Aligarh
Muslim University
Paralyzed Again
By Mirza A. Beg
19 September, 2007
Countercurrents.or
About
five month ago Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was in turmoil. Two students
had been killed and the administration was moribund. The Vice Chancellor,
Mr. Naseem quietly abdicated or felt forced to abdicate and skipped
town through the back door. Alumni and well-wishers of AMU were abuzz
with righteous hand winging and heartfelt advice. I expressed my views
in an article, on the vicious cycle at the AMU. http://www.countercurrents.org/beg200407.htm
A month later a new vice
Chancellor was ushered in with fanfare. He made much needed changes
in the administrative staff. Most, who claim to be in the know, seemed
to have approved.
Suddenly on the 12th of September
the news of rape of a student in the Abdullah Girls Collage hit the
news. On September 16th another student was murdered in the heart of
the campus by unknown assailants. These two events are unspeakably horrible.
All efforts should be made to bring the culprits to the bar of justice.
Instead, they trigger a mass violent protest and the university is closed
for indefinite period (Sine die). Slide back to nightmarish yesterday
again.
It is a vicious cycle indeed.
If we keep repeating our nightmarish yesterdays, the bright mornings
of hope will for ever elude us and be beyond our reach.
Terrible things happen from
time to time. How do we react and conduct ourselves is the measure of
civilization, decency and courage. It appears that we always fall short,
and keep repeating the same mistakes, as if we are locked on a treadmill,
condemned to tread the same strip over and over again. The obligatory
condemnations pour in from all quarters and we feel ever so slightly
better.
Rape and murder are criminal offences of exceedingly grave nature, and
a purview of the police investigation. They are not, and can not be
construed as an internal disciplinary matter of the university.
There are mechanisms in place
to handle such cases in the penal code, albeit the wheels of bureaucracy
and justice grind slowly. That is where the clout of the university
administration and the political leverage of the students and the community
could have been brought to bare to move the process as fast as judiciously
possible.
It appears that the administration
does not know how to take immediate action to let the students and their
parents know that they are not asleep at the switch.
The students or at least
many of them have no idea of the purpose of the university and the importance
of their being on the campus. It appears that they wait for a provocation
and go on a rampage destroying and burning the very structures of the
hallowed institution that is supposed to show them the path to success,
so that they can be responsible of their own and the community’s
destinies, so that such events do not happen.
Instead of pillaging the
students could have given a little time to the administration to gather
its wits and take action. Granted, the past administrations from time
to time have been corrupt or at the very least inept. They could have
kept a close watch on the progress of the investigations. They could
have written, and in time deluged the relevant offices with petitions.
In the absence of proper response carried out large peaceful and quite
vigils, from every day at a certain appointed times, and not disrupted
their own and others education.
Islam teaches us self-control
and relentless pursuit of justice with the right means, avoiding injury
to innocent others. In the land of Mahatma Gandhi the lessons and effectiveness
of peaceful protests are engraved in our history. They have been successful
and are part of the unread pages of the history books. They ought to
be engraved in our hearts, but sadly they are obscure even in the institutions
of learning.
An institution dedicated
to intellectual development and pursuit of the betterment through learning
can ill afford a lock of reoccurring yesterdays on our psyche to blind
us to the waiting tomorrows.
There are many good students
and very good faculty members, but they are effectively prisoners of
impetuous few who would rather destroy and burn the halls of learning.
Until the students realize that they are at AMU to get the best education
they can and stop listening to those who preach otherwise; the members
of faculty realize that they are there to intellectually serve the institution
the best they can and shun the deleterious groups; and most of all the
community demands that of its children to behave, no one can be found
to govern an institution where education is treated as incidental. Most
intellectuals will tend to shy away from such an impossible task.
I have written this before,
“This is a microcosm of the Muslim community as well. Great Leaders
are born occasionally, their appearance can not be willed. They are
exceptions not a norm. Individuals make a Community; we as individuals
need to take up the challenge to improve. Most societies improve with
individual responsibilities not with slogans shouted behind a time serving
leader.”
The first responsibility
of the administration is to bring the rapist and murderers to justice.
The second responsibility is to take much needed steps to make the campus
safe. And the third responsibility is to punish those students who destroy
and burn the university property and disrupt the education by force.
Mirza A. Beg can be contacted
at [email protected],
or http://mirzasmusings.blogspot.com/
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