Shame on you AMU!
Saturday, 7. January 2006 - 6:23 PM
The AMU folks are angry!
Aligarh Muslim University Teachers’ Association and the Students’ Union on Friday called a day’s strike in the campus on Saturday to demand the Centre to amend the constitution to restore minority status of the institution.
This comes in the wake of the Allahabad High Court declaring that the minority status granted to the AMU is unconstitutional. The protest was but expected. What is ridiculous is the reason the AMUites give:
AMU public relations officer Rahat Abrar said that the university was accorded the minority status by an act of Parliament in 1981 and alleged Allahabad High Court’s rejection of that status was an “infringment” of Parliament’s sovereignty
The High Court struck down the minority status to AMU on this very ground!
Furthermore,
Therefore, the government should amend the constitution by bringing a constitutional amendment Bill in Parliament, he said
Thrills your cockles eh? A fatwa-like demand. Unfortunately, the Constitution has been amended a zillion times to cater to every whim and vote bank that this eminence has no qualms to make this suggestion. Have a problem? Amend the Constitution. Want to solve the phone tapping problem? Amend the Consti.Better still: do away with the Constitution entirely and let the nation be run per the prerogatives of the party currently in power.
Postscript:
1. The special role of the Allahabad High Court in Indian politics. This was the court that stood up to the mighty Mrs.Gandhi, and sent her to jail.
2. That the demand for “minority” status is specially sinister in the light of the untold benefits it confers on those who demand it. Everybody from the Evil Indian State to the overwhelmingly secular media comes to your support and rescue.
9. January 2006 - 12:23 PM
Sandeep
There are two issues here :
* 50 % reservations in AMU for Muslims (with which you disagree)
* AMU not being a minority institution
A majority (teaching as well as non teaching)staff and students there are Muslims anyway.So it is a Muslim institution anyway.Except for the Medical College (where the ration is 50:50) and some branches in the Engg. College most students there are Muslims anyway. It is much easier there to maintain North Indian Muslim cultural identity there for us Muslims.
After all almost all courses there provide ’secular’ education which helps muslims in joining the much vaunted national “mainstream”
Most other government institutions in UP /Bihar being dominated by the Hindi/hindu/hindustan variety.
10. January 2006 - 6:35 PM
History_Lover,
I am not commenting on the AMU question per se but on your response to Sandeep. Is the “North Indian Muslim cultural identity” (to use your words) so fragile that it needs a Muslim majority institution to thrive? Can it not withstand a non-denominational environment? You appear to articulate a ghetto mentality. The issue of “us-Muslims (to use your words once again)” vs the “Hindu-Hindi-Hindustani” other is self-defeating. The Muslim community is not under siege. This self-perception is hardly conducive to self-confidence or pluralism.
I would argue for the privatization of AMU (such that it does not receive any state funds) in order to retain its distinct character. But for different reasons. Pluralism is good since it provides choice. But not to retreat into a ghetto of likeminded individuals alone.
Perhaps Kerala and Malaysia offer better lesssons to AMU.
10. January 2006 - 6:50 PM
Powerfully put, Jaffna. You responded before I could, and thank god for that: my response would’ve paled in comparison
14. January 2006 - 12:41 AM
Well, more than the issue of non minorty character, I am sure you must have witnessed the strident demands made to denounce the high court decision; the whole issue was given a twist as to prove that Muslims are being persecuted. A protest against a policy decision is natural in a democracy;but not in the manner as they decided to go ahead with.
I was surprised that Arjun Singh wasn’t motivated to bring about an ordinance to over rule the High Court decision. Sadly, for Congress they lost their vote bank. This wouldn’t hold them in good stead in the future.
The “history lover” is such a coward as to not leave his name either. This feeling of being “persecuted” by the majority would’t hold them in good stead. Meanwhile, I swallow my own insults as to what Muslims have done in kashmir to “get rid” of Hindus there.
16. January 2006 - 12:23 PM
@Jaffna
Urdu is a vital component of North Indian Muslim identity.
Since independence ,there has a been deliberate attempt on behalf of the right-wing to finish up Urdu.
