Have students who are studying humanities became leftists and naxals?
There is an obvious left bias in the university spaces, not just in India but probably across the world. Liberalism has been a dominant and even aspirational way of thinking and living for most of us as well (not just the university students), much due to the influence of this ideology on opinion makers like west educated academicians, English speaking elites and middle class professionals looking to be world citizens. There are some major flaws in these ideologies – rightly pointed out by the critics – that extreme left argues for use of violence to overthrow establishments, and liberalism is often, in practice, neoliberalism which favors the economically rich, and which looks down upon traditions and customs, especially religious ones.
But are university students becoming Leninists-Maoists-Naxals or Neoliberal free-market monsters like the East India Company?
Reading Yuval Noah Harrari, Marx, Ambedkar, Gandhi as well as listening to folks like Chomsky and Bernie Sanders could give a better picture to you instead of listening to Sudhir Chaudhary on Zee News.
Left, just like right, has a spectrum. The terms ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ has origins in French Revolution, where those who supported the King – ‘Tradition, Order, Duty, Nationalism’, were seated towards the right of the President, and those who supported the revolution – ‘Freedom, Equality, Fraternity, Rights, Internationalism’ – were seated towards the left. The left-right spectrum could roughly be as follows:
communist, anarchists, socialist, democratic socialists, liberal, conservative democrats, conservatives and right-wing extremist (Fascists). Again, this is not a strict division, you may be on the left for some issues and on the right for some other, and could even be above or below this spectrum, but this is roughly what it is.
Historically, both left extreme and right extreme have led to what is known as ‘Totalitarianism’: Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Taliban, Zia Ul Haq, Mussolini, Japanese Imperialists are examples from both sides of the spectrum. A balance between these two set of ideals is probably the most effective way of organization in a society, since Fascism and Communism can both be very dangerous for the society.
Many founding fathers of our nation, especially Nehru, were socialists, since that was the ideology which fought Fascists during the early part of 20th century. Congress, on the whole, could be argued to be liberal, with people belonging to both ends of the spectrum. But since academicians, especially those who read humanities, have been the ones who are driven less by status quo ideals like “Order, Duty, Nationalism’ and more by ideals like ‘Freedom, Equality and Fraternity’, they tend to be left leaning, probably rightly so since they act as a counter to establishment which would any day prefer to maintain order. This might be a poor analogy, but Establishment could be akin to Vishnu, whose role is to maintain order, while academicians and civil society could be Shiva, whose role is to destroy existing things to pave way for new creations. Both working together do the role of Brahma, the creator.
What we are seeing right know across the world is a disillusionment from the left-liberal ideologies due to multiple reasons – rising inequality, environmental catastrophe, failing economic model of neoliberalism, increasing unemployment due to automation and so on. The right doesn’t have solid answers to these problems – we as a civilization might have to think of completely different frameworks of ideas, probably somehow incorporating ideas like ecological consciousness, interconnectedness, love and co-living, which are neither left nor right. But nevertheless right is cashing on this disillusionment and pushing its ideas of conservatism, religion, duty and hierarchy, riding on the sea of votes that it is getting.
In such times of chaos, historically, two kinds of outcomes were usually seen: fascism, or communism. Why? Because as the old order crumbles, there is an increasing polarization both towards left and right, much like a chain reaction where an attack by the left leads to a bigger attack by the right, and so on, leading to shifting of opinions further and further from the center, ultimately, possibly arbitrarily, leading to victory of either the Fascists or the Communists, or maybe a split with one faction led by the fascists and the other led by the communists. Examples include North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, bipolar world of USSR-US, increasingly bipolar world of US-China, China-Taiwan, Cuba-US and so on.
We have been probably observing this in India too: A Vajpayee is followed by a Modi, who is followed by an Amit Shah on the right, while a Manmohan is followed by a Kanhaiya who might be followed by someone even more radical.
So possibly, college students aren’t naxals, just like Modi is still not at the far end of fascism.
Why is there still a lot of hope for India? Since we are the nation of people who figured this thing out in the 20th century itself, and who have provided us with alternate paradigms of thinking already! Our Constitution is neither left nor right, since the likes of Ambedkar realized that ours is an insanely diverse culture and such a dynamic will precipitate polarization extremely quickly and our country will implode if there is any significant bias in the constitution. Gandhi gave a paradigm based on truth, non-violence and love, which are values that will mollify or even reverse this dynamic of animosity and polarization by stopping violence and ill will! That was probably the biggest gift of Gandhi to India, and probably that is the reason why he is called Father of the Nation: his ideas are still carried by the likes of Yogendra Yadav, Anna Hazare and many more Gandhians, some who could be found in the Congress too like Gopal Krishna Gandhi. I haven’t read much of Deendayal Upadhyay and GK Gokhale, but I think their ideas too are somewhere in the same ballpark.
I won’t resort to naxalism or Maoism! I’d much rather read a Hind Swaraj or a Satya ke Prayog, Phule, Tagore, Ambedkar, Gokhale, Kabir, Mirabai, Bulle Shah, and at times even Premchand, Nehru, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Marx, Savarkar, and so on. But my ideals won’t be Savarkar or Marx, won’t be Lenin or Hitler, won’t be Amit Shah or Charu Majumdar – they would be Gandhi, Luther, Madela, Ambedkar and Phule.
