Democracy, dissent and discussions

HYDERABAD: On a day when a peaceful rally of farmers were denied entry into the national capital and assaulted with water cannons and tear gas shells, a pertinent series of talks in Lamakaan named ‘Guftan’ examined the changing landscape of protests in India.

State, universities and dissent

In the first series of talks that dwelt on the ‘Culture of Protest’, the chair Dr Hariprasad Athanickal, a professor from English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), observed that it was interesting that the event was held on the birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who had mobilised people from all walks of life to hold protests. Reflecting on the changing times, the professor said that data manipulation was the way power was being wielded today, and this should determine the way we should voice dissent.

Taking up the issue of student protests, Dr Aniket Alam, historian and a professor at IIIT, Hyderabad, said that protests in universities have failed to engage the society at large. “How can the universities stop being islands and become seamless with the society?” he wondered. Alam felt that the State was dictating how we voice dissent nowadays. “We have become prisoners of the state. Our protests are in conversation with the state. It is rarely a dialogue with society at large.”

Taking the thought forward, Dr Sowmya Dechamma, assistant professor at Centre for Comparative Literature in University of Hyderabad, said: “This culture of protest has built hope. It is built on justice and rights for all. It is built on the sweat and aspirations of the oppressed, but it is not easy to conceptualise and implement.” Pointing out that moving towards an anti-caste society would be collaborative work, she said, “If we move towards an anti-caste society, we have to have a manifesto for the privileged castes too.”

Everyday protests and nationalism
Steering away the discussion from campus politics, Dr. Jayashree Subramanian, associate professor of Mathematics at TISS (Hyderabad), spoke about the protests that are part of everyday life. “Girls protesting against matches brought by parents, an upper caste woman marrying a person from lower caste, students protesting against hostel timings, the #Meetoo movement – all are very potent examples of protests.”

Talking about the political changes that took place in the last five years, Dr Mohit Chandna, assistant professor in Department of French and Francophone Studies (EFLU), said: “Universities have become a site where nationalism has to be displayed. Even in our college, we had to hold a rock concert mandated by the central government. Funds given by MHRD are being used to study pseudo-science like the ‘uses of panchagavya’. These are unacceptable to common sense.”

Speaking more about the changes in education, he further added, “When the Modi government came to power, the education sector was restructured. Books on Dinanath Batra, an RSS ideologue, were distributed for free to schools.”

Dr. Sowjanya Tamalapakula from School of Gender Studies in TISS (Hyderabad) chose to bring forth the changing caste equations between teachers and students on campuses. “Students come with notions about who should teach. Some upper-caste students not only refuse to sit in classes taken by lower-caste teachers, but refuse to be graded by them too. How do Dalit teachers deal with this predicament? This shows that all kinds of protests might not lead to a democratic set-up.”

Raat ke guzar te hi, ek aur raat aayi Aap to kehte the ki niklega din

In the second part of the talks which was centred around ‘Art as Resistance’, the panel talked about how different art forms have been used as the lingua franca of dissent.
Poet and professor Harjinder Singh (Laltu) opened the discussion with his poem ‘Entropy’. Explaining that entropy meant chaos, he quoted from his poem:
As entropy increases, the rulers go into frenzy
And shout: Naxalbari, Naxalbari

Pictures and stand-up comedy

Taking the discussion forward, Dr Shilpaa Anand from Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) demonstrated how a few powerful images used by protestors in recent times to shame perpetrators of violence. She started out by showing the picture of disfigured hand which was used for the Rohith Vemula protests in University of Hyderabad. “The picture was used to invoke remnant strength and also people responsible for the amputation,” she said. The next picture she showed was of Insha, who was blinded by pellets in Kashmir. “These posters are reclaiming the metaphor of active defiance,” she added.

Dr Rahul Kamble from EFLU then talked about how stand-up comedy has emerged as the new mode of resistance in the recent times. “Stand-up comedy is a good medium to protest. Politics and media took over comedy,” he said. Pointing out that the layman does not have the time for intellectual discourse and rational activity is being increasingly viewed as ‘suspicious’, he said: “How do you convince a layman that they should follow your reasoning? Why should not I throw a stone and get a reward?”
Author Huma Kidwai then talked about how literature has played a pivotal role in voicing dissent all over the world. “Intellectual activity has great effect. The power of the written word is immense. Indian freedom struggle is an example of that,” she said.

Speaking about great literary movements like the Indian Progressive Writers’ Movement, and books like ‘The Earth of Mankind’ and ‘The Blinding Absence of Life’, she said: “Literature has always been used to subvert social dogma. In days when respectable women were not supposed to have sexual desires, writers like Ishmat Chughtai completely changed course of the narrative.”

— Kakoli Mukherjee
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com
@KakoliMukherje2