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Mahtab Nama

~ Diary of a Young Muslim

Mahtab Nama

Monthly Archives: March 2016

Why JNU in 2016 Is Reminiscent of Jamia in 2008

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by MahtabNama in Uncategorized

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Anti National, Batla House 'Encounter', Jamia, Jamia Nagar, JNU, Stand With JNU, Terrorism

It was late in the evening in the last week of September 2008 and I had to take an auto from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to Jamia Nagar. I had with me, a lawyer friend whom I had gone to meet in the university. We must have asked a couple of auto wallahs, but we were either met with a flat refusal or were demanded more than thrice the normal rate.

“Bhaiyya, wahan se wapis sawari nahi milti,” was what a few auto wallahs said in defense, when I tried arguing with them. This was, needless to say, quite an invalid and bogus argument and there was hardly any truth to their claim. I thought of asking for New Friends Colony, an upscale locality in South Delhi and a stone’s throw from Jamia Nagar. This was, to no surprise, met with an instant agreement. My lawyer friend, who had to get down mid-way at Malviya Nagar, couldn’t stop himself from asking the driver on the general refusal to go to Jamia Nagar.

“Kya batayen sir, darr lagta hai. udhar mullah, kat*a, aatankwadi log rahte hai. Aapne suna nahi, wahan se kayi aatankwadi pakde gaye hain aur wahan encounter bhi hua tha pichhle halfte” came the reply. (What should I tell you sir, I am scared to go. Muslims, terrorists stay there. Didn’t you hear that many terrorists were caught from that area and there had been an encounter as well last week).  My friend was aghast and agitated to hear this. He wanted to scream at the driver but I stopped him from doing so. I had to travel in the same auto after dropping him. And it wasn’t entirely his fault in harbouring such feelings. Following the media trail in the wake of the Batla House ‘Encounter’ last week (19th September 2008), it was too difficult to question the prevalent public discourse about Jamia Nagar and its residents.

There were concentrated efforts by right wing political forces to brand Jamia Nagar as the ‘Nursery of Terror’, and Jamia as a den that advocated terrorism and trained ‘terrorists’ instead of students. The more grievous fallout was that the children and youth from the area were teased and targeted in their schools and colleges and admission and jobs were being denied to them. Refusal to deliver services became the norm and those students of Jamia who were staying outside Jamia Nagar on rent, were asked to vacate their rooms by the land lords. It was even more harrowing for students and youth from Azamgarh.

There was a sense of fear and terror in the air as people were being picked up indiscriminately on an every-day basis in the name of ‘questioning’. The sense of being survielled was quite obvious even as plain clothes police men patrolled the area. Some of them were subjected to all sorts of brutalities like torture and mental harassment. An atmosphere of ‘who’s next’ plagued the minds of the people. The Youth was scared of going out and parents fearful for their children’s safety. This situation lasted for more than six months, and though far less, has still not gone down completely.

JamiaJNU

Having been a regular visitor to JNU, the crackdown on JNU and its students last month immediately brought a sense of déjà vu of the situation in Jamia Nagar and its neighbourhood in 2008. There were striking similarities between the two. The only difference was the element of mob-lynching and rightwing vigilantism.

Never in my wildest thoughts had I imagined that something similar could happen in JNU – to its students and teachers. The University was being targeted, students were arrested, random calls from the police were being made to students, teachers and journalists, unknown and late-night calls were a source of anxiety and there were reports of a few personal vehicles being trailed as they moved out of the campus. Students of JNU staying outside the campus were being asked to vacate their rooms. Autowallahs started refusing to go to JNU. People started referring to it as “Pakistan” (Jamia Nagar is still referred to as a mini-Pakistan). There was a sense of anxiety, fear and terror in the air while the remarkable fight for justice and the Stand with JNU campaign was on. Such was the fear that ordinary people had started avoiding mentioning JNU publically. And why not? Random people were being targeted, detained for hours at police stations because they looked like ‘JNU wallahs’.

