An Unrest called JNU

Why is Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a university which is among the top three in India, and where 40% of students come from families earning Rs 12,000 or less per month, so agitated about the recent hikes in hostel fees imposed arbitrarily by the administration? Images of JNU students shouting slogans, marching to Parliament and being water-cannoned and baton-charged have upset the comfortable tranquillity of many posh living rooms. Why do JNU students behave like this, you ask with a look of exasperated concern?

I have a counter question: Why does JNU bother you so much? By you I mean the narrow, cretinous world of the neo-liberal, right-winger. Is the aura of freedom it exudes so bothersome? I don’t even have to step out of the campus these days to feel these bad vibes. Some of my colleagues who appeared to be centrist-liberals prior to 2014 have shifted gears to join the saffron bandwagon. They mock dissidents as living in a `time-wrap’ or a `meaningless bubble’. One in fact publicly waxes about JNU being an impediment to national unity. Petty people, looking for petty crumbs, are on now the veneration trampoline, whooping praises of the ‘great transformation’ as they jump up and down.

What do these colleagues mean by JNU being a `meaningless bubble’? JNU is a unique bubble, everything but meaningless; nor will it burst as its most fiendish critics know since 2014. Its uniqueness is its intellectual elasticity. Having taught here for more than 25 years, I now understand that elasticity lies in the cultural and ideological diversities which exist and are nurtured here. My Centre, which is deservedly infamous for practicing critical history, is unsurprisingly the favourite bugbear of the Hindutva ideologues. A younger colleague once remarked that a large contingent of right-wing supporters in the JNUSU elections belong to my Centre. I was taken aback. Not even once can I recall any of my students specializing in medieval Indian history expressing discomfort at our `Muslim’ past. Perhaps because of the courses, or the readings, or the issues being discussed, or the cathartic touch of JNU itself made them reflect critically on contentious historical issues rather than on many contentious issues from a fabricated past. JNU’s intellectual `bubble’ is its unique capacity to engage in dialogue with competing and opposed ideologies.

To get a perspective on current issues, one will have to look at the situation that has been cynically created since 2016. The administration has done everything possible to chip away at the founding principles of JNU. The Act and the Statutes have been side-lined. Precedents and norms have been violated. People with experience and acumen have been by-passed from statutory bodies. More than 50 senior professors were recently superseded from the Deanship of the School of Social Sciences. The Academic Council is a rubber stamp and dissenting teachers, particularly women faculty, are regularly humiliated. In one instance, security personnel escorted a faculty member out of an Academic Council meeting because the Vice Chancellor was angry with him over a disagreement. Elected student representatives are not called for such meetings. Dissent is despised. Teachers are charged-sheeted under the Central Civil Services (Conduct) rules and students exorbitantly fined for protesting.

The present JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) has not even been notified despite winning a landslide election, let alone being consulted on the fee hikes. In fact, look at the JNUSU elections. The union’s presidential debate is the point at which ideological disagreements reach their crescendo, but without violence. The consensus of debate enforces a culture of intellectual and physical restraint. JNU is truly the home of the argumentative Indian. Even tutorial discussions can go on for hours because informed disagreements are considered the touchstone of academic excellence.

In a country fractured with deep social and cultural inequalities, JNU has consciously tried to be different. Perhaps, this hurts you the most. How dare the marginalized demand social justice? Social exclusion and marginalization are not about poverty alone, though the two go hand in hand. JNU has tried to redress the imbalance, fully aware that barriers created over millennia of oppression are insurmountable. The effort thus is not just about fulfilling reservation quotas. Equally critical is to empower in non-discriminatory, humane and inclusive ways.

To this end, JNU evolved a uniquely progressive admissions policy with deprivation points based on regional, educational and gender handicaps. These ended by administrative fiat in 2017, with shocking consequences. In one year, the intake of students from rural areas fell by 20.2% and by 16% for those coming from families earning less than Rs 6,000 a month. Hikes in hostel fees and user charges, even after the sops ostensibly given to those coming from BPL families will mean about a quarter of JNU’s students will be forced to leave. This is how JNU’s administration has betrayed the poorest in this country.

(The writer is Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University)