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The Old Man and the ABVP

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A short overview of yet another incident of squandering of free speech, this time the withdrawal of Ramachandra Guha from the Ahmedabad University by the ABVP.

On many an occasion, you would have heard a typical Hindi speaking elder saying ‘koi dudh ka dhula nahi hota hai’.  This means that in this big, bad world, nobody is pure enough to be bathed in milk. The case applies in the current student politics scenario where each faction has some or the other allegation or misdemeanour attached to their name. Recent happenings have pitched the National Students’ Union of India in a battle of words against the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (just another natural phenomenon in the University of Delhi). However, this time, the debate has transcended over state borders and also brought Ahmedabad University in play. The fire was ignited when ABVP openly stated its displeasure towards the teaching of eminent historian Ramachandra Guha at AU. This displeasure soon transformed into the complete withdrawal of Guha’s teaching position from the University in Gujarat.

Back in October, Guha had announced that he was joining the AU for a short period as the Director of the Gandhi Winter School. The history stalwart has authored several books on Indian history and Gandhi along with his other passion, cricket. Over time, he has garnered respect even if his loud words might have brought trouble for him on some occasions. However, the ABVP chose to put him in the shade of the umbrella of the ‘anti-national’, a term that we are hearing a little more than often nowadays. A memorandum was submitted by RSS’s student political body to the varsity’s registrar for the same.

It has been alleged by representatives like Pravin Desai, the Secretary of the Ahmedabad unit of ABVP, that ‘Guha’s oratory and writing skills encourages and inspires in students a mindset that is anti-national. He has done that in JNU and HCU in the past’. Now definitely, some might get motivated with the sparks of rebellion lighting up in campuses like the Jawaharlal Nehru University but there are others too (normal free-thinking citizens apart from the ‘great’ self-acting ABVP) who would not want such rebellious ordeals to take place in this tumultuous country. So, the latter can express their displeasure against authors that might seem too ‘edgy’ or bold for our mindsets. However, this displeasure does not mean intend totally banning writings or removing distinguished scholars from their academic positions, if you think using a non-Orwellian democratic mindset. Alas! RSS’s student wing does not seem to comprehend this mindset as shown from recent events.

Even though Ahmedabad University says Guha has acted on his own decision and not been sacked as such, the NSUI clearly feels that the pressure from the ABVP is the major factor prompting his decision. ‘They are thugs, not students. @Ram_Guha often a trenchant critic of Congress too, but NSUI has never shut down anyone like this’ That’s how NSUI national in-charge Ruchi Gupta addresses Guha’s sacking in AU in her tweet. Again, as mentioned before, no one here is ‘dudh ka dhula’ so we cannot blindly support NSUI in their stance too (considering their ‘great’ record in DU similar to the ABVP).

Is the NSUI just playing the role of a generic opposition and criticising for the sake of criticising or have they actually stood by their opinion of letting free speech grow in a university space in the years they have been in power?  That is for us to decide as citizens of a ‘somewhat free world’.

 

Feature Image Credits: Flipkart Stories

Shaurya Thapa

[email protected]

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Uncategorized

The Story of the ICC

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With the recent news from Bharati College, where despite an official complaint being filed with the college’s ICC, justice wasn’t given, it becomes a meandering, harsh reality for us to accept that our university spaces might not be as safe as we assumed.

