Category Archives: Violence/Conflict

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JNU Teachers Statement

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After the arrest of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar on 12 February and the entry of the police into JNU Campus, the situation has worsened for our students over the last few days. Sections of the mainstream and social media have carried unsubstantiated rumours targeting students, and organised groups have been making threats against them and indulging in hate speech in order to intimidate. The viciousness of this section of the media and amounts to a public trial and the frightening abuses being hurled at them make us feel deeply concerned for their personal safety and possibilities of their obtaining justice.

We strongly condemn these acts that create an environment of extreme prejudice and potential violence. We demand that the campus be allowed to return to normalcy at the soonest, so that students can return to their regular academic life in an atmosphere of trust and safety. The slander campaign against the University based on unsubstantiated claims not only tarnishes JNU’s image as one of best regarded institutions of higher education in the country, it also destroys JNU’s peaceful academic life. We are deeply concerned about the students’ future, which is being affected by this malicious campaign against JNU.

We the teachers of JNU wish that the Indian people should see through this orchestrated design to transform JNU into a space which will be unable to encourage or sustain critical thinking, so vital to the functioning of our democracy and our nation. It will also endanger the futures of thousands of students who are uncertain about the consequences that such a sustained campaign will have on their futures. We call upon the broadest possible sections of the Indian people to preserve the character of this much cherished national institution.

 C.P. Chandrasekhar

G. Arunima

Ayesha Kidwai

Udaya Kumar

Pratiksha Baxi

Chirashree Dasgupta

Saradindu Bhaduri

Rajat Datta

Vinay Kumar Ambedkar

Ranjani Mazumdar

Jayati Ghosh

Navaneetha Mokkil

Rohith Azad

Ameet Parameswaran

Joy Pachuau

Yashadatta Alone

Rajarshi Dasgupta

Mohan Rao

Vikas Bajpai

Sujatha V

Parul Mukherjee

Ramila Bisht

Surinder Jodhka

Happymon Jacob

Supriya Varma

Mallarika Sinha Roy

Parnal Chirmuley

Nivedita Menon

Hemant Adlakha

Lata Singh

Urmimala Sarkar

Rajib Dasgupta

Rama Baru

Prachin Ghodajkar

Vikas Rawal

Partho Datta

Papia Sengupta

Ira Bhaskar

Sandesha Rayipa-Garbiyal

Veena Hariharan

Pradipta Bandyopadhyay

Biswajit Dhar

Neera Kongari

Geetha Nambissan

Brahma Prakash

Brinda Bose

Maitrayee Chaudhuri

Rashmi Barua

 

 

 

 

 

Culture, Debates, Language, Law, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Solidarity Statement from Writers and Activists in Nepal

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We stand with JNU From Nepal

We are deeply concerned by recent developments in one of India’s premier academic institutions, Jawaharlal Nehru University. The fact that Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar, JNUSU president, has been arrested and accused of sedition for a speech meant to promote more meaningful dialogue on civil liberties and freedom to dissent is an attack on the freedom of expression,a universal value which ought to be at the heart of any center of learning.

The Indian state apparatus has come out aggressively to demean and dismiss an institution’s independent practice of scholarship. This should be a cause of concern, not only to the citizens of India, but to each individual who envisions a more equal and just society. Because the impulse to stifle dissent begins incrementally, but then it becomes a barrage, a torrent, and an avalanche until it smothers every differing voice. Such attempts at stifling any voice at all should be condemned unequivocally.

We, the signatories from Nepal as listed below, unequivocally condemn the oppression of dissent at Jawaharlal Nehru University. We condemn in the clearest terms the actions of the Indian state and non-state mechanisms that have shown alarming vigor towards silencing dissent and curbing free speech.

