On May 8, a Facebook post urged the Hindu students of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university to assemble at a sweet shop near the campus. Contrary to what one would expect, the meet was less about mithai and more about pitai.
The young man who had given the call was all charged up, and told anyone who would care to listen that Hindus were feeling unsafe, not to mention suppressed, in the university.
With a ragtag group of not more than 30, including, of course, casual bystanders, a march was organised towards the campus. The group could not gain entry inside, but that didn’t deter them from yelling at the gates – “Jinnah premi, Desh chhodo”.
Most students inside the university, oblivious to the petty Facebook post, were caught utterly unaware. Some thought an accident had taken place and called for medical help. The march itself was quite a sight – an incoherent group, caught in the evening traffic, yelling gibberish. A few sympathetic students even considered offering Google Map services to the protesters.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was recently in the news because of a ruckus in Aligarh Muslim University – allegedly over a portrait of his – and here was this motley group vehemently opposing the issue; sadly at the wrong venue.
My hunch is that the debacle was not so much a misreading of geography as that of history itself: or perhaps basic assumptions gone wrong in the head. Here’s how the logic might have unfolded in the minds of the poor folks gathered at the wrong venue: Jinnah = Pakistan = Muslim = Jamia. This assessment has not been verified independently, but we can hold onto it as a plausible explanation for the events of the day. Of course, also that elections across major states are happening, and the countdown for the national elections has already started.
But let’s, in husn-e-zan, one of the quintessential Jamia traditions meaning “good opinions”, hope that the group protesting outside the gates of the university did not crash-land merely to spread communal disharmony in a campus that is the stark opposite of it. Let us cling to the idea that our protesting friends were merely unaware at best, misled at worst.
You may have noticed the use of the word “Jamia traditions”. Those traditions, the Jamia tehzeeb we swear by, are rooted in our history. What is this history? It’s one any university would give half a campus for.
Jamia was born in the heat and rush of the Non-Cooperation Movement. A country arose in rebellion, destined to throw the yoke of colonialism off its shoulders once and for all. The cries of freedom could be heard everywhere, and it was in this environment that Jamia was built. Young Muslim leaders, of impeccable nationalist credentials, took upon them the task of creating a learning space which would hone an individual to the best of their abilities, which would train them as citizens useful to their nation.
Ideas of secularism, nationalism and tolerance were taken out from the textbooks and inextricably woven into the life and fabric of Jamia Millia Islamia. It is a place hailed by Rabindranath Tagore as “one of the most progressive educational institutions of India”.
Volumes can be written about this history. But what is history if it doesn’t inform the present and build the future?
We, therefore, urge our misled friends to visit the campus sometime.
A good suggestion would be to drop hatred and politics before entering. It rarely flourishes on our campus. On the stray occasions it did, it was in the context of academic debates. To be more specific, it was mostly about who would pay for the tea that went along with the debates.
Voices would be raised – past records would be raked up. Theories of social justice would drop by. Slogans of the subaltern would be raised. Luckily, before matters could escalate further (think quoting Foucault), some generous guy, fresh from saving money for photocopying notes, would pool in his savings to pay for the tea, and pray that by exam time one of his friends would bail him out. That is the most any dispute can be in Jamia.
So dear sir, if you wish to instigate riots in Jamia, you’ve simply landed at the wrong place. As they say in the movie PK, “koi firkii le raha hai tumhari.” Your claim of Hindus being unsafe in Jamia is as bogus as the politics that underlies it.
On May 11, a group of Hindu students took out a rally in Jamia countering your lies. Others have been vocal in opposing you through social media. Their counter is based on reason and proof, we urge you to try it once, it is truly marvellous.
We also hope the next time you visit Jamia, it will be for education, for soaking in the environment of love and brotherhood.
It’s a place like none other, we cannot recommend it enough. Please visit soon. The history department would be a good place to start.
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