There were vigilante groups outside the main gate of JNU, in Munirka and other adjacent areas. Students going to Munirka complained of being followed as they left the main gate of the campus. The right wing left no stone unturned in organizing protests against JNU, especially outside metro stations close to the campus. Loud speakers played speeches that incited hatred against the students while labelling them as anti-nationals. Solidarity marches held outside the campus in support of JNU were matched with protests and other kinds of mobilizations against JNU and it students, not just in Delhi but in different parts of the country. Professors were attacked (one even shot at), effigies were burnt for sharing articles, speaking out against the criminalization of dissent and witch hunt at JNU. What had taken four decades to build a space for democratic dissent and debate had been reduced to a space for criminalizing dissent and debate over a span of a few days.

It might sound hyper and ridiculous but I had to ask my wife (who is a research scholar at JNU) to remove the JNU sticker from the car to avoid confronting any untoward experience, especially near the university where the right wingers were stationed to organize and target those from the university.

Unfortunately, not much has changed. There is still a sense of loss, harassment and injustice. The crack-down has changed people’s lives, routine and perception drastically. I was travelling in the Delhi Metro a few days ago when I heard someone ask his acquaintance loudly, “JNU mein rahe ho kya?”  “Yaar, sare-aam pitwaoge kya,” came the reply.

Having been through this twice, I can only hope that it doesn’t repeat itself again, to another JNU or another Jamia.

(An edited and shorter version of this blog first appeared in TheQuint. )

Beyond Homosexuality and AMU: Why Aligarh is a Must watch Film

05 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by MahtabNama in Uncategorized

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Aligarh Film, AMU, Homosexuality, Prof. Siras, Shahid

Last week, a day after Hansal Mehta’s latest film Aligarh was released for public viewing in theatres across the country except Aligarh city, I watched it here in a Delhi multiplex. Unlike other movie shows, though not very surprisingly given it’s “A” certificate and ‘the subject’ of the film, the hall was not full. However, I must confess that there were more people than what I had seen for Shahid, almost akin to those that turned up for City Lights. I clearly remember that there were not more than a dozen people when I watched Shahid on the first day of its release. The first thing that I noticed after the film started playing was the tune of Beparwah, a song from Shahid. It had an electrifying effect on me. Ever since the release of the song, I have heard it a several hundred times and even today, I hear it on loop. Shahid was a deeply moving tribute to the man (Advocate Shahid Azmi) and his mission, though initially I was extremely skeptical about the film. Since this is not a blog about Shahid, I would not go into the details. However, those interested in knowing my take may read it here.

Let me talk about Aligarh. As soon as the film started, I got lost in it.  There were so many things in the film to watch, observe, understand, think, empathize, relate and engage with, that at the end of it, I was totally bogged by it.  It was an altogether different experience for me.  After watching the film, I did not know how to react to it, what to say and what not to. Literally, it took me a few hours to put down a small para on the film as my Facebook status. On reaching home, I wrote the following comment:

AligarhComment

Why did I say so? Let me give you a few examples. I felt so because, given the ‘controversial’ nature of the subject of the film and the university—Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), which is actual site of inspiration of the film, it would have been much easier and perhaps a box office hit, had the film maker chosen to make a sensational film instead. There was all the masala available for it. But instead of that, the filmmaker chose to make a film which takes one much beyond its immediate subject (much like ‘immediate identity’, remember Rohit Vemula’s words?) The most remarkable thing about the film is that it engages with you. It does not scream at you. It is very poetic and political with no overt claim of being one. It forces you to relate to your own vulnerabilities and insecurities, and perhaps at some level, privilege as well. It leaves you with unanswered questions, which don’t haunt you but force you to constantly think and ponder about.

While watching the court argument about morality and homosexuality, I was reminded of the ongoing debate about patriotism and nationalism. One of the court room scenes succinctly outline the difference between conventional or popular notion of morality and constitutional morality, much like Prof. Upendra Baxi’s argument and the distinction about Popular Patriotism and Constitutional Patriotism, which he made in his latest column in Indian Express on 27th of February, the day I watched Aligarh.

