It is not only shocking to the world community but also against the self-professed ethos of Western liberalism. On Tuesday night when the people were fast asleep, the police stormed into the prestigious Columbia University. At lightning speed, the cops launched brutal crackdowns on the pro-Palestine students.
The operation, according to the media reports, was done at midnight. To disorient the protestors and clear the encampments, the police used flash bangs. In this operation, several hundred students have been arrested. While arresting the protestors, the police showed a great deal of aggression.
The university campus was treated almost like a war zone by the police. At the time of operation, even journalists were not allowed to get inside the campus. Nothing could be more condemnable than this.
Remember that the university authority has called the police for the second time inside the campus within the gap of two weeks. This shows the illiberal character of the university administration. It is also an indicator of shrinking democratic space within the western campuses. The university authority appears to be acting as per the dictate of the political elites, who continue to maintain their criminal complicity in the occupation of Palestinian People’s land and in the ongoing genocideof the Palestinians.
The political regimes of the so-called liberal world have betrayed Palestinians. The right to self-determination is a core of liberal philosophy. But those in power have forgotten their cherished principles in the case of Palestine.
Amid this dark time, the ray of hope is the protesting students of Columbia University. The brave protestors have given a clear message to the timid world leaders. Their message is that courage does not flow from the pilling up of the weapons. Rather, it originates from a commitment to stand with the oppressed. Their message is that the regime of injustice is best countered by the courage to speak the truth to the power and unwillingness to accept the unjust order.
The Columbia students, by their heroic acts, have proved that the people of the West and the governments of the West are not the same entity.
Mahatma Gandhi, who led India’s anti-colonial struggles, agreed that unjust laws should be opposed by soul force. Despite my disagreement with Gandhi on many issues including his defence for the caste system, Gandhi had something to offer on the Palestinian question. Gandhi, who suffered the brutality of colonial rule, was critical of the imperial project.
Gandhi was a practitioner of passive resistance. The method of passive resistance, according to him, requires a feeling of love for all and determination to face the mighty rule without having any ill will against the aggressors. While observing the passive resistance, one should be willing to suffer blows but never think or cause harm to others. This is the way to oppose the repugnant laws. Gandhi declares that unjust laws made by any government are unacceptable to him. The peaceful protests at Columbia University appear to have some similarities with Gandhian methods.
Writing in the 1930s, Gandhi supported the legitimate struggles of Palestinians. But his support for Palestine did not come in his way to show a great deal of sympathy for the Jewish community. The life of Gandhi is an example that one could support the right of Palestinians to have a free country and be friends with the Jews at the same time.
Gandhi was a friend of the Jews, yet he did not believe that the suffering of the Jews should be compensated by rehabilitating them on the lands of native Palestinians.
No doubt, the Jews have suffered a lot in history. Yet, they have risen from the ashes. No other nation could match them in their struggles and services to humanity. Yet, the friends of Jews, like Gandhi, cannot be the supporters of the aggressive agendas of denying the Palestinians to live with freedom and dignity.
The student-protestors appear to be acting in similar ways. That is why it is wrong to outlaw their protests and call them as based on the ideas of anarchism and anti-Semitism. The protestors are acting as conscience keepers of the world.
The student protests have occurred at a time when the politicians, media and human rights agencies of the West failed to speak for justice. For the geopolitical and commercial interests, the Western leadership remains blind to the sufferings of Palestinians.
Unlike the political elites, the protestors are vocal against the ongoing attacks on the Palestinians and the displacement of over two millions people. So far over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children. The so-called liberal governments in the Western regimes, with a few exceptions, have been so far silent in an asymmetrical war. The self-proclaimed defenders of human rights have been insensitive to see the slaughter of the Palestinian children, who continue to fall prey to the bullets and bombs of the setter colonialism of Israeli state.
Amid this criminal silence, the students of Columbia University were keeping the flame of humanity burning. But the police crackdown on them is an attempt to put out the flame of conscience. Their protests are a pointer to the fact that the talks and deeds of the Western regimes are not the same.
The West has often criticized the non-Western world for being illiberal and fanatic. The ethnocentric Western ideologues have created a binary between the West and the East. The East has been demonized as a perversion, while the West is praised as an ideal. The West is celebrated as liberal, and secular and equated with a land of critical inquiry, while the East, particularly the Arabs and the Islamic world, is demonized as religious and intolerant.
While it is true that the ruling elites of the East have suppressed the critical voices and punished the dissenters, the Western leaders have never looked inside their hypocrisy. It is true that in India, Dalits, minorities and critical voices are being targeted, but it is also the case that the counter-hegemonic forces continue to challenge the dominant narratives in the non-Western world.
For example, the anti-caste struggles, the neo-Buddhist movements, the assertion of Dalits and Bahujans in Indian politics and the struggle to democratize the food culture have posed serious challenges to Brahmanical ideology.
It is also true that despite these challenges, the Hindu Right has become very dominant. While the rise of Hindu supremacy is a reaction against the assertion of the plebeians, it is also true that the rightwing forces might not have been so strong, had they not got the support of global corporate forces.
Worse still, the Western ideologues continue to speak in orientalist discourse. Similarly, the ruling elites of the West never miss a chance to export human rights to the non-Western world. But what could be more hypocritical than this that the defenders of human rights are not able to defend the human rights of their students?
The Western ruling elites turn into great champions of freedom of expression when the cartoonists caricature the revered figures of minority Muslims in bad shape. But the same “defenders” of freedom and critical voices turn intolerant to the dissent of their students and are not hesitant to order a reign of terror on dissenting students who have been peacefully protesting against the war.
But such a cowardly act of the Columbia University authority has further unmasked the illiberal face of the Western elites. Moreover, it will also inspire others to emulate the deeds of the student-protestors of Columbia University elsewhere in rest of the world.
Dr Abhay Kumar teaches politics at Khaja Bandanawaz University. Email: [email protected]
