Pandit Ramchandra Guha and the post of Mysore University Vice-Chancellor - I<http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=264>
*This article is in two parts* *http://blog.insightyv.com/ * Just last night, while browsing through emails, I stumbled upon an article, forwarded in one of the e-groups, titled ‘Is Brahminical Elitism at Work in Academic Institutions?<http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=opinion&xfile=data/opinion/2009/July/opinion_July24.xml>’ written by India’s foremost historian and former academic Ramchandra Guha. Since I want to be an academician, and have been working on the issues of caste in academia with the students and academicians from various universities, I read on further. Ramchandra Guha wrote this piece in the context of one news item that was published in one of the national dailies regarding short listing of three candidates for the post of Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University. The three short listed candidates, according to the news item, quoting unnamed sources, belong to Lingayat, SC and Vokkaliga communities. It seems that this particular fact about the caste backgrounds of three candidates troubled our national historian so much that he criticized the daily for not including their academic qualifications and eligibility in the news item. He writes, “The report mentioned the names of the short listed candidates, from which one could discern their respective caste affiliations. Remarkably, the news report did not carry any details on the qualifications of those who aspired to be the new vice-chancellor of Mysore University.” He asks further, “What were their areas of academic expertise? What were their plans for reviving a once-good university now gone to seed? Apparently, these matters did not matter to the newspaper, as they did not to the government that was to make the appointment. Perhaps, they were of no concern to the candidates themselves.” These are very valid questions from a person who is a former academician and claims to be concerned about the quality of our education system. However, the point is whether Mr. Guha would have asked the same questions if the candidates short listed were from the brahmin, bania and kayastha communities? Whether the news item would have then mentioned their caste background too? I doubt it. I have not come across any such thing till now. The reason is, like Ramchandra Guha, the media also believes that only persons from certain backgrounds are meritorious and therefore eligible but others are only appointed due to the ‘vote bank politics’. For some caste is invisibilised but for others caste is the only truth. It is even unthinkable for Guha that these candidates might have been short listed on the basis of their academic qualification. Since there was no candidate from the traditional ‘upper’ caste elite background, Guha was sure that the academic qualifications were compromised in preparing the list. Otherwise he would have not chosen this particular news item as a context to cry hoarsely about the political influence and the deteriorating situation of Indian Universities. I am amused that Ramchandra Guha is critical about this news item for not giving the details about the candidates’ qualifications for the post. However, the fact is that both the national daily and Mr. Guha are exactly on the same wavelength. The daily, in fact, is asking the same questions by mentioning their caste background in the report and thus making sure that the readers get the fair idea of their ‘qualifications’. Otherwise what was the need of the news daily to investigate and then reveal the caste identity of the candidates? Certainly the official press-note would not have carried the information regarding the candidates’ background. After casting aspersions on the qualifications of the Mysore university candidates, Mr Guha then tries to obfuscate the whole issue by pointing his fingers at every body-left, right and centre of compromising the academic environment of the country. The rest of his piece is a brilliant exposition of brahminical double speak, attempts for political correctness and complete distrust on the political class that has now become a rage among upper caste-middle class section as it gives a blank cheque not to introspect but put entire blame on others, especially politicians. Let me go one by one on what Guha wrote and what he actually meant. At first, apart from all other things that Guha wrote ,trying to justify his diatribe against the University appointments from non-upper caste background, one particular nugget of wisdom doled by him, really made my day. It gives us a clear-cut idea about his objectivity in relation with brahminical culture and traditions as well. Criticizing the Indian Left too for involving in ideological biases in appointments, he writes and I quote, “When the Left Front was in power in Kerala, a historian of modern India was appointed vice-chancellor of, all things, a Sanskrit university”. Please read again, ‘…of, all things, a Sanskrit university’. I might be dreaming! It might be a political appointment but can somebody please enlighten me why a Marxist-leaning historian of India cannot become the vice-chancellor, ‘of all things, a Sanskrit university’? Aren’t the university spaces the secular space for knowledge production and dissemination of particular subjects? Is it necessary to have a sacred thread wearing brahmin from Kashi to be the vice-chancellor of Sanskrit University. Do we require only Buddhist monks and Muslim Imams to teach and administer Pali and Urdu universities respectively? Or anybody who with their scholarship are eligible, irrespective of their ideological leanings? *To be continued*… -- Ranjit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