Sorry, but I have to refer to Shahid once again. While watching the scene of outsiders barging into the protagonist’s house in Aligarh and making videos and taking their picture in an almost naked position and beating them black and blue, I was reminded of the scene from Shahid when he is tortured by police. To me, the very act of barging into someone’s house and filming their private and intimate part of life forcibly is nothing short of torture. In this sense, there was a striking similarity between the two scenes. The context might be different but the intent was the same. To humiliate and force someone in order to acquire a ‘confession’ that what he did was wrong.

Similarly, the scene where the land lord asks the protagonist to vacate the house because he is a bachelor, reminded me of my own vulnerability and that of many of my friends and peers. Not long ago, I was denied a place on rent by several land-lords and ladies in Bangalore because I was a Muslim and because I was going to stay alone. I was reminded of my helplessness, much like the protagonist.  And I was/am not the first and the last, many of my friends are denied houses because of their caste, religion, gender, food habits and region, to name a few.

Aligarh-film-review

Many would argue that Aligarh is a film about human rights and justice. Agreed. But let me say this as an activist who works for human rights and justice that Aligarh is not a human rights story alone but a human story. It is not just about being gay but being human as well and all human beings are different from each other. In this case, the person featured in the film is different in terms of his idea of love (yeah, the film is just not about sex as many would like us to believe). And the protagonist of the film says it clearly when he is asked about whether he is gay. “ ‘Gay’ ? How can you define my love in just three letters?”

If you have not watched a good film in a long time, I recommend you to watch this as it will not disappoint you. It does not matter whether you are pro or anti-Homosexuality.  This is a must watch film even if you are not able to come to terms with it like a friend of mine who writes:

“How can someone end up making such a great movie! And how can someone bring such sensitivity to a character! Kudos Hansal Mehta and Manoj Bajpai. I’ll admit that even after years of effort, I am still substantially homophobic. And I don’t think I can change this at this age now. But any story told with such human touch, such sensitivity, deeply moves me. The only other film that did this to me was Brokeback Mountain. Do make time and watch Aligarh. It won’t be there for more than a week now.”

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Adivasi AFSPA A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan's Religious Minorities Aligarh Film AMU A White Trail Azamgarh Bajrang Dal Bangalore Banning Organisation Batla House 'Encounter' Beef Biblio Magazine BJP Book Review Central India Chhattishgarh Communal Targeting Communal Violence Communist Constitution Cultural Chauvinism Dalit Democratic Rights Elite Muslim Extremism Filmmaker Gau Rakshak Gujarat 2002 Hard News Magazine Haroon Khalid Hasan Suroor Hate Speech Hindutva Human Rights Indian Muslims Indian Muslim Youth Interview Irom Sharmila Jamia Jamia Nagar Jharkhand Jihad Jihadi Terrorism: On the Trails of its Epistemology and Genealogy: T. S. Girishkumar Kashmir Law Manipur Meghnath Da Mid-day Minorities Muslim Muslim Activist Muslim Women Muzaffarnagar Riots Naxalism Nursery of Terror Obituary Odisha Pakistan Patiala House Court Delhi Politics Praveen Togadia Ramadan Ramjan Ramzan Ranchi Raphael Susewind Rediff SIMI Sir Syed Terrorism The Book Review Journal Togadia_Owaisi Akbaruddin Owaisi Urdu Violence

Recent Posts

  • Mr Minister, Muslims need equality not your ‘proper sanctity’
  • Syed Shahabuddin: A man who could win over even those who disagreed with him
  • Book Review : Citizen and Society by M. Hamid Ansari
  • Replug: In defense of Hansda Sowvendra Sekhar, a young adivasi writer from Jharkhand
  • Cow Vigilantes’ Attacks: The Privileged Must Rise in Rage

Recent Comments

Dharamendra yadaw on Manufacturing Sedition: Amnest…
Jeelani Ahmed on Remembering Abba, my Friend, F…
Personal Concerns on Verdict 2016: How Urdu Dailies…
Beyond Homosexuality… on Beyond Homosexuality and AMU:…
Biswajit on Aligarh Film: Muslim outfit he…

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