by: Aditi Kothari
Over the last few years, student activism in universities has become a big part of the political landscape in India. In 2016, students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi organized a cultural event on the university campus to protest the judicial killing of Afzal Guru. Afzal Guru was convicted for his role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack by the Indian Supreme Court and was executed in 2013 in secret. Many Kashmiris believed that the evidence against him was circumstantial, and argued that his execution was undemocratic (Roy, 2013). The event saw clashes between the students who organized it and the opposing student union ABVP (Chatterjee, 2016). The event was labeled “anti-national” by ABVP, and a video was circulated by a media outlet in which some people were chanting “anti-national” slogans. Later however, it turned out that those slogans were not coming from JNU students, but outsiders.
Quickly, this protest got covered by all national media outlets, and many popular news channels called the protests “anti-national” as well. Kanhaiya Kumar, the main student organizer of the protest, along with a few others, were charged with sedition and arrested. Following Kumar’s arrest, more protests broke out at JNU by students and teachers, who demanded his release (Hugar, 2017). When he got out on jail, he went back to JNU campus to give a speech and demanded azaadi, or freedom, from oppressive structures such as caste system, feudalism, federalism and communalism (“Azadi (Dub Sharma)”, 2016). Kumar also stated that it was crucial to question the status quo and establishment. Many members of the ruling political party, BJP, called him a traitor and an “anti-national”, and supported his arrest (Shankar, 2016).
Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed can help us understand the 2016 JNU protests and the actions and reactions of the student organizers and right-wing politicians respectively. Freire, in his book, introduces the concept of banking education, which he links to the idea of education being a tool for domination. Banking education is a type of education system in knowledge is ‘deposited’ by teachers to passive students. Such a system does not allow for critical thought and knowledge ownership on behalf of the students, which enables the oppressors to stay in power and control the masses. Such an education system is born out of necrophily, or the love of death. Freire contrasts this education system with one that has biophily, or the love of life. This is the problem-posing education system, in which students are encouraged to develop critical thinking and pursue liberation (Freire, 2018).
We can see that the students at JNU who organized the cultural event were practicing critical thinking, and posing problems to the existing status quo. The Hindu nationalist political party, BJP, since coming to power has consistently undermined democracy and partaken in fear-mongering tactics against minorities (especially Muslims and Dalits). Furthermore, BJP has been running its campaign on Hindu (hyper-) nationalism, where any opinions that contrast with their own is labeled as “anti-national”. To win, BJP is relying on a Hindu nationalism constructed out of hatred towards Pakistan and towards minorities in the country. This can be seen in the 2019 campaign, where there is almost no conversation on the state of the economy or of employment levels (Dutt, 2019). Clearly, to win, the BJP is banking on hyper-nationalism within the country.
Therefore, it is not surprising that BJP government officials opposed student activism and called JNU anti-national and anti-India. The party seems to want to use education as a form of domination, where things such as critical thinking and questioning hyper-nationalism do not happen. For example, the chapter on democracy has been removed from high school textbooks in India this year (Mukul, 2019). It is in the best interest of the oppressors to maintain a banking system of education. However, that there are students across the country that are willing to question, to pose problems and to act against oppressive tactics used by the government. It is comforting to know that there exist universities in the country that are rooted in biophily, where education is used as a form of liberation and not domination.
References:
“Azadi (Dub Sharma).” YouTube, 11 Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCRHm1pmzCI.
Shankar, Aranya. “JNU Student Leader Held on 'Sedition' Charges over Afzal Guru Event.” The Indian Express, 13 Feb. 2016, www.indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/afzal-guru-film-screening-jnu-student-leader-held-for-sedition/.
Chatterjee, Rituparna. “'They Were Not Carrying Arms, Just Ideas': Eyewitness Account Of What Actually Happened At JNU.” HuffPost India, HuffPost India, 15 July 2016, www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/02/15/jnu-arrest_n_9233910.html.
Dutt, Barkha. “In 2014, Modi Ran on Aspiration. In 2019, He Is Running on Fear.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/15/modi-ran-aspiration-he-is-running-fear/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a88a89358f86.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Simon Fraser University Library, 2018.
Hugar, Sagar. “Rise of Student Activism in India.” Medium, Medium, 18 Mar. 2017, www.medium.com/@thenewswell/rise-of-student-activism-in-india-79d3a254a351.
Mukul, Akshaya. “During Elections, NCERT Drops Chapter on Democracy From Class 9 Book.” The Wire, 17 Apr. 2019, www.thewire.in/education/ncert-drops-chapter-on-democracy.
Roy, Arundhati. “The Hanging of Afzal Guru Is a Stain on India's Democracy | Arundhati Roy.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Feb. 2013, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/10/hanging-afzal-guru-india-democracy.