CAMPUS VIOLENCE

V P Jain*

Whether it is JNU, HCU, FTII, NIT, and now DU, the fact is that the frequency of
violence in universities across India has escalated to an alarming level, which raises
some very serious questions about diversity and freedom in the Indian education
system. Though questions of this kind may have their own intrinsic value, in the
present context, they are symptomatic of a much deeper malady. The tremendous
push by the right wing student outfits is to gain a niche and assert their hegemony in
these institutions of higher learning. The strategy is to shun critical thinking and
inquiry and convert campuses into belligerent political workshops for redeeming the
Indian pride, a renewed sense of purpose by inculcating an aggressive nationalism
in the hearts of the youth of the country.

However, one can only marvel at the discrepancy between the real aims and the
objectives for which the student tussle receives credit from their respective political
mentors. Among the active and precipitating causes of the disturbances, academic
and curricular issues, though, ostensibly paraded, have a very little influence. The so
called academic revolution of the students is not academic at all. It is really a struggle
engineered by groups of individuals, who happen to be students, but has not arisen
from any clear interest orientations of the general mass of students, or from any
visible commitment to the values of the academic world. It is, in fact, a
preposterously conceived , hopelessly romantic effort to use the university campuses
as a base and sanctuary to effect a social order of choice, depending on their
ideological proclivities, which, unfortunately, are orthogonal to each other. Hence,
the confrontation.

The fascination with violence, the intoxication with repetitious exaggerations which
are taken to demonstrate the validity of assertions, unwilling to consider reasonable
arguments, is to hammer home a simplistic reduction of complex issues. They are
true believers who rely on inspiration because gut reactions, according to which the
cause feels right, will prove its correctness. They are convinced that theirs is the only
moral position. Their moral absolutism accords them the right to destroy what they
judge to be amoral, right to break up and take over assemblies, shout down or
physically assault those who refuse to toe their line. Indeed such militancy for a
professed political or social cause is not only felt to be right, but an obligation.

There is old and highly honourable support for the view that the university is a
sanctuary. Repeatedly, acts on the part of the student activists which would have
earned them severe jail sentences if they had taken place in most sectors of society,
have been dealt with as student pranks, regrettable but nonetheless forgivable
excesses of profound student idealism. In most cases campuses are battlegrounds
only for slogan shouting to overawe the rival student groups. Violence, though
regrettable, is a recent phenomenon. Vigilantism cannot and should not be
supported: it is fraught with the danger of degenerating into lumpen
majoritarianism, xenophobes, anti-social and rowdy elements positioning
themselves as the moral police to push their sectarian agenda.
Although history does not repeat itself, there are some striking similarities between
the present student militancy and what happened in the German universities to
spearhead the rise of Hitler. In pre-Hitler Germany also the student rebels came
from the extreme right, and the philosophy espoused to win a mass following for the
faithful was racist, was directed against a discriminated minority. Universities were
coerced into procedures mapped out by true believers, e.g. in making appointments,
introducing courses on the basis of racial origin and ideological orientations. German
universities began to cave in when students coerced faculties to appoint
professorships in courses on special history, merits and achievements of one race or
ideological persuasion apart from all others, instead of focusing on all teaching on
contributions to knowledge, whatever the origin of the scholar.

If the colleges and universities feel sure of their values, take a determined position
against coercive intimidation and violence, student activism would cease to be a
threat. At the same time, the academic institutions should live up to its culture of free
and open discussion on all issues of national importance without malice and
prejudice. Here lies the true challenge to our universities-the opportunity to give a
lead to intellectual life, and beyond that to society in general.

Associate professor (Retd), School of Open learning,

University of Delhi.