In February 2018, an official complaint
was filed with Bharati College’s ICC,
claiming that a student had been
sexually harassed by a teacher. Even
after eight months of waiting, a decision
has not come to light.
What’s worse is that this is not the first time this semester that such news has surfaced, example in quote being Ramjas College. During early September, the students of Ramjas College had circulated an online petition, expressing
their dissatisfaction with the college administration, which had indefinitely
delayed the ICC orientation for the first and second year students. A college’s Internal Complaints Committee intends to act at the core of a college’s sexual harassment-related issues. The committee has to be mandatorily formed in every college, and UGC norms also dictate that ICCs conduct regular sensitisation seminars to familiarise students with all the information they need to know. However, even after this being mandated, barring a few colleges, such sessions are not organised as frequently as they ought to be. A gender sensitisation event being organised by the college administration and not by students from the college’s WDC or Gender Studies Forum, often raises eyebrows because of its once in a blue moon nature. Many University students do not fully understand what constitutes harassment, and because of lack of suchn necessarysensitisation sessions, they discount the survivor’s account if it does not fall under their restricted purview of
harassment or molestation.
Adding on to this, during 2017, many news reports covered the lack of democratisation in the election process, like in Daulat Ram College, where a notice with names of numbers of ICC members was put up without any prior election-related news being given to students. In November 2017, Miranda House became the first college in DU to have successfully elected ICC student representatives.
Pinjra Tod, a students’ collective, pushed
the authorities to make elections more inclusive for all, allowing nominees from all years to file in their names alongside giving them adequate time to do so. ICCs, earlier known as CCCs, have been around the university space in scattered locations since almost 10 years. Since then, only in February this year, DU mandated all colleges to conduct proper ICC elections for its student representatives. The aftermath of elections in most colleges is unknown to most college students, and it remains to be seen if the student representatives are equipped with the required legal training to pursue serious cases with ease, and whether their word is given equal footing as that of others.
Even if the ICCs are functioning as per UGC norms, a number of structural drawbacks affect its functioning up to its full capacity. The most cited drawback
is that of the removal of ordinance 15D which ensures that the committee was independent of individuals who possessed considerable executive authority. Lack of awareness amongst students, few to nil posters which contain the contact numbers of ICC members, and non-establishment of a complaints box are a few but pressing concerns that most colleges face at the moment.
Amidst the climate of #MeToo, it’s a top priority that the administration reinforces the students’ faith in educational spaces and that the students and faculty raise their voices of dissent if
they observe problematic practices. After shocking incidents of ‘due process’ failing its students emerging from leading Indian universities like TISS and BHU, an urgent re-evaluation is
the need of the hour.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Vijeata Balani
[email protected]

 

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DUB Speak

What Delhites Can Do This Mid-Semester Break

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It’s that time of the semester again when outstation students pack their bags and head out to their hometowns, either to revel in the festivities or for some quiet family time. After 3 months of continuous slogging and assignment submissions, the days left to go home are crossed off each day till the much-awaited beginning of the mid-semester break arrives and the prospect of homecoming seems as sweet as your mother’s ladoos.

However, for all those students that are bound to stay in Delhi, the break can seem like a not-so-exciting prospect and might just eventually turn into boredom. The hours of endless unproductivity might just get to you after one point in time.

But let us look at it this way, the word ‘break’ itself literally is supposed to mean a break from all the things that you normally do. Simply put, a break from your schedule. It doesn’t really matter if all you are doing is catching up on your sleep for you haven’t had a lot since the semester began and probably won’t have a lot either once the exams begin. It becomes important that you just sit back, relax and eventually doze off.

Another thing that is advisable is spending time with your family and friends. Delhites live at home and meet their parents every day but in the rush of college hours that only lets you catch your breath at night before you go to sleep, it makes sense that you might not be spending a lot of time with your family. Similarly, maintaining school friendships can prove to be gargantuan since college takes precedence over everything at this point. Gather your group, make plans and stick to them.

Invest time in things you like to do such as reading, cinema, or even some sport. Exploring new genres of books that you might like, watching an abundance of French Cinema, improving your Squash, writing in ways you haven’t tried writing in before etc can really make your one week of break seem fruitful at the end of it.

For all those who love to travel, Delhi has a number of small hill stations in a 300km radius that can be explored. A short trip to hill stations like Kasol, Lansdowne, or places in Rajasthan like Jaipur or even closer to home, Agra, might make up for great mini vacation spots.

