PaRCha - JNU - ABVP - 2007 ID-631
.
Frrends, Electrons to the JNUSU are known to be contested on both national and campus 1ssues That a nch chmate of rntellectual debate has pre\arled rn the campus rs pnmarily due to the presence of the ABVP for we are the only organrzatron rn JNU whrch can justly lay a clatm of havrng an alternative visron for the nat10n and the socrety All other organrzatrons are lined up to approprrate the dommant Nehruvian agenda which draws mtellectual nounshment from a set of values ongrnatrng tram the modern European tntellectualtraditron grounded rn the 18' century Enlightenment What the other orgamzatrons debate among themselves IS not thrs central agenda but the1r relatrve abilities of push1ng rl foiWard We contest th1s agenda rtself and suggest an alternative pohtrcal soc1al econom1c and cultural model based on a deep study, d'efinrtto~ and redefintlton of our ind1genous rntellectual tradilton In other words we stand for decolon1zatron rn all spheres of nat1onal aclivrty wuh acceptance of only those forergn values whrch can further ennch our rndrgenous cultural core The ABVP tS a naltonaltst student orgamzatton which stands for cultural nationalism Even 1f the nat1on rtself rs a modern phenomenon -as 1s cJarmed by theonsts of natronalism and natron-states the world over-1t does denve popl.llar legrtmacy from the past. Th1s legrt1macy 1s based on notions of past cultural contrnu1ty, and shared histoncal memories and expenences India betng no exceptron to this we reject the notion that lndran nahonahsm was a product merely of the opposrt1on to colonral rule, and that the 'Impact-response' model convincingly explarns the imitation' by a colonized, 'child people' of the pohtical instttutaons of the colonial masters Our nationalism 1s enttrely rndrgenous to .
us, and 1s based on a celebratron of the cultural hnkages -as also the harmonrzation of differences through h1stoncal processes of collectrv1zat1on -that can be traced back to the t1mes of the Vedrc .
culture, the epic traditron. the egalitarian Bhakta Movement, etc In more recent t1mes, these processes of national collectrvtzat1on have been earned foiWard by the contnbutaons of men like Gandhr and Vivekanand, and organizations ltke the Arya SamaJ and the RSS. .
The commitment towards the celebration of our national culture would be rendered meanmgless rf we were to far I to make a s1gnrficant contnbution to the decolonization of our education system Our educatron system ts strll based on the colon1al model, and can be seen as a d1rect off-shoot of the colontal state's policy to educate a handful of Indians tn western thought. literature etc.. w1th English as the medium of instructron The arm of thrs venture was clearly hegemonrc havmg established polrt1cal control over lndra. the colonrzers were now seekrng to perpetuate the Raj through moral, sacral and cultural control, through a proJeCtion of notrons of 'British supenonty' which were being sought to be established by the deculturization of lndrans through the institutionalizatiOn of allen modes and forms of knowledge. The knowledge system thus imposed had an epistemologrcal basrs 1n the 'Enlightenment' discourse -the dominant intellectual tradrtion in Europe at that lime. The categortes constructed by thrs European intellectual tradrtron -such as 'progress', 'ratronahty', 'scientificity', 'secularism', etc -made therr way rnto India and have unfortunately become uncontested 'truths' for us. An alternatrve, rndigenous system of knowledge can be structured only through a questronmg of these categories and the construction of alternative categones. which have indigenous roots; wh1ch are an outcome of a comprehens1ve and critrcal study of our own schools of thought and cultural values The ABVP .
stands firmly 1n favour of any such venture a1med at the .
1ndigen1zahon of our education system .
Related to the quesuon of education ts the assue of rewriting history. The 1ntt1at1ve of the NDA government to rewnte htstory textbooks came in for severe cnt1casm at the hands of th~ 1 ft They argued that h1story was be1ng sought to be 'saffrontzed :Od 'distorted' by the Vajpayee government So far as the ·saffron1zatlon 1ssue goes. the mtellectually colomzed cannot appre-iate the ind1gemzatton of education and are constrained to g·ve n"egative connotal1ons to 1t Where 'd1stortron' rs concerned, a~y senous scholar of social sc1ences can understand that h1story s not a body of factual information but a ~tsctphne ~ased on.
