal Studies. The lectures can be arranged
in different colleges on specific days and specific time to enable students
from cluster colleges to attend.
We are sitting on a goldmine which is our youth force. Let us not mistake
it to be a powder keg to explode. If the goldmine is kept under lock and key,it
will be of no use. There will be no power to drive us in the future. If it is
properly nurtured and utilized, it will be our future asset. By working on
impressionable minds, by appealing to their emotion and clouding their
reasoning faculty, we will be destroying our future asset. University is a
place that allows for diversity and through free exchange of contesting ideas
and ideologies, it promotes catholicity of thought and a high degree of multipolarity
in social and economic order. But if we incite it and set aflame the powder
keg, we are in danger of intellectual, liberal, social and emotional
extinction. Hope Universities wake up to usher in a new order of thinking,
opening up of deep and sweeping vistas of the future and a well informed and
knowledgeable youth force that will be truly and meritoriously a “made in
India” product.
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