Of all the cultural losses we have suffered, the devaluation of the natural and time-honoured authority of the guru or preceptor is perhaps the worst and the most tragic. – Sandeep Balakrishna
Like you, even I had not heard of Mukundan M. Nair, an LLB student at O.P. Jindal University who has been suspended for an entire semester. In my considered view, the suspension is a mere rap on the knuckle for what clearly is a case of unhinged hatred against Sanatana Dharma.
In a viral video, Mukundan is openly instigating students on the university campus to “replace all Hindu temples with mosques.” The occasion for his hate speech was an event he had himself organised. The event’s title leaves nothing to the imagination: Ram Mandir: A Farcical Project of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism.
Going purely by the contents of the video, it is clear that Mukundan M. Nair has been radicalised by the extremist forces of the Far Left. However, he is also the latest poster boy of the long-term success of the Communist project that began a century ago. The fact that he is pursuing a law degree and might someday become a lawyer is chilling.
Since independence, every Leftist terrorist—immaterial of the labels of Naxal, Maoist, etc.—who has been out on bail or has been acquitted has had committed lawyers defending him or her. Or think of the prospect of a Mukundan M. Nair sitting on a bench of judges which is tasked to deliver the verdict on say, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
He is also a symbol of a familiar, untreated wound, which continues to fester. This wound is precisely what breeds the likes of Mukundan M. Nair. In its broadest sense, it is the comprehensive and calculated destruction of the value and ideal of Indian education. You only need to destroy the ideal first. Everything woven around it, everything built on its edifice, will start to crumble and then bite the dust automatically. This destruction was accomplished single-handedly by the Left in India after independence. And it has been on a scale far exceeding anything that even the British had done.
One of the doyens of Indian philosophy and an eminent educationist, Prof M. Hiriyanna memorably declared that “the aim of education is not to inform the mind but to form it.” The Left literally overturned this profound philosophy and created an “educational” system that deforms minds. The ultimate tragedy of this destruction of education is the fact that it has occurred in Bharatavarsha, the world’s mother-ship of learning for uncountable centuries.
Of all the cultural losses we have suffered, the devaluation of the natural and time-honoured authority of the guru or preceptor is perhaps the worst and the most tragic. Among others, cinema has contributed a lion’s share to this devaluation. What initially began as a parody of teachers on screen quickly descended into their crude and vulgar depictions. By the late 1980s, teachers were typically portrayed as lower-middle-class losers, helpless and cowardly if not scheming.
On a parallel track, the “new wave” or “art house (sic)” cinema spat out by the Leftist apparatus portrayed teachers as Marxist revolutionaries out to create a “new equitable society” by destroying these traditional gurus, who symbolised regressiveness, superstition and oppression whose source was—unsurprisingly—the sacred annals of Sanatana literature. Such Marxist “teachers” are real. They continue to create a Gurmehar Kaur, a Kanhaiya Kumar, a Rohit Vemula and now, a Mukundan M. Nair. And they teach everything except character, virtue and decency.
These teachers are not merely failing the students, they are actively corrupting them and turning them into cannon fodder in service of the Far Left/woke ideology. Universities are their playgrounds.
A study of the evolution of the Indian university system will prove eye-opening to say the least. Only 20 universities and 496 colleges existed throughout India in 1947. Today, that number has exploded to 54 central and 416 state universities, 125 deemed universities and 361 private universities. This is not counting the 159 institutes of national importance like IIT, IIM, NIT, etc. Whatever the reason, this sort of unchecked expansion is unhealthy, to put it mildly.
The aforementioned metaphor of playground is the common theme uniting both public and private universities. Every university that has a humanities department is a Far-Left theme park. Be it sociology, anthropology, history, language or law, the theme is the same: breaking India and dismantling Sanatana Dharma. In theory and practice.
The establishment of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was the harbinger of and the tipping point in the recurring onslaughts of on-campus violence against the sovereignty of India. JNU “professors” brainwashed and tutored in Moscow and Beijing would use their students as cannon fodder in their war against India. And these students in turn would become lecturers and professors and do the same thing all over again. This sick, self-perpetuating vicious cycle spun for half a century. Anybody who has lived through that era will testify to the venomous atmosphere prevailing on university campuses back then. Thankfully, this Left-instigated on-campus violence is largely a thing of the past.
But the entry of private universities took this dangerous game to a different level. Now, instead of a handful of JNU clones, the Left acquired nationwide playgrounds. Some of these private universities had wealthy international patrons who came armed with their own agendas. Ashoka University was the undoubted pioneer in this area. The Far Left’s penetration of this university is a case study in infiltration. When the blueprint for Ashoka was first floated, a respected, former NASA scientist and scholar (now deceased) described it as “a retirement home for washed-up Nehruvians.” Why does this university have condom vending machines on its campus? And why are we surprised and outraged at what has now emerged from the O.P. Jindal University?
The ideology that created the Jawaharlal Nehru University still has a solid grip on the academia—private and public. Mukundan M. Nair is just the latest proof. Today, it is O.P. Jindal. Tomorrow, it could be any other university. But the questions that need to be asked are these: one, how many Mukundan M. Nairs are still under the radar, working quietly but persistently to undo India’s Sanatana culture? Two, why aren’t the faculty members who produce such “students” not held accountable?
On numerous occasions over the last two decades, I have written, appealed, begged and beseeched countless times that education needs a thorough overhaul which should go beyond the National Education Policy (NEP). In its foundational structure, framework, and implementation, we are still anchored to Macaulay in essence. In recent years, we have tinkered with it by adding another imitation—the American university model. A new imagination and generational vision is required to fully break away from this debilitating clutch. We only hope that it happens soon. – News18, 2 March 2024
› Sandeep Balakrishna is the founder and chief editor of the The Dharma Dispatch, Bangalore.
Filed under: india | Tagged: indian universities, leftism, marxism, op jindal university, politcal extremism | Comments Off on India’s university campuses as dens of Far-Left ideology – Sandeep Balakrishna