In 1947 most educated UP/Delhi wallahs be they Muslim or Non Muslim knew Urdu.Now in my generation,few people (even among Muslims) know how to read and write Urdu in it’s script.Few middle class Muslim children now are able to read and write in Urdu.Thankfully Urdu is still taught in AMU.Some cultural traditions like BaitBazi still survive here even in it’s technical institutions – the Medical and Engg. College(s) .Call it ghetto mentality but it is a lot easier to practise Islam here.e.g. taking time out for Prayers etc…Although there are a number of Muslim managed schools and colleges in UP/Bihar ,none of them are of the size and stature of AMU.
Considering the financial status of the students seeking admission here ,it would be difficult for AMU to survive without UGC Funds.
Anyway if AMU were a private institutions,you guys would have then attacked AMU for seeking funds from foreign states like Saudi Arabia
16. January 2006 - 4:38 PM
Let me first respond to Abhishek. I think it is Ok for History_Lover not to leave his real name. I have not either. Many of us have professional reasons for using an internet name instead. I do not agree that he is a coward -he frequently takes on all of us to get the point across
Turning to History_Lover, your points on Urdu are well taken. The reduced use of Urdu (despite significant levels of Government assistance) might have to do with business need rather than a “deliberate” attempt to crush it. Let me give you an example. Turkey under EU pressure eased restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language. Kurdish language schools were set up in Turkey. But the Kurds continued to send their children to Turkish language schools despite the fact that Kurds constitute 18% of Turkey. It made better business sense to study Turkish than Kurdish.
I still think that AMU can rely on its own funds. An endowment (with initial Gulf money perhaps) would not hurt. It will then need to charge fees and raise funds in innovative ways. And invest resources in the share market to ensure that revenues keep pouring in. I favor the privatization of Benares Hindu University for similar reasons. Both will do much better sans politicization.
16. January 2006 - 6:14 PM
Jaffna,
As usual, well put. Let me add a couple of paise on the Urdu remark.
History_Lover, your blame on the “right wing” (a misnomer in the Indian context anyway) is unjustified. There’s no concerted or any other effort to marginalize it. In fact, my favourite ghazals and couplets are in Urdu. Going by your logic, one can say the same thing about Sanskrit, once the lingua franca of India, which was systematically and under Nehru’s supervision, marginalized and almost driven to extinction. Did you check the languages that figure on the Indian currency note?
1. February 2006 - 9:19 PM
sandeep & abhishek ur comments is very much communal shame on u!
2. February 2006 - 10:12 AM
Waseem
Perhaps you would like to clarify your definition of “communal” before using it as a swearword against us.
2. February 2006 - 9:59 PM
definition of “communal”;communal are those peoples OR ASSOCIATIONS like sandeep,ABHISEK,RSS,BAJRANG DAL,TOGADIA,THACKREY,ADVANI,& MANY MORE OF UR COMMUNITY….sandeep
2. February 2006 - 10:07 PM
this website is a big adda of destroying communal harmony make by sandeep, good approach sandeep.
sandeep.i hope u will make some dirty website in future like this….
7. December 2008 - 10:53 AM
History_Lover,
Waseem is the perfect example of a type of Indian Muslim who make Indian Hindus and even others suspect the whole of “north Indian Muslim Culture”…I think a Lil bit of self confidence will do a lot of good to him….
And coming back to your point, History_Lover, there are few issues involved here :
You say that North Indian Muslims need an exclusive institution for preserving their culture, very well, but please do define what this culture is supposed to constitute.
Second, do not blame the Indian State for the demise of Urdu ( as u perceive it)..i contest the very basis of your argument that Urdu is dying in India..it is not and it cannot….. it thrives in the speech of millions of north Indians and in Bollywood. But, yes, what has happened is the gradual withdrawal of Urdu from the intellectual and business/administrative circles in India, which is but natural given that it no longer serves the purpose in those arena. It gained prominence as court language under later Muslim rulers and was continued by the British for official purposes, but India’s dependence on English has slowly eclipsed it.
What makes you think that non Muslims are not bothered about Urdu, it s an uniquely Indian Phenomenon and most Indians are proud of its literary legacy…..I,in fact, cannot understand on your insistence for separateness….please clarify….