JNU: Amid accolades, a varsity that got caught in an ideological turf war

In the last five days, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) pulled off what would have been considered a near impossibility for any institution. Its alumna Geetanjali Shree, the younger sister of eminent historian Gyanendra Pandey and wife of academic Sudhir Chandra, became the first Indian to win the International Booker Prize for the English translation of her Hindi novel, Ret Samadhi. The translation is called Tombs of Sand. The novel is the first in any Indian language to win the prestigious prize. Just after this, Shaunak Sen, a JNU alumnus, won the award for the best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival for his work All That Breathes. Then came the news that Shruti Sharma, who dropped out of her master’s at JNU, topped the country in the prestigious UPSC Civil Services Examination. The back-to-back honours led to social media messages mocking BJP supporters for labelling the university “anti-national”. However, the honours need not be seen as an opportunity to prove a point. Nor should any citizen — whatever be her political beliefs — grudge JNU these honours. It is important to see that JNU is a premier public institution funded by taxpayers’ money. It is neither an appendage of the government or any political party nor a necessary site of resistance to any ideology. It is what a good university should be: A national and global asset. Not often does it happen that an institution with a stellar record also falls in public perception. Yet, JNU has embodied this paradox over the last six years. These have been the worst and best of times for India’s top universities. Slogans purportedly raised at an event organised by fringe groups within the university gave it a bad image in 2016. The result: Media glare, sedition charges and crowds at the university main gate shouting anti-JNU slogans gave the university the image of an “anti-national” institution. On the other side of the political divide were those who saw it as a site of resistance against the elected government. It seemed that none was willing to see it as a diverse space, like all spaces in a multi-party democracy, and an institution of excellence that offered world-class education to people at huge public subsidy. Yet, JNU did redeem itself, bit by bit, at a time when it seemed the polarisation around it would spell doom for the institution. The first flicker of hope came close on the heels of the controversy. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), the first-of-its-kind official framework to grade institutions in relative terms instituted by the Narendra Modi government, offered vindication of the academic excellence of JNU. It was ranked second among universities and up to sixth — a notch above the prestigious IIT Kanpur – among all institutions across disciplines. Earlier too, it was the lone institution to earn a NAAC score of 3.91 on a scale of 4. However, the niche institution still suffered the stigma of being a purported site of resistance to the Indian state, an image that even the superhit movie The Kashmir Files perpetuates, associating the institution with a single professor. JNU’s backers also left no stone unturned to wear this image as a badge of honour, criticising the government and its supporters even as they defended the university. All middle paths were lost and the university was caught in a supposed left-vs-right turf war, even if there is very little of the left remaining in much of India. However, the alumni with their achievements gradually opened a window to the “other” side of JNU, a rare hub of academic excellence in India. The ice was broken by Abhijeet Banerjee, an alumnus who won the Nobel Prize in economics at a time when the university was still struggling to redeem itself in the eyes of common people. Then came the elevation of S Jaishankar, a diplomat who is also a JNU alumnus, to the office of Union Minister of External Affairs. Many media reports have commended him for the cutting edge his elevation has provided to India’s external outreach at the tough time of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Together with JNU alumna and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaishankar’s presence also means that JNU alumni constitute 40 percent (two out of five members) of the Cabinet Committee on Security. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a JNU alumna was associated with another milestone. Heading the Bharat Biotech research and development team that developed India’s homemade Covaxin was Sumathi K, a scientist who did her PhD from JNU. The accolades suggest one thing that our polarised public sphere does not find easy to digest in these times: whatever may be one’s ideology, JNU is a national asset and has done the country proud. It isn’t an island of extreme left politics or a compulsive site of resistance. It is at its core a diverse space and a site of excellence. Long ago, when the 2016 event had not cast a shadow on the stellar reputation of JNU, the ID card of the university could fetch a student a concessional ticket for the 9 pm to 12 am show at Priya Cinema, which was till two decades back considered arguably the most prominent cinema hall of the national capital. Those were times of public goodwill for JNU, which also issued National Defence Academy degrees. Traffic policemen in the vicinity of the university would be soft on an erring student riding a motorcycle without a helmet, as JNU students enjoyed a very good image. Students awaiting hostel allotment and staying in nearby Munirka Village would be requested by neighbours or the landlord to teach children in the neighborhood, as the fact that one had secured admission in JNU was considered “proof” of excellence. It is perhaps time to move beyond the polarisation that compulsively splits JNU between left and right; between nationalism and opposition to it. JNU’s first woman V-C Shantishree Pandit struck a positive note right at the beginning of her term. JNU is not about a couple of student leaders active on social media. Far away from clickbait and public glare, JNU alumni serve India each day in various capacities. It is time to read their silences and acknowledge their contribution. It is also time for diverse sections of JNU to realise that it is the taxpayer — not just the income taxpayer but also the rickshaw puller who pays taxes while buying soap or toothpaste — who has made the university what it is. What she feels about the university is important. It is time for India’s public sphere and JNU to make peace with each other. Vikas Pathak is a political journalist and author. He studied at JNU. The views expressed are personal. 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