#ShutDownJNU echoes of Khilji's Nalanda University destruction

Calling for shutdown of a university in a democracy and knowledge-seeking society is an oxymoron. There is no instance in modern history, perhaps, of a demand for closing down or destroying a university as the one being made in respect of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

It's usual, and sometimes necessary, for students to agitate for more colleges and universities, more seats and more teachers. Many of us have seen and heard about students clashing with authorities, sitting on protests and taking out marches to press their demand for more seats in the engineering and medical colleges.

The #ShutDownJNU is a campaign that challenges basic common sense. Expressing moral outrage over it will fail to capture the violence this campaign seeks to inflict on the society.

#ShutDownJNU reminds of the destruction of the famed ancient university at Nalanda in Bihar at the turn of the 12th century. Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turkic military general of Qutb al-Din Aibak, the ruler of Mamluk dynasty of Delhi, is alleged to have ransacked the university. The university's library burnt for months, so well-stocked it was with books and manuscripts.

Historians differ on the motive behind Khiliji's ransacking of Nalanda. One version has it that he was outraged after learning that the library didn't possess a copy of the Quran. Anyway, the destruction of the university and its library symbolised an action against knowledge and seekers of knowledge.

#ShutDownJNU campaign represents that very tendency: Torching of books and destruction of university by a modern-day army if its general is miffed about the seat of learning, about the courses it teaches and the knowledge it imparts.

The new government was expected to have opened the higher education space to foreign universities of repute. The UPA government's dilly-dallying and failure to pass a bill in Parliament facilitating entry of foreign universities was resented by students who want to avail of quality education, are prepared to shell out money and yet don't have access to reputed institutions.

It's because colleges and universities in the country capable of providing quality education can't accommodate all quality students looking for admissions. It has been reported many times that many students who fail to find place on top colleges have gone on to join Ivy League universities in the US.

The BJP government has been working on foreign universities bill which if passed will let top international universities to set up campuses in the country. The bill was a brainchild of UPA and the then human resources minister Kapil Sibal had introduced it in Parliament too. However, it was opposed on two counts.

One, the entry might pave the way for sub-quality universities to set up campuses. Two, no reputed universities would come if they were not allowed to repatriate profits from India. The UPA bill lapsed.

But the idea was revived by the Narendra Modi government. Modi is learnt to have asked the HRD ministry to work on a bill overcoming the restrictions on repatriation of profits. The bill is in advanced stage of preparations.

The foreign universities planning to enter India will be looking at the #ShutDownJNU campaign closely. Will they come to India where the students on the campuses are discriminated because of their preference for food, clothes, right to form associations and the right to express a political viewpoint? It's doubtful.

And will any university like to set up campus in a country where citizens run campaigns to shut down one of the best universities in the country? The question becomes especially relevant in the context of JNU because it's one university, which has adopted a system of teaching somewhat akin to what top international universities are known for. And that's a system that seeks to promote a culture of inquiry, a culture of debate and not the system of learning by rote.

It's that very culture of inquiry and the quest which the #ShutDownJNU campaign opposes and wishes to suppress. Let's keep in mind that it's not the netizens who are behind the campaign. It's not just the hoodlums who are carrying placards and crying hoarse for closure of JNU.

There are many in the forefront of #ShutDownJNU campaign, who were lucky to have studied at some of the world's best universities. Dr Chandan Mitra, editor of The Pioneer newspaper, has written an opinion piece for NDTV calling for closure of JNU.

They are those very people who are not tired of attacking the Taliban and Talibanisation of education and culture in Pakistan. They target Pakistan but wish to promote the Talibanisation of education and culture in India.

They are calling for shutdown of JNU because they have shut down their minds blighted by unreason and toxic ideologies. Because they are modern-day Bakhtiar Khilji!