1.
contesting approaches to past quest1ons Any Interpretation based on sources and coherently argued can constitute a leg1t1mate approach to the past. But so far as textbooks are concerned, care should be ta"en not to make them an mstrument for the propagat1on of a part1cular Ideology, least of all an tdeology that has no popular support 1n !he country! The earlier NCERT textbooks played prec1sely thts role · they selectiVely_ concealed and overemphaSIZed facts calculated to further the pohttcal cause of the Communists and the Congress. to the total detnment of the Hindutva rdeology. That 1s why the Modern lnd1a Textbook of B1pan Chandra, whrch IS othe1W1se obsessed wrth 'communalism . convenrently omits the important h1stoncal evtdence regardrng support for the Pakistan Movement by the CPI -the mother organiZatron of the CPI, the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML). .
The ABVP expresses senous concern over the threat of fundamentalism of all hues -rehg1ous and 'secular' -which seeks to reduce the complex of reality to a narrow. monohthtc code of ethiCS and behaviour. It drvrdes the whole matenal and sprrrtual world rnto two watertight compartments -'truth' (whrch it alone possesses) and 'falsity'. Whrle the Jehadi mindset -which insists on restoring the 'punty' of Islam and 1s ready to counter w1th violence any questioning of its model or a monolithic religion -has become a major source of world terrorism, Marxist terronsm, in Nepal and in several states of lnd1a, which is a direct off-shoot of the dogmatic tdeas of Karl Marx and Engels, rs another threat to world peace. While the Jehadr mrndset can be countered both by state action and the encouragement of moderate Mushm opmron, the 'secular' Marxist terronsm can be countered only with an iron hand; for no moderate Marx1st oprnton can exist rn the world wrthout bemg branded 'Utopran' or even pro-rmpenahst' by 1ts own dogmatic comrades. .
The explostve srtuatron in Assam and Manipur shows the utter failure of the UPA government supported by the Communists in handling the srtuation in the north-eastern states of India. The BJP-Ied NDA government had engaged in constructive talks with many north-eastern groups through its interlocutor, Mr. Padmanabhlyah, and had signed a historic peace accord with the various factions of the Nagas. The ABVP stands for peaceful resolution of the problems concemmg the north-east through negotiations aimed at the satisfaction of all concerned groups. .
CAMPUS ISSUES .
. . The ABVP rejects the SFI-AISF-AISA's politrcs of ntuahst1c pre-election hunger strikes whrch aim at misguiding the freshers. The rssue of MCM and its reported enhancement clearly exposes SFI-AISF-AISA led JNUSU nexus with JNU-Admn. A paltry increase in the MCM (although rt has not been Implemented so far) 1nd1cates that the SFI-AISF-AISA led JNUSU had a beforehand understanding wrth the JNU-Admn w1th an eye at the - .
,...
JNUSU elections ... .
-.
>.
It IS also very unfortunate to note that the Commumsts have tn .
""' .
therr panels candidates who are known sexual harasser and do not .
-.
<.
have a moral stand1ng to seek mandate from the student .. commun1ty PSU has already withdrawn its panel from the JNUSU -electrons after it was exposed that rts v1ce Presidentral candrdate had a case of sexual hasrassment pendrng agarnst him, but SFI shamefully contmues to reta1n its V1ce Presidential candrdate who ·-has senous charges of sexual harassment agamst hm. .
Durrng the course of the year 2000-2001 , the ABVP led JNUSU fulfilled the long standtng demand of a Railway Reservation Counter on the campus, ATM facrlrty in the SBI ·-Extension Counter purchase and installation of 140 computers to be used by students of each centre purchase of 4000 books for .
the Central Ltbrary, startrng of a Students Welfare Fund, resolution to a great extent of the hostel cnsis on the campus by exped1tmg the bu1ldrng and allotment of Mah1-Mandav1 and starting of work on two more hostels 1n the campus. etc .
Our focus for the comrng year WJII be on the followrng issues . .
.
If we get a mandate from the students of JNU we w111 ensure declaration of the M.Phil. written examination and interview marks so that complete transparency in the academrc process is ensured .
.
.
Restructunng the syllabus in social sctences so as to make the course content more reflective of our 1nd1genous knowledge systems. .
.
.
Settmg up of a Central Placement Cell for JNU so as to make educatron in JNU more job-oriented .
.
.
Timely release of scholarship money for students of all schools by exertmg pressure on the otherwrse insenstltve JNU Admmistration. .
.
.
The need for transparency in instrument purchase IS an rmportant demand m the Science Schools The Parishad wrll take up thrs demand as a top pnonty .
.
.
The Science Schools are in drre need of more funds. for wh1ch we shall exert pressure on the government In case of government insensrtrvity. we can even rnvolve the pnvate sector .
.
.
There is an urgent need for the proviSion of clean drrnl .