Having said all this, it is essential to note that the added pressure of making your break count and utilising it in the best way possible is just a construct. A break is what you want it to be and what you make of it.

 

Feature Image Credits: India Today

Anoushka Singh
[email protected]

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The Lack of Liberal Arts Universities in India

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In a country obsessed with engineering and medical degrees, the field of humanities takes a step back. There is a lack of liberal arts universities in the country when compared to government, and science and technology related institutions.

College admissions are a testing time for a student. The probability of getting in to  one’s preferred college/university is  very exhilarating, but the more important question is the choice of stream for  one’s further studies. Education in India for high school and further education is a division on ‘streams’. The predominant ones are science, commerce, and humanities. They are hierarchical in nature, as for an Indian parent the order places science at the top, followed by commerce, and humanities respectively.

The article brings to light a prominent issue in the Indian higher education scene: the lack of liberal arts universities. Liberal arts, within the past decade,  has been a good study option for a lot of students. In the western universities, there is a major focus on their course structures to cater to the liberal arts facilities. In comparison to their eastern counterparts like India and other Asian universities, liberal arts is still a blooming concept, majorly restricted to private universities.

Liberal arts as a concept was first designed by the  Greeks and Romans, as a form of essential education required for an active civic life. Basic subjects taught under it were grammar, rhetoric, logic, etc. However, in the modern curriculums, liberal arts has grown into a multitude of different subjects, with a promising prospect of varying skills and producing students as global citizens with a multi-dimensional knowledge of different subjects.

According to the most recent published data by University Grants Commission, on 25th September 2018, there are a total of 318 Private Universities established by the Acts of the Legislatures of different states. In India, some of the more prominent and well known,  liberal arts universities include universities like Ashoka University, O.P. Jindal global university, FLAME Pune, etc. While these universities offer attractive courses and world class infrastructure, the high fees is a major concern for  potential students. These universities also promise world class  standardised education, career prospects, and partnerships with big companies for future job prospects. A major attraction to these universities is the ease of adaptability one has, for pursuing post-graduation courses abroad, due to the similarity in course and work structure.

The study of humanities is still taken quite lightly. A lot of the state and  centre-run universities and colleges provide a basic Bachelor’s degree in the mainstream subjects of humanities. There  is neither much versatility in course selection, nor enough staff to ensure introduction of more flexible course structures. A major benefit which students adhere to a degree from these government run institutes is the feasibility of education. It is economical and reputed. A lot of students also wish to take it up as it helps in the preparation for their civil services aspirations later on. A popular career option is also   academia and politics.  While a major attraction today on a global level is MBA, with B-schools offering seats to over five lakh students every year according to a recent Assocham report,, a lot of students in these colleges are from engineering and commerce backgrounds.  .

A major factor for the lack of universities catering to liberal arts is also because of the demand-supply factor.. According to the general thinking of an Indian family till date  is that engineering and medical sciences remain the most highly opted courses in the country, as they are  considered “safe” options.. India, along with other Asian countries, is also the biggest supplier of IT and technically skilled labour in the world. Hence, when compared to other Asian countries, the state of Indian universities is almost the same. . Even though the liberal arts courses provide a number of career options the general desire  for high-paying jobs and a better standard of living is a driving force to opt for other courses. Luxury and sustenance is considered to be of a greater value than personal “passions” and hobby in a country like ours.

From the beginning, there has been good investment in institutes related to science and technology, and management like Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management etc., which are government backed and autonomous, and have been given international accreditation. Government sponsored liberal arts universities are fewer  in number, but very highly accredited. Universities like English and Foreign Languages University are known for delivering quality education in different foreign languages like Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, among many others, and in  areas such as Education, Literature, Linguistics, Interdisciplinary and Cultural Studies etc.

The need to have more liberal arts universities in India is a must, as they offer a great deal of flexibility in subject options.. There are options like deferred admissions, and students often take a gap year to   explore their courses more thoroughly, and also volunteer in their time off.