Manjushree Thapa, Writer

Khagendra Sangraula, Writer

CK Lal, Writer

Kishore Nepal, Writer

Hari Roka, Writer/JNU Alumni

Continue reading Solidarity Statement from Writers and Activists in Nepal →

Culture, Debates, Images, Language, Law, Media politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#NoDissentNoCountry #StandwithJNU

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Bol ke labh azaad hain tere: Speak for your lips are yet free

Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University and CSSS Calcutta

A full Hindi transcript of Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech is available here:http://kafila.org/2016/02/15/jnusu-president-kanhaiya-kumars-speech-before-being-arrested/

A full English translation can be accessed here:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160216/jsp/frontpage/story_69576.jsp#.VsVc8HQrK8r

Culture, Debates, Language, Media politics, Movements, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#NoDissentNoCOUNTRY #StandwithJNU

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Bol ke labh azad hain tere: Speak for your lips are yet free

Eleanor Newbigin, SOAS, University of London

A full Hindi transcript and video of Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech is available here:http://kafila.org/2016/02/15/jnusu-president-kanhaiya-kumars-speech-before-being-arrested/

An English translation can be accessed here: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160216/jsp/frontpage/story_69576.jsp#.VsVc8HQrK8r

Bad ideas, Identities, Images, Language, Media politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#NoDissentNoCOUNTRY #StandwithJNU

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Bol, ke lab azaad hai tere: Speak for your lips are yet free

 

Akshaya Tankha (JNU 2006) University of Toronto

A full Hindi transcript and video of Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech may be found here: http://kafila.org/2016/02/15/jnusu-president-kanhaiya-kumars-speech-before-being-arrested/

A complete English translation may be accessed here:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160216/jsp/frontpage/story_69576.jsp#.VsVc8HQrK8r

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Language, Law, Left watch, Media politics, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Statements of Solidarity For JNU From Various Quarters

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We at Kafila have been receiving amazing statements of solidarity with JNU and its elected students’ President Kanhaiya Kumar over the past three days. We are posting them below, along with affiliations: South Asia University (teachers and students); Grinnell College, USA, Ambedkar University Delhi Faculty Association, Democratic Teachers Network, Hyderabad, and over a hundred students from Department of English, Delhi University.

 

STUDENTS OF SOUTH ASIA UNIVERSITY

We, the students of South Asian University, New Delhi (comprising of students from eight SAARC nations – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) strongly oppose the idea that one’s nationalism be defined in terms of hatred towards another nation (for example, Indian nationalism be defined as hatred towards Pakistan, or vice versa). We cherish the common cultural and social heritage of the South Asian region, and shall not let any kind of jingoist nationalism being endorsed by any religious group, political party or state hinder our shared solidarity. However, in recent times, such groups and establishments have unleashed an attack on democratic and critical voices in our universities across the South Asian region, masked under religious conformity, state intervention or sometimes in the form of an act of terrorism.

Thus, we stand in complete solidarity with the student and faculty community of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in their collective struggle against the ongoing police intervention by slapping the baseless charges of sedition on many students, including the arrest of JNUSU President – Kanhaiya Kumar, and against the massive propaganda terming the JNU as ‘a den of anti-nationals’. We would like to reiterate that our collective nationalism stands responsible only to the interests of our people and our land, and not to the divisive forces which have had and are still trying to create boundaries between us.

STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH STUDENT PROTESTS IN INDIA, FROM STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF OF GRINNELL COLLEGE

Grinnell-JNU Solidarity

Continue reading Statements of Solidarity For JNU From Various Quarters →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Law, Left watch, Media politics, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Religion, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

On framing JNU for an imaginary crime: Aditya Sarkar

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This is a guest post by ADITYA SARKAR

JNU has entered an indefinite state of siege. Police have been swarming all over campus, raiding hostels, picking up students and interrogating them. The ABVP, predictably, have been directing them to the lairs of ‘anti-national elements’. When immense demonstrations of public solidarity with the accused students were organized, ABVP activists have attacked these, in one case mounting a violent physical assault on a visiting speaker. The JNU administration has gone to the extent of cutting off the power supply to the microphones used at a protest meeting. At Patiala House on Monday the 15th of February, the BJP’s MLAs and what appear to be a group of lawyers have assaulted JNU students, faculty and supporters in full view of the police, with what can only be regarded as smug impunity. More than one observer has remarked that this is the Emergency all over again.

It is clear that the arrayed forces of the central government are pitted against a campus which has long been an object of hatred for the Right. There’s no telling how matters will develop in the days and weeks to come. So it might be necessary to step back a bit and consider the sequence of events that led to the current situation.

