Ruckus Over Ramayana
For the ABVP, the Ramayana they believe in is sacred. No place, not even the university which engages in discourses on history, fiction and folk tellings of the story of Rama has the right to explore other renditions. If they attempt to, ABVP will retaliate. As they did on February 25 in DU, says Rashi Jamuar
On 25th February 2008 at around 2 pm some Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists the Head of History Department Professor SZH Jafri’s room under the guise of submitting a memorandum and to talk on ‘certain issues’, The rest, as they say is History. The introduction of the new syllabus in the BA History (Hons) course of Delhi University (DU), rather the protest and vandalism surrounding it, has now the talk of the town.
For the uninitiated, ABVP stormed the History department on February 25, manhandled the HOD Prof. SZH Jafri, and caused damage to university property. “We went to submit a memorandum with the history department head, but we felt he took our objection lightly and was rude with us. Some students got angry and there was some disruptive action after that,” Vikas Dahiya, ABVP activist and former DUSU vice-president had said after the incident.
This ‘protest’ was against the inclusion of an essay by AK Ramanujan300 Ramayanas: five examples and three thoughts on translation on different folk traditions related to the Ramayana tale in the recommended reading for second year BA Honours students. The ABVP and other right wing groups claim the essay is derogatory towards Hindu god and goddesses.
“About 10 people barged into my room and grabbed me by my collar and pushed me around, ” recalls Prof. Jafri.
“The ABVP activists thereafter went breaking windowpanes from class to class. They disrupted an MA previous internal assessment test,” said Animesh Kumar, an MA student of DU.
Though the history department, in a meeting convened in the wake of ABVP protests, found nothing objectionable in the eassy, ABVP activists feel that the character of Hanuman has been shamelessly disgraced; according to their interpretation of the essay Hanuman has been portrayed as a small pervert monkey peeping into the bedrooms of those having sex. ABVP activists also expressed serious objections on the way the relationship between Sita and Lakshman- the two sacred characters of Ramayana-have been depicted in the contentious essay. The essay, which talks about the many tellings of the story of Rama, also mentions that Sita could have been Ravana’s daughter (in some telling of the Story Of Rama). This, the ABVP activists found highly objectionable.
Devesh Srivastava, DCP (North Region) says that five persons who had indulged in acts of vandalism have been arrested and charged under section 351, (assault) and section 353 (obstructing a government servant from discharge of his duty). Interestingly, two of those arrested are students, one being Vikas Dahiya, ABVP activist and former DUSU vice-president, while the remaining three are outsiders.
When TSI visited DU’s History department to gauge how much support ABVPS views enjoyed among the students, it found that the students of History, in fact students in general, opine that there is nothing objectionable in the essay.
“Has any one of those who were protesting read the essay? By attempting indulging in acts of vandalism, they are only showing how literate they actually are,” says Shraddha, an M.A. Final, History student. Interestingly, none of those who supported the ABVP were students from the history department.
What’s more, ABVP sources close to TSI have revealed that rickshaw pullers and kids were paid Rs.100 and Rs.50 respectively for taking part in the protest.
The political undertones in this protest are not hard to miss. One of the primary things that prompted the ABVP activists to go on a rampage is the perception that Dr. Upinder Singh, daughter of PM Manmohan Singh and an acclaimed academician in her own right had compiled the book containing the essay.
HoD History Prof. Jafri sets the record straight, “It has come to our notice that there is a spiral-bound collection of photocopies of the individual articles and excerpts related to this course at certain photocopying shops. This set of photocopies has a covering page on which Dr. Upinder Singh’s name has been typed, without any authorisation whatsoever as a ‘compiler.’ It is this collection of photocopies that is being incorrectly described as a ‘book’ compiled by here. There is in fact no book.”
Moreover, the new syllabus containing the contentious issue was formulated in discussion with college teachers, many of them being members of the Academic Council, and the department through several levels of discussion. There is no way Singh can be held responsible for the essay or its introduction in the syllabus.
When we asked Prof. Jafri about the motives behind introducing the essay, he said, “The sole purpose of this course is to create an awareness and understanding of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of ancient India among students.”
Education calls for the basic realization that it is not essential that the course-designer, teachers and students agree with each other on every word which is a part of their study. In fact debate, dissent and dialogue are important parts of the discipline of history.
ABVP activists, most of them students of the very university where they indulged in vandalism, seem to have forgotten that edict. However, this is not a one-off incident as far as the rightwing students’ body is concerned.
Three members of the ABVP were arrested in connection with the murder of Professor Sabharwal in a college in Ujjain on August 26, 2006. In the more recent times, ABVP activists vandalised an exhibition n the Fine arts department of M.S. University in Vadodara since they felt that some of the paintings displayed therein hurt Hindu sentiments.
So what could have been the motive of the violent act this time around? Prof. Jafri, while referring to the infamous Babri Masjid demolition of 1992, opines that the ABVP is trying to garner support for a Ram Rajya here. It goes without saying that people in the academic arena have the right to differ but using violence to derail the academic process is not acceptable. Attacks, like the one by ABVP on February 25, are actually attacks on the academic freedom and secular fabric of the country.