And I can say this with much confidence that same is true for large number of students who have read or are reading humanities in JNU, TISS, BHU, DU and so on..
But are university students becoming Leninists-Maoists-Naxals or Neoliberal free-market monsters like the East India Company?
Reading Yuval Noah Harrari, Marx, Ambedkar, Gandhi as well as listening to folks like Chomsky and Bernie Sanders could give a better picture to you instead of listening to Sudhir Chaudhary on Zee News.
Left, just like right, has a spectrum. The terms ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ has origins in French Revolution, where those who supported the King – ‘Tradition, Order, Duty, Nationalism’, were seated towards the right of the President, and those who supported the revolution – ‘Freedom, Equality, Fraternity, Rights, Internationalism’ – were seated towards the left. The left-right spectrum could roughly be as follows:
communist, anarchists, socialist, democratic socialists, liberal, conservative democrats, conservatives and right-wing extremist (Fascists). Again, this is not a strict division, you may be on the left for some issues and on the right for some other, and could even be above or below this spectrum, but this is roughly what it is.
Historically, both left extreme and right extreme have led to what is known as ‘Totalitarianism’: Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Taliban, Zia Ul Haq, Mussolini, Japanese Imperialists are examples from both sides of the spectrum. A balance between these two set of ideals is probably the most effective way of organization in a society, since Fascism and Communism can both be very dangerous for the society.
Many founding fathers of our nation, especially Nehru, were socialists, since that was the ideology which fought Fascists during the early part of 20th century. Congress, on the whole, could be argued to be liberal, with people belonging to both ends of the spectrum. But since academicians, especially those who read humanities, have been the ones who are driven less by status quo ideals like “Order, Duty, Nationalism’ and more by ideals like ‘Freedom, Equality and Fraternity’, they tend to be left leaning, probably rightly so since they act as a counter to establishment which would any day prefer to maintain order. This might be a poor analogy, but Establishment could be akin to Vishnu, whose role is to maintain order, while academicians and civil society could be Shiva, whose role is to destroy existing things to pave way for new creations. Both working together do the role of Brahma, the creator.
What we are seeing right know across the world is a disillusionment from the left-liberal ideologies due to multiple reasons – rising inequality, environmental catastrophe, failing economic model of neoliberalism, increasing unemployment due to automation and so on. The right doesn’t have solid answers to these problems – we as a civilization might have to think of completely different frameworks of ideas, probably somehow incorporating ideas like ecological consciousness, interconnectedness, love and co-living, which are neither left nor right. But nevertheless right is cashing on this disillusionment and pushing its ideas of conservatism, religion, duty and hierarchy, riding on the sea of votes that it is getting.
In such times of chaos, historically, two kinds of outcomes were usually seen: fascism, or communism. Why? Because as the old order crumbles, there is an increasing polarization both towards left and right, much like a chain reaction where an attack by the left leads to a bigger attack by the right, and so on, leading to shifting of opinions further and further from the center, ultimately, possibly arbitrarily, leading to victory of either the Fascists or the Communists, or maybe a split with one faction led by the fascists and the other led by the communists. Examples include North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, bipolar world of USSR-US, increasingly bipolar world of US-China, China-Taiwan, Cuba-US and so on.
We have been probably observing this in India too: A Vajpayee is followed by a Modi, who is followed by an Amit Shah on the right, while a Manmohan is followed by a Kanhaiya who might be followed by someone even more radical.
So possibly, college students aren’t naxals, just like Modi is still not at the far end of fascism.
Why is there still a lot of hope for India? Since we are the nation of people who figured this thing out in the 20th century itself, and who have provided us with alternate paradigms of thinking already! Our Constitution is neither left nor right, since the likes of Ambedkar realized that ours is an insanely diverse culture and such a dynamic will precipitate polarization extremely quickly and our country will implode if there is any significant bias in the constitution. Gandhi gave a paradigm based on truth, non-violence and love, which are values that will mollify or even reverse this dynamic of animosity and polarization by stopping violence and ill will! That was probably the biggest gift of Gandhi to India, and probably that is the reason why he is called Father of the Nation: his ideas are still carried by the likes of Yogendra Yadav, Anna Hazare and many more Gandhians, some who could be found in the Congress too like Gopal Krishna Gandhi. I haven’t read much of Deendayal Upadhyay and GK Gokhale, but I think their ideas too are somewhere in the same ballpark.
I won’t resort to naxalism or Maoism! I’d much rather read a Hind Swaraj or a Satya ke Prayog, Phule, Tagore, Ambedkar, Gokhale, Kabir, Mirabai, Bulle Shah, and at times even Premchand, Nehru, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Marx, Savarkar, and so on. But my ideals won’t be Savarkar or Marx, won’t be Lenin or Hitler, won’t be Amit Shah or Charu Majumdar – they would be Gandhi, Luther, Madela, Ambedkar and Phule.
And I can say this with much confidence that same is true for large number of students who have read or are reading humanities in JNU, TISS, BHU, DU and so on..
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