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - ABVP - 2007 ID-631
.
Frrends, Electrons to the JNUSU are known to be contested on both national and campus 1ssues That a nch chmate of rntellectual debate has pre\arled rn the campus rs pnmarily due to the presence of the ABVP for we are the only organrzatron rn JNU whrch can justly lay a clatm of havrng an alternative visron for the nat10n and the socrety All other organrzatrons are lined up to approprrate the dommant Nehruvian agenda which draws mtellectual nounshment from a set of values ongrnatrng tram the modern European tntellectualtraditron grounded rn the 18' century Enlightenment What the other orgamzatrons debate among themselves IS not thrs central agenda but the1r relatrve abilities of push1ng rl foiWard We contest th1s agenda rtself and suggest an alternative pohtrcal soc1al econom1c and cultural model based on a deep study, d'efinrtto~ and redefintlton of our ind1genous rntellectual tradilton In other words we stand for decolon1zatron rn all spheres of nat1onal aclivrty wuh acceptance of only those forergn values whrch can further ennch our rndrgenous cultural core The ABVP tS a naltonaltst student orgamzatton which stands for cultural nationalism Even 1f the nat1on rtself rs a modern phenomenon -as 1s cJarmed by theonsts of natronalism and natron-states the world over-1t does denve popl.llar legrtmacy from the past. Th1s legrt1macy 1s based on notions of past cultural contrnu1ty, and shared histoncal memories and expenences India betng no exceptron to this we reject the notion that lndran nahonahsm was a product merely of the opposrt1on to colonral rule, and that the 'Impact-response' model convincingly explarns the imitation' by a colonized, 'child people' of the pohtical instttutaons of the colonial masters Our nationalism 1s enttrely rndrgenous to .
us, and 1s based on a celebratron of the cultural hnkages -as also the harmonrzation of differences through h1stoncal processes of collectrv1zat1on -that can be traced back to the t1mes of the Vedrc .
culture, the epic traditron. the egalitarian Bhakta Movement, etc In more recent t1mes, these processes of national collectrvtzat1on have been earned foiWard by the contnbutaons of men like Gandhr and Vivekanand, and organizations ltke the Arya SamaJ and the RSS. .
The commitment towards the celebration of our national culture would be rendered meanmgless rf we were to far I to make a s1gnrficant contnbution to the decolonization of our education system Our educatron system ts strll based on the colon1al model, and can be seen as a d1rect off-shoot of the colontal state's policy to educate a handful of Indians tn western thought. literature etc.. w1th English as the medium of instructron The arm of thrs venture was clearly hegemonrc havmg established polrt1cal control over lndra. the colonrzers were now seekrng to perpetuate the Raj through moral, sacral and cultural control, through a proJeCtion of notrons of 'British supenonty' which were being sought to be established by the deculturization of lndrans through the institutionalizatiOn of allen modes and forms of knowledge. The knowledge system thus imposed had an epistemologrcal basrs 1n the 'Enlightenment' discourse -the dominant intellectual tradrtion in Europe at that lime. The categortes constructed by thrs European intellectual tradrtron -such as 'progress', 'ratronahty', 'scientificity', 'secularism', etc -made therr way rnto India and have unfortunately become uncontested 'truths' for us. An alternatrve, rndigenous system of knowledge can be structured only through a questronmg of these categories and the construction of alternative categones. which have indigenous roots; wh1ch are an outcome of a comprehens1ve and critrcal study of our own schools of thought and cultural values The ABVP .
stands firmly 1n favour of any such venture a1med at the .
1ndigen1zahon of our education system .
Related to the quesuon of education ts the assue of rewriting history. The 1ntt1at1ve of the NDA government to rewnte htstory textbooks came in for severe cnt1casm at the hands of th~ 1 ft They argued that h1story was be1ng sought to be 'saffrontzed :Od 'distorted' by the Vajpayee government So far as the ·saffron1zatlon 1ssue goes. the mtellectually colomzed cannot appre-iate the ind1gemzatton of education and are constrained to g·ve n"egative connotal1ons to 1t Where 'd1stortron' rs concerned, a~y senous scholar of social sc1ences can understand that h1story s not a body of factual information but a ~tsctphne ~ased on.