Liberal arts universities remain a popular  choice for the upper middle class and the more affluent sections of the society in the urban areas. A major reason why  this happens is because of soaring fees. While India is endowed to take its education sector in the same manner as in countries like the USA and the UK, where higher education is expensive, India should try to incentivise the private universities to bring more scholarship and financial aid opportunities. This is apart from the present situation wherein  the government itself caters to such services, albeit in a limited number.. Moreover, the government should also invest heavily in the improvement of higher education. . While public universities in India  do have a very vivid course structure  like that of foreign countries, the lack of options in courses is something which affects the career choices for students. A lot of the times, students compromise on their career options in lieu of studying and associating their profiles with a degree from a government institute.

The future state of affairs may seem bleak for now, but with so many different job portals opening up in every field, liberal arts may be taken seriously and more educational institutions would be put to practice for its sustenance.

 

Feature Image Credits:  Perkins Eastman

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]

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What it Takes to Organise a Pride Parade

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After the Supreme Court’s judgment to decriminalise consensual sex between homosexuals, the nation’s idea of love has been redefined. But redefined to what? 
In the seven shades of the rainbow, we have found a deeper meaning to love. On 6th September, in a historical statement, CJI Dipak Misra said, “I am what I am. So take me as I am. No one can escape from their individuality.” As millions of hearts swelled, enjoying this enhanced inclusivity in our society, there were others who were left to fend for their moralistic ideals. However, despite a widespread dissent, the celebration of love was awe-inspiring. Celebrations erupted in various colleges in the varsity. Within a week of the ruling, a couple of pride parades had already been organised successfully. In all their vividness and vibrancy, these parades are so much more than just colors, upbeat performances, or pretended interest. These parades are a celebration of love – an emotion that is warmly dynamic and passionately transparent, yet enigmatic. To celebrate this complexity, it requires more than just organizational skills. It requires heart.

Feature Image credits: Chandrika Mairh - Abstractions
Feature Image credits: Chandrika Mairh – Abstractions

 

CJI Dipak Misra, speaking for himself, and Justice A M Khanwilkar, said denial of self-expression is akin to inviting death. A delayed legal apology in garb of this decriminalization has been heartily welcomed. Notwithstanding sensibility, there has also been a backlash at the same ruling. The idealists and social intellectuals of their own makings have suddenly risen to a debate on the ethics of ‘unnatural sex’. It is necessary to mention this regression to completely understand how futile this movement will be, if we change only the law and not our thoughts. How can an act be called natural or unnatural? Is it because we indulge ourselves into believing that we can categorize all things, even humans? The problem with categorization is that it fails to hold true to its base model. Categories once defined, become distant over time, to grow into alienated, ostracised siblings, lost and forgotten. We cannot do away with categories completely, but we can understand how they form. For instance, the categories of humans based on their sexual orientations are structured on humanity; let us not forget this. If we hold this, we will know what it means to be human and that is to love.

Palak Kothari - WDC, Hindu College
Palak Kothari – WDC, Hindu College

Take, for instance, the Hindu College Pride Parade which was organized on 25th September. The Women’s Development Cell of Hindu College organised the pride parade in the college campus. With an active participation of performing and fine arts societies for exciting performances and face paintings, respectively, along with an Open mic on Homosexuality, the day was all colors and glamour, like many other parades around the varsity. When questioned about the struggles faced by the WDC in organising the parade, Palak Kothari, the General Secretary, said, “People sometimes make these parades only about the performances, forgetting the real motive behind them. Our biggest concern as a team was to make people understand the entirety of the issue in all its seriousness and sensitivity. Through this, we wish to lessen the slight homophobia that we seem to harbour despite everything. That we should be accepting, and that this acceptance should come from within, that was the biggest concern.” The pride balloons were shades of a rainbow, and in its roaring success, the campus saw a beautiful victory of love when the hearts were colored a rainbow too – for some time, certainly.