In the past month, JNU students organized a protest meeting which raised the issue of Kashmiri rights, and drew attention – just as Rohith Vemula’s protest in Hyderabad had done – to the execution of Afzal Guru in 2013. Since the mainstream news outlets systematically censor any attempt to reopen that extremely murky case, it’s worth reminding ourselves of precisely why the execution was so controversial. The terrorist attack on Parliament in December 2001 produced a police investigation on which serious doubt was cast from the beginning. Afzal Guru’s laptop and mobile phone, key pieces of evidence, had not been sealed prior to investigation. One of the other accused in the case, a Delhi University lecturer (who was later emphatically acquitted) was viciously framed by Zee News, which used the police charge-sheet to make a documentary ‘establishing’ his guilt. The court proceedings were even more revealing. The Supreme Court admitted that there was no hard evidence to conclusively establish Afzal Guru’s involvement in criminal conspiracy. But these admissions were merely qualifications to what was perhaps the most extraordinary decision in the history of the judiciary in independent India. Afzal Guru was eventually hanged in 2013 on the basis that only this would appease ‘the collective conscience of the nation society’.

Continue reading On framing JNU for an imaginary crime: Aditya Sarkar →

Bad ideas, Education, Identities, Images, Movements, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Some thoughts on love in times of hate – from a JNU student : Pallavi Paul

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Guest Post by Pallavi Paul

As I comb through the deluge of responses and opinions  that have been circulating on television, social media, newspapers and conversations  over the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, there is one particular fear that sticks out repeatedly. The fear  of JNU being a ‘transformative’ space. Where young and innocent minds are changed. The question that follows then is- changed into what? Even as we see ABVP students vociferously defending police action on all media platforms, the Sanskrit department continuing with classes in spite of the call for strike in support of Kanhaiya and faculty members like Hari Ram Mishra (CSS) issuing media statements against the student agitation currently underway- the simple formula that JNU transforms its students into ‘anti-national’ elements (going by the current interpretation of the term) begins to appear erroneous. In addition to having a culture of critical thinking, debate, questioning and radical left politics – JNU has also had an equally dynamic history of Hindutva and Brahaminical politics. For every protest on Afsal Guru there is a Guru Dakhshina Karyakram, for every Sitaram Yechury addressing students there is an Ashok Singhal (who visited the campus in 2002 even amidst intense protests). This fear then, if seen clearly begins to appear more and more abstract. It bases itself on a ‘sense’ of the campus- rather than its actual political fiber. Infact if one hears carefully it is the larger fear of things changing, things changing irreversibly.

Continue reading Some thoughts on love in times of hate – from a JNU student : Pallavi Paul →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Education, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Media politics, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

JNU Bashing is an old pastime, but things just got much, much worse

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In light of the glorious vigilantism being witnessed today, in which the lumpen lawyers at Patiala House are joining hands with Guardian of the Nation Horn-nob Go-Swamy on primetime TV A few years ago, finding myself in a heated but very enjoyable argument on why women change their surnames after marriage, somebody yelled from across the room, “What has JNU done to you?!”

I wasn’t surprised, only annoyed. Reducing my entire biography and political beliefs to an institution I attended once upon a time is a favourite pastime in India, when that institution happens to be JNU. I could have explained to the genius who shouted this that if I do have political opinions, neither were they surgically implanted in me at JNU nor will they wither away like the bourgeois state in Marxism if JNU ceases to exist. I should have been grateful that the JNU-phobia was posed through the formal courtesy of a query. Usually, it takes the form of a statement, “You JNU folk are all lunatics!”

In family settings, JNU-bashing is the preferred insult to shut down an argument, “It’s the JNU in you speaking!” At seminars, a question or a paper can be made illegitimate with the simple investigative exercise of determining if you’re from ‘a particular institution with a particular ideology’. Of course, the person asking the question has miraculously escaped institutions and ideology, remaining gloriously neutral in this fractured world.

Continue reading JNU Bashing is an old pastime, but things just got much, much worse →

Bad ideas, Debates, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Government, Images, Language, Mirror Worlds, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Tendency of the Price of Young Life to Fall and the Hope that it May Rise

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The war on young people continues. In this post we will only consider it’s arithmetic. Not even its algebra, simply its arithmetic.

