As I write this, young men and women are being dragged to the courts and jails, branded as “anti nationals” and threats to “mother India”, roughened up even in the court in total disregard of the law. What we are witnessing today is a systematic assault on spaces of academic freedom by the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and its affiliates; reminiscent of the Emergency under Indira Gandhi’s government. From Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), to Hyderabad Central University (HCU) and now Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jadavpur University, all have been branded as dens of “anti nationals and terrorists”. The intrusion of the regime into the affairs of universities betrays its deep suspicion of spaces of free and critical thinking. This interference merits serious attention and interrogation. Universities have come under attack precisely because they are factories of different “imaginations of India” as opposed to the BJP’s ideology of Hindutva – an idea put forth by V. D Savarkar that calls for a homogeneous India around the ideals of Hinduism. However hard the BJP tries to euphemise its ideology – in a bid to appease the minority anxiety - the trajectory of the regime shows its allegiance to Hindutva. It is little wonder that communal agendas such as construction of Ram temple, banning of cow slaughter, Yoga etc have found its way into the party’s to-do-list. Judging from the recent developments it is evident that BJP’s interpretation of the idea of nation is parochial, intolerant and chauvinistic. The BJP and its affiliates have failed to appreciate the fact that the idea of nationalism and patriotism cannot be monopolized by any group(s); that, any imagination of India apart from the party’s stance does not automatically translate into anti-India position. There is a difference between anti-establishment and anti national; and no government is beyond reproach. The project of nation building is a dynamic process involving perpetual intellectual exercise. A nation is always in the making, and any attempt to arrest this will be detrimental to the health of the nation. India is a diverse country with divergent races, languages, religions and imaginations. The strength of India lies in its unity in diversity and not homogeneity. While the “alleged anti-national” sloganeering by few students of JNU is highly condemnable, the government’s hurry in branding all the students as anti-nationals and coming down heavily before a proper enquiry is equally condemnable. I wonder which one is more dangerous to the country, a few alleged “anti-national” voices or diminishing space to dissent and protest. In the light of the current developments, it is high time for the minorities, especially the Nagas who are ‘racially-linguistically-religious’ minorities to interrogate sincerely what the rise of Hindu-right-wing under the current dispensation, and the project of saffronsation and sanskritisation of the party’s affiliates mean to the Naga identity.
How will homogenization affect the Nagas? Should integration of the nation be at the cost of assimilation of the minorities?
Where do the Nagas fit in the ideology of Hindutva which aims for a Hindu Rastra?
And to the BJP Nagaland, while appreciating your right to protest, I wish to ask you, where was your protest when BJP member Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asked beef eaters to go to Pakistan? A remark that implicitly mean beef eating communities are not Indians. Where was your protest when BJP’s Delhi election manifesto claimed North-Easterners as immigrants? Where was your protest when right wing elements celebrated Nathuram Godse, the person who assassinated the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi? You were silent. And this silence speaks louder than your selective protest. In solidarity with JNU!
Obee K. Rose Alumnus JNU, Kohima.