Sampriti Rajkhowa - WDC, Hindu College
Sampriti Rajkhowa – WDC, Hindu College

So, is it wrong to say then, that in recent times, our supporting a cause is because it is a fad? Does marching in a pride parade mean just painting rainbows and not be accepting? To say the least, to run away from this reality is denying yourself an identity. “Morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality. Only Constitutional morality exists in our country,” said CJI Dipak Misra. The idea of morality looms, always. Among the biggest challenges of organizing a pride parade is the challenging of this skewed idea of morality, ethical framework, and social prejudice. It is the challenge to our acceptance, and that’s all there is –A constant battle. You will decide how you rise up to this challenge, and you are the society. Indeed, the revoking of this ‘irrational, indefensible, and manifestly arbitrary’ law was necessary, but this is just the first step. Joining a movement should not only be about dressing up yourself, but also dressing up your mind.

 

Choose to see love. Choose to choose it and take pride in it.

Feature Image Credits:

Kartik Chauhan
[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

Frida Kahlo: The Unafraid, Defiant Woman

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Frida Kahlo, the Mexican artist, lives in the mind and soul of every woman who knows about her. Her self- portraits, political activism and feminist way of living have left a mark on people around the world, granting her the status of being a rebel in a world controlled by patriarchy.

In the year 1924, the 17-year-old Frida Kahlo posed for the family photograph wearing a traditional gentleman’s 3- piece suit.  Bold, if you ask me. This is Frida Kahlo for you. When I think of her, I think of her vivid self- portraits and artwork, her unibrow and the moustache she kept and the radical feminism she represented. She’s had a life one can only imagine. Nothing, absolutely nothing could stop her from the path she had chosen for herself.

Women have been, since time immemorial, looking for role models and idols, especially the women of colour. Frida Kahlo is just the woman, a woman whose revolutionary politics and painful personal life is a compelling and inspiring story in itself. Today, the Mexican artist’s work sells more than any other female artist in the world.

Frida spent most of her childhood bed-ridden. Frida had polio when she was six. At the age of 18, she met with a bus accident that marred her for life. She was skewered by a metal handrail that entered through her hip and exited through her vagina. After the accident, she decided to leave her medical career and pursue her childhood passion of becoming an artist. “Feet, what do I need them for, if I have wings to fly?” Frida Kahlo wrote in her diary. She was born on 6 July 1907 three years before the Mexican Revolution. Her mother was a Mexican Catholic and father, a European atheist who taught her the nuances of photography.  In 1927, she joined the Mexican Communist Party where she met her future husband and artist Diego Rivera. When Frida was 22 she got married to the 42-year-old Diego.

Her marriage with Diego was tumultuous and rocky. It was an unconventional union where Frida and Diego shared their love for art and politics. It survived Diego’s reckless infidelities, Frida’s miscarriages and her inability to have children, her poor health and even her bisexual affairs. Diego cheated on Frida with her sister, Cristina. Later, Frida had a passionate affair with Marxist revolutionary, Leon Trotsky. The two of them were unfit for monogamy, to say the least.  The couple got divorced in 1940 but they remarried again within a year. It is believed that she slept with her husband’s mistress after she found about the extramarital affair.

Frida loved her country more than anything else. She was deeply influenced by the Mexican culture and often used it in her artwork with the use of bright colours and dramatic symbols and signs. She especially loved the cultural aesthetics of the Tehuantepec, a matriarchal society in the Tehuantepec Isthmus, a tropical rainforest in southern Mexico. Their clothing, in particular, caught her eye—the reboza’s (traditional Mexican shawl) colour, the huipil’s (blouse) elegance, the grandeur of traditional Tehuana dresses.