I am prompted to do this by a strange acoustic co-incidence. While standing as part of a cordon of faculty and friends protecting the students of JNU on the public meeting on the 13th of April from a handful of ABVP activists who liked invoking blood and bullets in their slogans, I head one that stayed with me, and made me revisit a question that often bothers me.

lance-naik-hanumanthappa

This was the slogan ‘Hanumanthappa hum sharminda hain, tere qatil zinda hain’. (‘Hanumanthappa we are ashamed, your murders are still alive’ ). Lance Naik Hanumanthappa, as we all know now, was a thirty two year old soldier of the Indian army who survived six days under an avalanche on the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir and then died of multiple organ failure in a Delhi military hospital. His young body must have had a tremendous and a passionate yearning for life. Sometimes I think of what a fine father or husband or lover or friend a man who loved life so must have been, could have continued to have been.

Continue reading The Tendency of the Price of Young Life to Fall and the Hope that it May Rise →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Education, Government, Identities, Language, Law, Media politics, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Who’s Afraid of JNU? Or, The Sedition That Wasn’t: Sania Hashmi

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This is a guest post by SANIA HASHMI

JNU Sedition

Over the past couple of days, Zee News has been declaring to the world that Lance Naik Hanumanthappa died because he’d rather not breathe the same air as we at JNU do. That this statement is the worst possible trivialisation of a martyr’s death which is being exploited for petty sensationalism by our own version of the fourth estate is a separate issue, too nerve-wracking to be given precedence over the tragedy that unfolded in our campus yesterday with the arrest of our democratically-elected President Kanhaiya Kumar. A Zee News screen grab showed the word ‘Deshdrohi’ in 72-pt screeching yellow font pasted across Kanhaiya’s unsuspecting face. What was his fault? As an eyewitness from ground zero who was present at Sabarmati at the time of the protest, let me begin by answering the obvious questions that despite the numerous clarifications on part of the students and the JNUSU on social media and elsewhere are meeting deaf ears. It is interesting how despite being told that the Students Union and the student body in general had nothing to do with it and have in no uncertain terms condemned any alleged slogan against our country, the trolls are still putting decibels to shame with the very same questions. And no, I am not just talking about Nupur Sharma. So yes, let me begin by putting a few things on record in respect of Kanhaiya’s arrest. Did Kanhaiya organise the event? NO. Did he raise anti-India slogans? NO. Did he hail Pakistan? NO. Did he intervene to prevent ABVP-instigated violence in his capacity as the President? YES. Has he been vocal against the brahmanical tyranny of the RSS? YES. Has he been tirelessly fighting for the Rohith Vemulas of this world? YES. Has he been a torchbearer for students’ rights across the country? YES. Is this why you have arrested him? Is this your justice? If this struggle for a just society is anti-national in your eyes, we all plead guilty! If this is your witch-hunt for people who cannot conform to your ideological blinkers, we all plead guilty! If we must be party to the violent hooliganism of the ABVP in order to be called patriotic, rest assured, we all plead guilty!

WATCH KANHAIYA KUMAR’S SPEECH HOURS BEFORE HIS ARREST TO SEE WHAT THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA CONSIDERS ANTI-NATIONAL. Clearly, Kumar’s fault was that he said in this speech that he doesn’t need the RSS’s certificate to be called a nationalist.

Continue reading Who’s Afraid of JNU? Or, The Sedition That Wasn’t: Sania Hashmi →

Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Dissent in dark times : Ajita Banerjie

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This is a guest post by AJITA BANERJIE

“In the dark times, will there also be singing?

Yes there will also be singing.

About the dark times”

– Bertolt Brecht.

In the dark times we live in right now, resistance to fascist forces could lead to arrest or death. Dissent comes with a rather heavy price to pay.Issues of democratic-national relevance  have ranged from consuming beef, resisting death penalty, resisting political control over academic institutions, protesting against privatisation of education and the most recent tragedy of Rohit Vemula’s suicide. Continue reading Dissent in dark times : Ajita Banerjie →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Culture, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Government, Images, Law, Metropolis, Politics, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Tibetan Artists Silenced at Dhaka Art Summit: Ahmad Ibrahim

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This is a guest post by AHMAD IBRAHIM

20160207_200806
These pictures, which depict blank walls, are symbolic of the attack. Pictures of the original art cannot be shared due to copyright issues.

