Battle of Ideas over the Indian Nation

After the JNU incidents, Indians have been fed a heavy dose of “nationalism" for the last two weeks. The RSS and its various organisations want an exclusionary Hindu Nation (or "Hindu Rashtra"), instead of the diverse, and plural and a multicultural Indian nation envisioned in the Constitution.

On one side of this debate are the original "anti-nationals” — Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Ambedkar -- against the Hindutva "nationalists" such as M. S. Golwakar, Savarkar and others.

The BJP's "battle of ideas" was visible at Patiala House and the Allahabad Courts. Goons dressed in lawyer’s robes, chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ beat up students, teachers, and journalists. This battle also rages in the minds of the likes of Gyandev Ahuja, the Rajasthan MLA, who counts cigarette butts, meat bones and condoms in JNU.

In a broadcast to the nation on March 26, 1964 Nehru had said, "From the days of Asoka, 2300 years ago, the [diversity] of our thought has been repeatedly declared and practised. In our own day Mahatma Gandhi laid great stress on it and indeed lost his life because he put emphasis on communal goodwill and harmony. We have, therefore, a precious heritage to keep up and we cannot allow ourselves to act contrary to it."

It is this tradition that the JNU teachers and students are keeping alive. 

We start this playlist with a great remix of Kanhaiya Kumar's speech at the Ganga Dhaba. (It is far better and livelier than the "remix" circulated by Zee News!) This is followed by the lectures that Professors of Jawaharlal Nehru University delivered in an open air "class room", while JNU was still on strike. In these lectures of Professors Gopal Guru, Prabhat Patnaik, Nivedita Menon and Journalist P Sainath, they critically examine the notions of nationalism in the Indian context and their significance today.

Image Courtesy: www.dnaindia.com