The days when she couldn’t walk, she would stare at herself in the hand mirror and paint. Her self- portraits depicted the physical pain she endured her entire adult life as well as the psychological wounds. ”I will paint myself,” Frida Kahlo once said, “because I am so often alone because I am the subject I know best.”

Frida was unapologetic about who she was. She loved to wear makeup, dance, and flirt. She fiercely embraced her life, full of challenges and obstacles. She was true and honest to herself and used to reject the label of being a ‘surrealist’ painter. She took up space which rightfully belonged to her. Through her paintings, she openly talked about subjects which the public viewed to be a taboo like abortion, domestic violence, and divorce. Frida’s art refreshes you and her style of painting communicates with you, often in heartbreaking ways. She died in 1954, but her legacy, her truthfulness, and unabashed love for life continue to live decades later. Her paintings, journal entries, medical equipment and personal items are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London with the exhibition titled Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up.

 

Feature Image Credits: 1843 Magazine

Disha Saxena
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Sex Amma

Sex Amma On Bisexuality

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My lovely munchkins, here is my sweet and saucy, ready-to-eat advice for you this week. This is for all you people who are confused about your bisexual needs. Fret not, you are not alone. Amma is here to help.
The first thing to remember is that there is nothing “unnatural” about your body. So what if you have feelings for both machas and machis? There is nothing wrong with that. The more variety in your dosas and chutneys, the better it is. Moreover, if you don’t experiment with your body now, when will you do it? Decriminalisation of homosexual sex is clearly sending you a message, muchkin. You can love anyone you want and yet be yourself. So go out there and don’t be afraid to mix and match your recipes. We are often hesitant in exploring romantic relations with the same sex. But my sweet love, we never know where our wet dreams might come from. Only when you engage in new, raunchy, absolutely filthy stuff you realise if you have a taste for it. Just imagine if you discover that you and your friend actually like the same chutney. 
But remember attraction towards different people does not mean that you will be “ravenous” all the time. It just means you will unlock new shades
of your personality. The capacity to like different people might increase, but not our appetite itself if you know what I mean.
For all the confident bisexual anbe (sweetheart) out there, Amma can only moan in jealousy for all the fun you might have. A feast of sambhar,

dosa, upma, and chutney is laid out for you! There is, in fact, sometimes greater comfort and understanding between people of your own sex. This, of course, translates into tingling your taste buds (and other places too) under the sheets. Yum!
So, go out there and be free to explore the curves, the nooks, and crannies of his or her body. Amma is sure you will come back hungry for more.
Read more about bisexuality here.
(Write to sex amma at [email protected] to get all your queries about sex answered.)
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DUB Speak

Looking Through the Round Eye Spectacle

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It is important to differentiate a celebration of Gandhian philosophy from a celebration of his life.
India observed its 70th government-mandated holiday, and thank God it was on a weekday this time. Jokes aside, the fact that posthumous birthday celebrations of the Father of the Nation are reduced to a day of rest, and not mindfulness and reconsideration of the Gandhian values is abominable. However, being an Indian and having a skewed understanding of Gandhi’s legacy and internationally revered ideology is even more deplorable.
It is no coincidence that the United Nations Organisation observes the International Day of Non-Violence on the same day as Gandhi Jayanti.
Dhoti-clad and humble in demeanour, Gandhi’s personality has been described as exemplary and even sublime by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi was an ideal leader, he bore no hatred for his oppressors and propagated resistance through what he called Satyagraha, or soul force. He never held any office in the Government of India. His influence over those in office was implied, just not formally recognised. Clashes faced by him due to political and religious influence eventually led to his downfall. On Gandhi Jayanti, here is a look at some complicated aspects of Gandhi’s life.
Political Elitism
The politics of the Indian independence struggle was elitist in nature; the masses had only instrumental value, while the English-educated and predominantly Hindu elitists, who advocated self- governance, accounted for a bulk of the Indian administrations. Never having faced gross violations themselves, their struggle for freedom was an intellectual pursuit and not an existentialist one. Gandhi, despite his deep concern for the poor, was unsuccessful in comprehending the crisis of the poor, especially when it came to the lower-caste community. His role was thus reduced to mass mobilisation, he ensured the peasantry freedom from the British Raj, but not from privileged India.
There are plenty of instances where Gandhi had displayed intolerance for different ideas. First, when Subhash Chandra Bose was forced out of his

