The head of the Performing Arts department at Pondicherry University has been removed from his position, after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) complained of hurting religious sentiments over a play based on a version of Ramayana.
The play was staged on March 29. The head of the department was asked to resign on April 1.
The police booked some students and others on charges of “outraging religious feelings”, reported the Hindu.
Meanwhile, violent propaganda is being carried out against the students, especially women. Some of them have been forced to leave the campus and go to their homes because they are being threatened with sexual violence. Many women have reported to professors that they have been receiving vulgar and threatening messages on Instagram.
All this happened after the play, titled Somayanam, was performed as part of the annual drama festival ‘Ezhini 2K 24’ organised by the department.
The authorities had approved the play’s script. The performance was open to all. The play was staged successfully to a packed hall. The audience appreciated and applauded the play. However, the real drama took place the next day, by those who were not from the department and who had not even watched the play.
When the second play of the festival was being performed, at least 15 to 20 members of the ABVP raised ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and waved saffron flags at the festival venue. They demanded action against the actors and director of the play staged the previous day, as well as others who, according to them, had hurt their religious sentiments.
The play was inspired by the Ramayana. An educated woman is thrilled by the prospect of solitude in the forest with her husband. But her brother-in-law to the chagrin of the woman is also ready to accompany them. The wife gets disappointed with them after some incidents happen in the jungle such as violence against another woman. That woman’s brother, Bavana, gets angry and comes to take revenge for his sister. The woman and Bavana talk, and she tells him that she is married but the two can be friends.
The play was an experiment in Terukkuttu style. The audience enjoyed this experiment.
The administration promptly announced an investigation into the play following the ABVP’s violent demonstration. However, various forms of punitive action against the students and teachers were taken even before the investigation was initiated.
The question is, why is it that those whose sentiments get hurt, especially on the university campuses, mostly belong to one organisation? It is like carving a fake wound on your body and then using it to attack the person you blame for that wound.
It’s also important to note here that there are three types of organisations involved in this matter. First, the university administration, which suspended the head of the department and initiated an inquiry against him and the students. Second, the police, which promptly registered a case against the students. These are two state institutions. However, the third organisation, ABVP, is a non-state actor, on whose instructions both of them took such action against the teacher and students.
While writing this article, I remembered what happened at the campus of Ramjas College in Delhi University years ago. I distinctly remember the day when the ABVP members attacked students and teachers on the pretext of being hurt after seeing the names of Shehla Rashid and Umar Khalid as speakers at a seminar organised by the English Department of the college.
Another memory from 2011: A ruckus took place before the Department of History, in which the head of the department was abused and the department building stoned.
In 2011, the University of Delhi withdrew from its history syllabus an essay by A.K. Ramanujan, Three Hundred Ramayanas, due to ‘protests’ by ABVP.
However, these are not the only incidents where religious sentiments were hurt. There have been several cases in which the complaint is that either religious or nationalistic sentiments have been hurt. After the complaint is raised, instances of physical violence are reported, as seen in this latest case at Pondicherry University. But it is surprising that, apart from the ABVP members, the sentiments of no other Hindu student have been hurt. No non-ABVP student has ever complained about their sentiments being hurt.
Therefore, what concerns us is that once this organisation signals, the university administration and the police almost always jump in to take action against those targeted by the ABVP.
A simple Google search of ABVP reveals a long list of such incidents. However, the organisation claims that its actions align with its ideology and nature – it’s just doing its work.
More concerning is the university and police’s promptness to align with ABVP’s ideology, disregarding their obligation to operate within the framework of the Constitution of India. Instead of penalising those who commit violence, they punish the victims of violence.
The list of such institutions is long where the administration has acted like the authorities of Pondicherry University. They are the Fine Arts Department of the Sayaji Rao University, Central University of Haryana, Jodhpur University, Central University of Bihar, University of Kerala, University of Jharkhand, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, FTII, Pune, TISS Mumbai, Lucknow University or Punjab University, etc. There is no end to the list of incidents of students and teachers being punished by the administration following ‘protests’ by the ABVP.
Such actions not only affect the broader academic environment but also negatively impact free discussion or exchange of ideas in classrooms and on the campuses.
So, what should we expect from the university administration? We believe that their job is to protect this freedom. However, what we have been seeing is just the opposite: their actions have curbed freedom.
There is also a need to think why those who complain of hurting religious sentiments are not able to protest without abuses and violence. What does it say about their own culture or nationalism they claim to represent?
We never ask why only one organisation should have the monopoly on the interpretation of nationalism or religious faith. Why is the opinion of that particular organisation considered final and official?
Be it the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, their tradition is based on experiments and new creative interpretations. That is why there are 300 versions of the Ramayana. However, with the entrenchment of Hindu nationalism, this tradition of experiments is now facing a serious threat. We have to think about why our ancestors were able to experiment with it and why we are not able to do it.
Apoorvanand teaches at Delhi University.