1.
contesting approaches to past quest1ons Any Interpretation based on sources and coherently argued can constitute a leg1t1mate approach to the past. But so far as textbooks are concerned, care should be ta"en not to make them an mstrument for the propagat1on of a part1cular Ideology, least of all an tdeology that has no popular support 1n !he country! The earlier NCERT textbooks played prec1sely thts role · they selectiVely_ concealed and overemphaSIZed facts calculated to further the pohttcal cause of the Communists and the Congress. to the total detnment of the Hindutva rdeology. That 1s why the Modern lnd1a Textbook of B1pan Chandra, whrch IS othe1W1se obsessed wrth 'communalism . convenrently omits the important h1stoncal evtdence regardrng support for the Pakistan Movement by the CPI -the mother organiZatron of the CPI, the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML). .
The ABVP expresses senous concern over the threat of fundamentalism of all hues -rehg1ous and 'secular' -which seeks to reduce the complex of reality to a narrow. monohthtc code of ethiCS and behaviour. It drvrdes the whole matenal and sprrrtual world rnto two watertight compartments -'truth' (whrch it alone possesses) and 'falsity'. Whrle the Jehadi mindset -which insists on restoring the 'punty' of Islam and 1s ready to counter w1th violence any questioning of its model or a monolithic religion -has become a major source of world terrorism, Marxist terronsm, in Nepal and in several states of lnd1a, which is a direct off-shoot of the dogmatic tdeas of Karl Marx and Engels, rs another threat to world peace. While the Jehadr mrndset can be countered both by state action and the encouragement of moderate Mushm opmron, the 'secular' Marxist terronsm can be countered only with an iron hand; for no moderate Marx1st oprnton can exist rn the world wrthout bemg branded 'Utopran' or even pro-rmpenahst' by 1ts own dogmatic comrades. .
The explostve srtuatron in Assam and Manipur shows the utter failure of the UPA government supported by the Communists in handling the srtuation in the north-eastern states of India. The BJP-Ied NDA government had engaged in constructive talks with many north-eastern groups through its interlocutor, Mr. Padmanabhlyah, and had signed a historic peace accord with the various factions of the Nagas. The ABVP stands for peaceful resolution of the problems concemmg the north-east through negotiations aimed at the satisfaction of all concerned groups. .
CAMPUS ISSUES .
. . The ABVP rejects the SFI-AISF-AISA's politrcs of ntuahst1c pre-election hunger strikes whrch aim at misguiding the freshers. The rssue of MCM and its reported enhancement clearly exposes SFI-AISF-AISA led JNUSU nexus with JNU-Admn. A paltry increase in the MCM (although rt has not been Implemented so far) 1nd1cates that the SFI-AISF-AISA led JNUSU had a beforehand understanding wrth the JNU-Admn w1th an eye at the - .
,...
JNUSU elections ... .
-.
>.
It IS also very unfortunate to note that the Commumsts have tn .
""' .
therr panels candidates who are known sexual harasser and do not .
-.
<.
have a moral stand1ng to seek mandate from the student .. commun1ty PSU has already withdrawn its panel from the JNUSU -electrons after it was exposed that rts v1ce Presidentral candrdate had a case of sexual hasrassment pendrng agarnst him, but SFI shamefully contmues to reta1n its V1ce Presidential candrdate who ·-has senous charges of sexual harassment agamst hm. .
Durrng the course of the year 2000-2001 , the ABVP led JNUSU fulfilled the long standtng demand of a Railway Reservation Counter on the campus, ATM facrlrty in the SBI ·-Extension Counter purchase and installation of 140 computers to be used by students of each centre purchase of 4000 books for .
the Central Ltbrary, startrng of a Students Welfare Fund, resolution to a great extent of the hostel cnsis on the campus by exped1tmg the bu1ldrng and allotment of Mah1-Mandav1 and starting of work on two more hostels 1n the campus. etc .
Our focus for the comrng year WJII be on the followrng issues . .
.
If we get a mandate from the students of JNU we w111 ensure declaration of the M.Phil. written examination and interview marks so that complete transparency in the academrc process is ensured .
.
.
Restructunng the syllabus in social sctences so as to make the course content more reflective of our 1nd1genous knowledge systems. .
.
.
Settmg up of a Central Placement Cell for JNU so as to make educatron in JNU more job-oriented .
.
.
Timely release of scholarship money for students of all schools by exertmg pressure on the otherwrse insenstltve JNU Admmistration. .
.
.
The need for transparency in instrument purchase IS an rmportant demand m the Science Schools The Parishad wrll take up thrs demand as a top pnonty .
.
.
The Science Schools are in drre need of more funds. for wh1ch we shall exert pressure on the government In case of government insensrtrvity. we can even rnvolve the pnvate sector .
.
.
There is an urgent need for the proviSion of clean drrnl .
.
.