elected position a President of the Indian National Congress because Gandhi found him to be insufficiently pliable and too
radical for his taste. And second, when Gandhi’s hunger strike (in 1932) forced B.R. Ambedkar, the voice of Dalits, to drop his demand for separate electorates. Since then, Ambedkar had disparaged Gandhi for his unwavering commitment to the caste system, implying that his concern for
the untouchables was a sham. Gandhi’s abandonment of the cause and interest of peasantry haunts them even today. The Dalits and Bahujans continue to struggle and experience a disconnect from true “freedom” seven decades after the independence.
Religion
Gandhi professed that above all, his mission was to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims. However, his equation of “Hindu nationalist tradition” to “Indianness” by his dress, vocabulary, demeanour, and his obsession with the protection of cows threatened the identity of other religious minorities. The use of the term Mahatma (great soul) by Gandhi’s acolytes as his title introduced Hindu spiritual terminology into the political arena. His ideas alluded to a mythical Hindu golden age that is assumed to have existed before the advent of Islam in India, which created a drawbridge and increased Muslim alienation in the country.
Fame
Gandhi’s ascension into a celebrity created disillusionment within people, and instances such as Jinnah being publicly booed-off a stage because of
his reluctance to refer to Gandhi as “Mahatma” became commonplace. He might identify as a peasant, but always in his essence, Gandhi was infinitely more than a peasant. He had intellect, vision, an ability to attract, the obvious privilege and pride of being an upper caste Hindu, and his asceticism. On the topic of Gandhi, school history textbooks are skewed to the point of blatant glorification, and the failure of the Indian National Congress post-independence shows how national identity was used as propaganda, devoid of any values.
The spirit of his ideas is more important than his human existence. The ideology of Gandhianism is more important to our nation than perhaps his legacy, and it faces the challenge of neglect and obfuscation.  Three bullets to the torso can only take a life, and not erase thought.
Feature Image Credits: Path Decorations Pictures
Nikita Bhatia
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Biblio

The Good, the Bad, and the Truth in Saadat Hasan Manto

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What makes the works of Saadat Hasan Manto, from over 60 years ago, a significance for the education of an Indian, of a human today? 

From the morning newspaper to the prime-time debates, the average Indian is fed a healthy diet of hypocrisy, hegemonic morality, and jingoistic nationalism while the truth of those in power and that being done through power is marred to produce a confused Indian, at best. College education in a nation like ours is in a dire need of a sense of revolution, which teaches us the choice of what to be and how to be, by showing us what not to be. A mirror to look at our identity as ‘Indians’, as nationalists, as products of the society that builds and breaks us normatively, as humans, is needed.

Enter a man from the 1940s, clad in a kurta, holding a smoke in one hand, an unflinching truth in the other, capable of jolting us into the public sphere of uninhibited discourses, yet taking us home more than anybody else can and anybody else should today. The greatest misconception about this man- Saadat Hasan Manto- a private literary movement for the writer of this piece, is that he wrote obscene stories that do not do justice to the parameters of what makes ‘good literature’.

Image Credits: Kindle
Image Credits: Kindle

“It is very ironical that none of his writings have found a place in these (school) textbooks. I have read Urdu for 15 years and yet I haven’t found a single story of Manto in any of the textbooks. Being a student of Urdu, I think what distinguishes him from the rest of the writers is his courageous writing. Most of Urdu literature is filled with romantic stories but Manto writes in an unconventional way. He does not shy away from detailing love-making scenes which got him into a lot of trouble,” shares MaknoonWani, a second-year student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Delhi School of Journalism.

