[Reader-list] Dont let the Hindu right take over our universities!!

[taraprakash]

All of us should be really concerned the way the democratic political 
processes are being vitiated in the universities in India. They irritate 
you, intimidate you; if you still dare to speak, they rusticate you (get rid 
of you by any means, even if murder).
ABVP have perfected the art of browbeating, NSUI are almost there. SFI, well 
they are not really different from NSUI, so almost there.

ABVP, self-styled custodians of Hindu religion, will not mind smearing the 
face of their teacher before lynching him to death. We have people on this 
list who have defended the murderers of Prof. Sabbarwal. I wonder if they 
know anything about the religion who they think sanctions the violence 
perpetrated by them. The teacher in Hindu religion is more important than 
any God. So what? They have killed the God to take his place. Guru cannot be 
more difficult than killing God!!! I am not really worried about God, 
teachers and students need to unite to get rid of such goons in academic 
institutes.

I was pretty impressed by the absence of acrimony between opposing camps in 
the political campaigns in the universities in the US. India is also a 
democratic country I believe. At least it used to be. If democratic process 
is thwarted in the Universities, I wonder where can it survive.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aarti Sethi" <aarti.sethi at gmail.com>
To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 12:59 PM
Subject: [Reader-list] Dont let the Hindu right take over our universities!!


> Dear All,
>
> As someone who done a large part of my education in DU and JNU I am
> more and more distressed at the way in which our universities are
> becoming locked in the strangehold of the facist Hindu right. The
> incident which friends have reported is not new, as Sanjay mentions.
> It is one more shameful incident in the long list of assaults that are
> becoming routine on democratic spaces and voices. What is a university
> for if not to discuss matters that affect us all in a free and
> non-threatening atmosphere? Perhaps this is exactly what the right
> fears. That even as their tentacles spread rapidly through our polity,
> the university still stands as  space where its violent fascist vision
> of this country is challenged, resisted, questioned, fought. last year
> the ABVP created mayhem on the night of the presidential speeches in
> JNU. They attacked a dalit candidate, broke down the stage, and
> injured students watching the debates. The police had to be called in.
> Last year we screened Sanjay's film in JNU. A week before the
> screening the ABVP tried to stop the event by threatening violence. It
> was only because a large number of students and the left mobilized
> that they were dissuaded, and the event took place. When the first
> queer collective in JNU - Anjuman- had tehir first public meeting in
> JNU three years ago, the ABVP again attacked students for no reason
> except that for these bigots same-sex love is against their perverse
> definition of "indian" culture. How long will we let them hold us to
> ransom? How long will this be allowed to continue?
>
> The ABVP make the campus unsafe for everyone who studies there. The
> ABVP lumpens are routinely involved in sexual harassment cases - I was
> stalked for 6 months by an ABVP goon when I was an M.A student in Arts
> faculty. A friend and I were routinely accosted in the lawns by the
> self-styled protectors of "indian" culture because we were women
> smoking in public. And I promise you, many women have far worse
> stories to share.
>
> I urge everyone to come in large numbers tomorrow and insist that the
> authorities take immediate action against those responsible. As DUSU
> president Nupur Sharma has a moral responsibility to ensure that
> action is taken against the goons from her own party who are
> responsible for today's incident.
>
> In solidarity
> Aarti
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