Free To Disagree

A Centre of Excellence turns into a hotbed of dissent as Jadavpur University students and faculty resist government attempts to muzzle its autonomy.

- Romita Datta

It was born a child of rebellion. And for over a century, it has maintained that spirit. Not so long ago, a fleeting glance through an 8B bus window would offer a glimpse of tall trees, still sap-green ponds, a little footbridge and gaggles of students going about their day. A picture of college life idyll. Today, you may spot posters declaring: “We debate. We dissent. We unite against oppression. We are JU.” Tune in and you may just hear the protest music floating through the campus air: “Amra noi gerualaal, sabuj kimba saada-neel…Kolorob hok (We are not saffron, red, green or white-and- blue…. Let there be noise).”

Jadavpur University (JU) in Kol kata is once again in the eye of a storm. In confrontation mode with Mamata Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government since 2014, the university has now received a body-blow: the state government and the Governor of West Bengal, Keshari Nath Tripathi (who also happens to be the Chancellor of JU), have introduced a new clause in the statute of the university. It states that teachers and staff who speak against the policies of the institution and the government will be hauled up, face departmental probe and run the risk of being dismissed. Students and research scholars will also be under the scanner of a ‘welfare officer’ on ‘morality and ethics’.

August 16. JU. The classrooms are empty. Teachers and students stand near the administrative building, hand-in-hand, forming a human chain. A student steps forward, takes out a lighter and lets the flame lick a sheaf of paper—the ‘draconian’ circular—amid loud cheer. Others followed suit. Burnt shreds of paper scatter across the rain-drenched ground to be trampled by wet shoes. A burial of sorts. Slogans rend the air: “Kaala kanoon kabor jak, kabor jak (Black law, bury it)!”