Vol. 57, Issue No. 9, 26 Feb, 2022
While it’s important to critique and take positions in life, it is equally important to have a dialogue with people who have different points of view and bring back hope in our lives.
In recent years, JNU has received much flak. The university has been accused of nurturing the “tukde tukde gang” and promoting anti-national ideas. Pathak humanises the institution and describes it as being wounded. The university requires healing, he says. The article has been written in the context of the appointment of the new vice-chancellor of the university, Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, who, because of her ideological leanings, has become the object of ridicule and contempt. Pathak bestows faith in her leadership and urges her to start the process of healing JNU.
This appeal might seem naïve, even preposterous, to some. But it is also true that life bereft of hope, optimism and faith is hardly worth living. This reminds me of the work of Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. Once a woman regarded as illiterate in accordance with the conventional standards of literacy responded to a question posed by the educator: “If all human beings were to die but all other beings like animals, plants, mountains, rivers were to remain alive, then the world would cease to exist because there will be no one to say that this is the world”. In other words, the world does not have an independent existence but defines our social reality depending on the way we look at it.
I am a sociologist of education by training and consider my primary job as that of examining educational problems in their context rather than trying to find solutions. Interestingly, however, most of my students are enthusiastic practitioners who are disillusioned with the existing education system and want to contribute towards improving it. In contrast to the attitude of these students, many of us – perhaps smug with our intellectual prowess — take much pride in presenting multilayered and nuanced analyses. In the process, we probably dampen the spirits and thwart the hopes of our youth, and prevent them from dreaming.
Written by Disha Nawani
Indian Express, 28/02/22
