How JNU Made Me ‘Anti National’..
By Parvin Sultana
19 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org
Three years in a premier college of Delhi – Miranda House meant a lot to a small town girl. My smart beautiful teachers inspired me on a daily basis. A comparatively liberal college campus gave our ideas wings. Three years were marked by excellent academic activities and fabulous hostel parties. But graduation ended with the anxiety of post graduation. Like many of my fellow students I wished to be in Jawaharlal Nehru University merely because I have heard a lot about it and did visit it just once.
My wish also had to do with the urge to move away from Kamla Nagar and Majnu Ka Tila which are lovely places but gets a little monotonous after three long years. And I did get through to the Masters Course in Political Science in School of Social Sciences, JNU. Once the hectic admission was over (seven years back it was not single window system) and I have filled end number of folios and stuck end number of pictures, I moved into the campus and then I slowly could absorb the differences of my new habitat from my previous campus.
Unlike Nestle kiosks and Nirula’s that dotted North Campus JNU had dhabas which didn’t even have proper benches to sit and have chai. Students would sit anywhere and have endless discussions on cups and cups of tea. We didn’t have too many big shops and great coffee places. I even missed the overpriced and not that great coffee of Barista. But for the first time I felt at home. I saw too many people with shabby clothes around not to feel conscious about my own drabby attire. While the hang out spots of North Campus would buzz with beautifully clothed girls and boys having a good time, this campus buzzed with a different kind of energy. People were easy going and the adda culture were animated discussions would go on was endearing. Walking around the campus at any time of the day and night was something I needed some time to believe as it seemed too good to be true.
However once the classes started I was thrown into utmost confusion. This seemed like nothing that we studied in undergraduation. Seniors came to my rescue. My teachers were also there to help. This accessibility to excellent friendly teachers seemed like a continuity from my Miranda days and it was reassuring. Amidst a hectic masters course, the easy going nice green campus with winding routes seemed great. I did miss my college parties but then something else caught my attention. They were the mess meetings where academicians, activists, politicians of repute talked on contemporary issues in the messes of various hostels. The meetings started at around 9.30 and went on till late. It became better when I could draw a connection with what I was studying in my course and the discourses going on in campus. It left me with an unending love for my subject as well.
Slowly I got involved with the best part of JNU – its politically vibrant society. Coming from a girls college I saw Mirandians get things done pretty impressively, the campus in which students also intervene regularly and actively was interesting. Be it hostel seats for students, increasing mess fees or other problems, we have always found our JNUSU by us. Unlike the big cutouts of Delhi University Students Union members where they shine like filmstars, our JNUSU members walk around the campus at least five times a day. Be it another bout of attack on Gaza or a crackdown on some university, the student organisations would be at the forefront organizing meetings and issuing statements as parchas (which we contribute measly amounts to print) in solidarity or in condemnation.
But was JNU only about meetings, dharnas and strikes? We had our Holi where the entire university would be in colours and drunk on bhang, enjoying themselves in a fun but safe atmosphere. We had our Chaat Sammelan where veterans clashed with each other for the coveted title of Chaat Samrat (meaning the really annoying person around!!). We also had our hostel nights with bad DJs but pretty good food. We had late night parties over glasses of old monk. We had rendezvous with someone slightly more special than others on the PSR (Partha Sarathi Rocks). We also had our UPSC aspirants who would slog away in the Dholpur House and never attend political meetings. We had good cheap food – mughlai and Chinese and something called Kiecha’s that can’t be placed anywhere.
So what does JNU gives its students? The meetings and protest marches inculcates in you a sense of your entitlement. You protest for your right—hostel seats, lesser mess bill, against arbitrary administrative decisions. The slogan “The people united shall always be victorious” leaves you reassured that in a democracy the power is in the hands of the people. The demands of Azadi from feudalism, casteism, communalism, poverty, hunger leaves you with a strong resolution to fight for a more equal world, for a better society.
JNU makes you take cognizance of the marginalized and their rights. JNU encourages you to stand up with them in solidarity. JNU gives a call to end all oppression that dalits, people in conflict areas, women, religious minorities continue to face. JNU prepares its students to step out of the campus with an equally strong conviction to always intervene on the side of the oppressed. JNU students can take to streets braving assaults to stand up for what they believe in. JNU will make you resolve to never give up on our institutions and our Constitution that Babasaheb Ambedkar also believed in. JNU has the guts to introspect and engage with its own problems.
And JNU did all that to me too. It inspired me to stand up for what I believe, to never speak or write to appease. It gave me the courage to come back home to my border town Dhubri (a lesser developed small town with too many problems) and work for people out here. And it has sent me armed with a much required sensitivity to understand the position of the marginalized and the oppressed. It has given me the goal to inspire, encourage and teach my students to speak Truth to Power. I still believe firmly that we must wrench our freedom from poverty and social evils that are still pervasive. If that demand for azaadi and a better life for the have-nots is being anti-national then I guess JNU has rightly made me one.
Parvin Sultana is an Assistant Professor in P B College of Assam. Her research interest includes Muslims in Assam, development and northeast, gender etc.