On the 7th of February, Tibetan artist Nortse and Indian artists Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam had their photographs and art installations removed at the behest of the Chinese ambassador to Dhaka from the Dhaka Art Summit taking place in Shilpakala Academy in the capital of Bangladesh. The art project by Nortse was titled Prayer Wheel, Big Brother and Automan (2007) which showed the artist don traditional Tibetan clothes along with modern objects to show the surveillance that marks their lives. .Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam produced a piece called “Last Words”, which consists of five facsmilies of five last messages written by the self-immolators in Tibet, along with their English translations. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam depicted Tibetan monks in the act of self-immolation as a way of political and religious protest against the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese government. At the end of the 6th of February, both artists were still depicted on the walls of the Art Summit. On the 7th, what greeted the visitors and patrons were blank stretches of white wall with white frames. It was as if the works had never existed. This is not the first time the Chinese government has tried to shut down political art work that aims to show the real face of Chinese occupation of Tibet. What is even more reprehensible is that it happened inside the walls of an institution that was proclaiming itself to be a haven of bold art and artistic expression. That the Chinese government could go to such lengths to silence an exhibition happening thousands of miles away shows the depth of their oppression over an entire country. Since February 2009, 142 Tibetans have self-immolated in their homeland, 120 dying from their actions.

A link to Tenzing Sonam’s twitter:

A Facebook link to a picture when the exhibit was still standing. 

Ahmad Ibrahim is a Dhaka based journalist.

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Politics, Religion, Violence/Conflict

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join ’em – Or, Ente Dinkeswara!

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A new wave, nay, tsunami, of (THE) Faith has risen in Kerala. Soon, it will sweep the Nation.  This is the mighty thrust of Lord Dinkan, now known all over Kerala as Dinkamatam – or Dingoism.

…. Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red/ Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O Dinka,/ Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed ... [from ‘Ode to Dinka’ by the early Dinka devotion poet Muroidea Muridae Murinae, later stolen by Shelley and rewritten as ‘Ode to the West Wind’. Note that Dinkan,  superhero airborne rat and Shelley’s West Wind are both powers of the Air]

If you don’t believe me, visit this url:

https://www.dinkoism.com/

Now, like many others, I too was an unbeliever until I went there. One click, and I knew this was truly Faith. Market logic is nowadays the true marker of anything genuine (redefined an anything worth pursuing), and Dinkoism is unmatched in this regard. Even Amritanandamayi who successfully packages and sells all styles of Hinduism (the astrologer-obsessed style, the Saibaba-singing-style, the Sivakasi-print style, the shallow version of the Upanishadic style, the Christian-inflected Hugging-Mother style, the belligerent Hindutvavadi-style) cannot match him. Upon opening this Divine page, my eyes fell upon a notice in Malayalam which said: Mega offer before the world ends in 2012 [that needs updating, I suppose – small error; the spirit is more important] . 100 % guarantee in securing sin-free existence. Many years of service. Ridding of curses undertaken responsibly. We have no branches. Now, what further proof did I need to be convinced that this was the true Faith? Who doubts now that faith in the Logic of the Market precedes faith in faith? The Logos of Dinkan and the Logic of the Market are in perfect harmony!

Continue reading If You Can’t Beat Them, Join ’em – Or, Ente Dinkeswara! →

Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Identities, Violence/Conflict

Stop the attack on Rohith’s mother! Solidarity Committee for Rohith’s mother Radhika

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STATEMENT BY SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE FOR ROHITH’S MOTHER RADHIKA

We believe there  is a concerted effort on the part of the powers-that-be to diffuse the nation-wide mass protests against Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula’s death and caste discrimination in higher educational institutions. They are keen to demonstrate that Rohith did not face caste discrimination by claiming that his mother Radhika is not a Dalit. Rather than addressing the critical issues that his death and the protests have raised, these misdirected attempts seek to dissolve the issue in narrow legalese. And thereby somehow save the people named in the students’ complaint from the stringent penal provisions of the SC/ST Atrocities Act. This malicious campaign is unethical, illegal and undemocratic. Continue reading Stop the attack on Rohith’s mother! Solidarity Committee for Rohith’s mother Radhika →