Tried for obscenity six times, Manto took great pride in his literary prowess, but his prowess today lives on because he showed that a story need not be ‘decorated’ to paint hope, to represent, to defend or to prove, in order for it to stay with you. “Manto’s writings reflect the actual rawness of life in the truest sense. Shattering and spirited, all at once,” says Kartik Chauhan, a first-year student of English at Hindu College. It can be the closest reflection of ‘what is’, like the reality of a time peeling the layers of a conscience he assumes in his reader, burying itself forcefully, without permission of the owner, in the core of your being.

Shaurya Thapa, a second-year student of History at Hindu College, supports this by saying, “Manto might not have the most perfect language compared to other writers of his era but that’s what makes him different from the rest. His writing style was more direct and hard hitting, he didn’t have to have a polished tongue always because his times were surely not. In some stories like the Dog of Thitwal, you can say that he mastered magical realism. Added to that, there’s no doubt Manto can also be regarded as a master of modern horror- in a realistic, grittier sense, Thanda Ghosht and Khol Do being major examples. The very fact that reading Manto makes me uncomfortable shows how powerful his stories were.”

Where Pinjratod has to press to the authorities its right to autonomy, demanding an eradication of discriminatory and oppressive practices of curfew in the year 2018, Manto’s women ran naked over 60 years ago. Many object to the representation of women in Manto, expressing that there is a sexual objectification he endorses in his works. But only when one reads the text he writes, leaving judgement and preconceived ideologies of morality behind, does the realisation of his honesty occur. From a legacy of work, it is foolish and hasty to pick one section out in isolation of everything else and call it unfeminist. His women talked about underwears, religion, prostitution, alcohol, violence and sex in a way that did not define them in totality. He represented them as agents of their own mirth who acted, and must possess choice and control of their individuality. Manto’s women were humans, not metaphors or conduits for another entity or phenomenon.

Image Credits: Blush
Image Credits: Blush

“If you cannot bear these stories, then the society is unbearable,” Sa’Saab would often say within his circle and in his numerous testimonies at the court. Taught from the western ideals of Plato’s Republic, students in India should pick up Saadat Hasan Manto to look at the muddle of a society that birthed their conditioning, at every point of time. His descriptions, never prescriptive in their great simplicity, bring to you the India before and after 1947 that remained, and the destroyed.

Sharvi Maheshwari, a third-year History student at Miranda House, strongly believes that Manto was way ahead of his time, haunting people because of his rawness, and comments, “Toba Tek Singh makes people realise that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious issue.” His personal life deteriorated in the awareness of the times that governed the post-partition India, and parted from his beloved Bombay, his writing lost embellishments, if they ever held any. His lens lives today in the unapologetic courage of his pen.

A thid-year student pursuing BA (Honours) Humanities and Social Sciences at Cluster Innovation Centre, Niharika Dabral says, “The first (and only) story I read by Manto was Khol Do and it haunted me. I didn’t pick Manto again.” It is this unrest and the ability of Saadat Hasan Manto’s words to haunt the readers which makes his literature significant in a time where every statement made is under the threat of brutal censorship. For students to be out on the streets, questioning, fighting, wanting to change and be free, it is an urgency to shudder through Manto’s truthfulness.

Saadat Hasan Manto said, “I feel like I am always the one tearing everything up and forever sewing it back together.” In his 42 years, from struggling for twenty rupees to engaging in mehfils with Ashok Kumar and the who’s who of Indian cinema from the 1940s, he did live a life of creation and annihilation through words and the violence around his words. He was neither a victim nor an activist. Manto was a writer, whose words did not run afraid of time and truth. He never held the onus of teaching the society how life must be lived, but he wrote enough for his readers, years past he has been gone, to see the truth and the choice we can make in our truth.

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

Anushree Joshi
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