Let me congratulate the JAMIA TEACHERS SOLIDARITY GROUP for condemning “the
communal witch hunt in Jamia Nagar and demanding an independent and impartial
enquiry.” I wholeheartedly endorse this bold, pro-people and patriotic stand.
This is precisely the way the nation expects its intellectuals, whose education
has been funded by the sweat and blood of the toiling masses, to act.
It would help greatly if this statement is printed as pamphlets in Hindi and
Urdu and distributed widely in Delhi, especially in Jamia Nagar and the
surrounding localities. In these difficult times, the people need to know that
they are not alone.
Being in Bhopal, I am clearly not in a position to share the “sense of
alienation, terror and insecurity” the students and teachers of Jamia Millia
Islamia may be experiencing. However, I am seriously concerned about the manner
in which the dream of India as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and
multi-lingual nation is being challenged. This is precisely the dream for which
all sections of the Indian people fought together against the British Empire
for our freedom. I have just now seen a powerful statement of Gandhi, cited on
this yahoogroup/ googlegroup by someone while commenting on the anti-Christian
attacks in Orissa (I would love to have the precise source of this statement):
“Test of our citizenship will be when Muslim or Hindu concerns are no longer
concerns only for Muslims or Hindus, but become our concerns.”
The JAMIA TEACHERS SOLIDARITY GROUP has shown that, in the hour of national
crisis, there are citizens in the country who can pass this litmus test of
India’s citizenship.
Let us also recall that the Jamia Millia University was founded at the
initiative of Late Dr. Zakir Husain as part of the freedom struggle. The
declaration by the University Vice Chancellor Prof. Mushirul Hassan that the
university feels morally bound to defend its students until proven guilty, is
very much in line with the glorious tradition of Jamia’s contribution to the
building of modern India. This reminds me that whenever the British Police
wanted to enter the campus of the Benares Hindu University to arrest the
students fighting for freedom in the 1920s or 1930s, the Vice Chancellor Late
Shri Madan Mohan Malviya would take a stern stand that there is no place
whatsoever for the Police in the university campus. And the British Police
would not have the moral courage to cross the university gates. Prof. Mushirul
Hassan’s stand puts him in the same genre of India’s educational leaders
as Shri Madan Mohan Malviya. Hopefully, the Vice
Chancellors of all the 300 odd universities of India would stand up with Prof.
Hassan and take a similar stand in defense of the Fundamental Rights enshrined
in the Constitution, whenever the dignity of the academic community (for that
matter, any citizen of India) is challenged.
We need to learn to fight terrorism, including the state terrorism, without
falling in the trap of religious fundamentalism and communal politics. This
would be India's unique contribution to the world. Given our culturally diverse
polity, there is probably no country better placed to learn this lesson than
India. May be Jamia’s academic community can show us the way forward.
If it makes a difference, please add my name to list of people who are
endorsing this statement.
- Anil Sadgopal
--
Prof. Anil Sadgopal
Former Dean, Faculty of Education
University of Delhi
E-8/29, Sahkar Nagar
Bhopal 462 039