Theory, Violence/Conflict

The Terror That Is Man: Shaj Mohan

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Guest post by SHAJ MOHAN

Manifold is the un-homely, yet nothing is more un-homely than man — Sophocles

The middle of the previous century is understood to be the termination of all kinds of containments of man, having witnessed the worst containment in the Camp[i]. This termination resulted from a crisis that is both philosophical and political: what is the de-termination of man such that he is not the contained? A summary of this scenario is found in a trivial understanding of Foucault’s statements concerning “the end of man” (The Order of Things) and Derrida’s deconstruction of the notion of the “the end” in his essay “Ends of Man” (Margins of Philosophy). As a result of the exigencies of the philosophical and the political, the concept of the state located itself, in the occidental domain, away from the containers. The State would no longer claim to be the clergy and the sovereign of containers such as race and religion. Instead, the State demanded only the right to primary containment—first Indian and then Muslim, first British then White, first Spanish then Basque. The list, the differences, the classification and the management of all the other containers—religion, caste, language, race, public, private—were left up to the new clerics, the new academic disciplines and the NGOs. If all containers were opened up then everything should have flooded out and mixed to form a substance of a new world of people; rather, a substantiality for the in-terminable formation of people. This new people-substance should have dissolved the traces of all the containers, the way science-fiction often imagines the future to be. It should have left for us tales which are the negative of memories, that is, taboos, or myths. For example, the tales that we received about incest from the ancients, the tales of cannibalism in fairy tales, the tales of the world’s resistance to Nazism. Continue reading The Terror That Is Man: Shaj Mohan →

Bad ideas, Frontiers, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Why is the World Ignoring Palestine’s ‘Third Intifada’? Shubhda Chaudhary

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Guest post by SHUBHDA CHAUDHARY

Already ravaged by two political Intifadas in the past, Palestine is now undergoing a third ‘leaderless Intifada’ in West Bank and Gaza. In fact, there is disagreement over whether a leader is even needed. In a striking paradox, several names are being considered for the leadership that does not exist: Jerusalem Intifada, Mass Intifada, Revolutionary Wave and Third Intifada.

Third Palestinian Intifada - On its way or Already Arrived? image courtesy Alwaght
Third Palestinian Intifada – On its way or Already Arrived? image courtesy Alwaght
revolutionary woman intifada streetby Quadraro, image courtesy Deviant Art.
‘revolutionary woman intifada street’ by Quadraro, image courtesy Deviant Art.

As West Asia is too gripped in sectarian conflict and the rise of ISIS, this emerging trend is going unnoticed. But the violence is already cementing the layers of distrust that Palestinians harbor against Jews, with calcifying hatred.

After the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and other sacred Islamic sites in various parts of the occupied Palestine by Israelis, Palestinians have been pouring out on the streets. The retaliatory attacks by Palestinians have claimed the lives of seven Israelis while leaving a number of them injured. It should be noted that the average age of demonstrators and people responsible for stabbing and running over people is less than 20 years old. They were born after the Oslo Accord between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel in 1993 and 1995. They are just coming of age, and it’s hard for them to see any future but a bleak one. Continue reading Why is the World Ignoring Palestine’s ‘Third Intifada’? Shubhda Chaudhary →

Culture, Education, Violence/Conflict

In solidarity with Rohith Vemula: Concerned students and faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

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Open letter to the President of India from Concerned students and faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

To

The President of India

Subject: An urgent appeal to address discrimination and political interference in academic institutions in the wake of the death of RohithVemula.

We, a group of students and faculty of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta,expressour grief over the loss of the precious life of RohithVemula, a Dalit research scholar, at the University of Hyderabad.The events that transpired in the particular case were indeed tragic, with allegedinfringement of freedom of expression, caste discrimination and partisan interference by the higher State apparatus. This event is symptomatic of the larger malaise of failure of our institutions to provide a climate where students, irrespective of their social backgrounds, could find a way to excel. To create such a climate would require synchronised efforts in the parts of the State, the educational institutions and the society at large. Continue reading In solidarity with Rohith Vemula: Concerned students and faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Metropolis, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Operation Ekalavya : Jhandewala, New Delhi, Rohith Vemula’s Birthday, 30th January 2016

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Dear young friends who went to Jhandewala on Rohith Vemula’s birthday,

a1078-rohit-facebook-and-storysize_647_011816123527

And all those who were there in spirit, in Delhi, Hyderabad and elsewhere. I am writing to you because I think you might have all taken things much further than anyone can quite imagine or understand at present.

