Sanjukta Bhowal
What does religious tolerance and celebrating secularism in a college campus look like? In my college – Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, it looks like this – saffron insignia decorating the mess, special veg lunch for January 22, no non vegetarian food in the mess for the hindu month of shravan, seminars by iskcon, holidays and functions for hindu festivals ganesh chaturthi, janmashtami, hindu bhakti song and dance performances by the college societies, idol pujas and visarjan by brahman students of the college.
This is clearly not meant to make the college campus accommodating for those belonging to marginalised faiths or castes. This brahmanical overtake of a public space is clearly not a friendly gesture of organising a college gathering. It is hostile and brazen in its attempt to celebrate occasions that have historically legitimised brahmanical supremacy and islamophobia.
How did colleges of “national acclaim” that purportedly produce the “best minds” and “leaders of the future” normalise this grotesque atmosphere? The malice in the saffron culture is not even subtextual and begs the questions – who frontlines these events? Who sanctions the holidays, the special meals, the funds for the decorations and the DJ hired for these events? Who makes the academic calendar around hindu festivals and decides that it is acceptable to completely neglect occasions like Vesak Buddha Jayanti, Ambedkar Jayanti, Mahatma Phule Jayanti, Birsa Munda Jayanti, Eid, International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples, Mahaparinirvana divas, battle of Bhima Koregaon. This is facilitated by the symbiotic relationship between student committees and college administration that are a cohort of savarnas motivated by their selfish interests to historically gatekeep positions that wield authority and subdue others to satisfy their inflated egos.
I don’t believe it is enough to celebrate festivals of all faiths to observe a secular college space. Since the student committees as foot soldiers of modern day brahmanism will never exercise their right to dissent, progressive students should be visible and vocal about their boycotts of festivals that Thanthai Periyar and Babasaheb have historically opposed.
Why do these conversations remain elusive in STEM colleges? It is not nearly enough to graduate with STEM degrees, in a world where technology is disproportionately developed in the favour of caste elites, climate deniers, white supremacists. Undoubtedly, the administration of central universities, handpicked by the central government works with an agenda to manoeuver young people towards their politics, and the stifling of dissent pushes students more towards a culture of subservience and worshipping of the ”guru” figure. How did it become completely normalised for students and even professors to publicly hold anti-reservation stances? Babasaheb did not envision this state of the country. In fact, Article 28 of the Constitution pertains to the secular nature of educational institutions. The hindutva poison has for long not been in the making anymore. It has matured and spread like late stage cancer, that is asphyxiating to live with for those who identify with Ambedkarite politics and anyone who shows basic signs of humanity.
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