I am writing to you, for today and for tomorrow, so that every time in the future that young people gather to celebrate their friend Rohith’s birthday, we might all begin to have a different kind of conversation. So that the boundaries between mourning and celebration, between anger and joy may always remain blurred enough for us to know what to do next, each time.

Since you had a close encounter with the police and their colleagues in the RSS on Rohith’s birthday, I want to spend a little time thinking about them with you. Bear with me. I sincerely hope we will not have to bear with them for much longer.

Continue reading Operation Ekalavya : Jhandewala, New Delhi, Rohith Vemula’s Birthday, 30th January 2016 →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Education, Excavation, Government, Identities, Left watch, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Reclaiming academia: understanding the student movement of our time: Tony Kurian and Suraj Gogoi

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This is a guest post by TONY KURIAN and SURAJ GOGOI

Students from different parts of the country started protesting since a Dalit student from one of the premier universities of the country (University of Hyderabad) committed suicide on account of caste discrimination by the administration. This new wave of protests can be traced back to Occupy UGC which erupted when University Grants Commission (UGC) decided to stop the monthly research stipend known as non-net fellowship of Rs 5000 and 8000 for MPhil and PHD respectively. The ministry concerned has since constituted a panel to review the decision on account of student’s protests. On the other hand, we are seeing India becoming part of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on higher education. These instances should not be regarded as isolated moments but should be viewed as an integral part of a story unfolding. It is in this context that one should locate the student movement of our time. The movement itself is receiving much media attention, and, it was mostly couched as a student’s movement against the government. For sure, the immediate demands of the students is to ensure justice to Rohith Vemula. The present wave of student movement is aimed at reclaiming academia both from an exclusivist culture which permeates much of our academic institutions, and increasing influence of free market logic in our higher education.

 Why are we seeing a new wave of student protests?

To understand why a movement like that we are witnessing now is extremely important for a vibrant and democratic academic space, we should explore some of the unwritten rules of academia itself and our academic institutions. Research is a long-term investment for the person who undertakes it. Every day he or she spends as a full time researcher is a day forgone from the job market. For a research scholar to earn a permanent job, it can take anywhere between five to ten years after the master’s programme.

Continue reading Reclaiming academia: understanding the student movement of our time: Tony Kurian and Suraj Gogoi →

Education, Left watch, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Saluting Rohith Vemula on Republic Day: Meena Kandasamy and Ravichandran Bathran

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Meena Kandasamy in The Hindu:

Rohith, you have left behind your dream of becoming a science writer like Carl Sagan, and left us with only your words. Each of our words now carries the weight of your death, every tear carries your unrealised dream. We will become the explosive stardust that you speak of, the stardust that will singe this oppressive system of caste. Within every university, every college, every school in this country, each of our slogans will carry the spirit of your struggle. Dr. Ambedkar spoke of caste as the monster that crosses ones path every way one turns, and within the agraharams that are the Indian educational institutions, our very physical presence must embody the message of caste annihilation. Let every despicable casteist force wince when they encounter a Dalit, a Shudra, an Adivasi, a Bahujan, a woman staking claim within academia, let them realise that we have come here to end a system that has kept trying hard to put an end to us, that we have come here to cause nightmares to those who dared to snatch our dreams. Let them realise that Vedic times, the era of pouring molten lead into the ears of the Shudras who hear the sacred texts, the era of cutting the tongues of those who dared to utter the knowledge that was denied to them, are long gone. Let them understand that we have stormed these bastions to educate, to agitate, to organise; we did not come here to die. We have come to learn, but let the monsters of caste and their henchmen bear in mind that we have come here also to teach them an unforgettable lesson.

Read the rest of this tribute here.

RAVICHANDRAN BATHRAN in Tehelka

A person who is conscious of and sensitive about caste discrimination is certain to become alienated in every psychological, emotional, social and political sense in today’s campuses that breed free-market-loving, reservation hating students who benefit from caste-intensive social networks. This is why the Dalit and anti-caste students’ movement is crucial in democratising our campuses. These outfits question the present, past and future of the society we live in. They may be few in number and not always successful, but their actions are solely committed to the welfare of Dalit students as they have no other support system in our campuses. I am proud to say that many like me are the product of such movements in the universities.

Read the whole article here