The Campus Fire

THE ANDOLANJEEVIS (professional agitationists) have arrived on US campuses. And how! Complete with aazadi slogans in identical tunes by Indian leftwing students. Exported directly from India by networks of ideological affinity and patronage. As if this was one reason they were given admissions in the first place.

The protests in two prestigious university campuses on two sides of this vast country—the venerable Columbia University, New York City, one of the oldest and most renowned Ivy League institutions, and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), a very highly rated if not equally reputable public school in the nation’s biggest state university system in California on the West Coast.

What is more, their intensity, even violence, is on a scale I myself have not seen in India’s most contentious and infamous Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where I was a professor for almost 25 years. I had occasion to be in the thick of the “Aazadi Andolan” (freedom struggle) of JNU, better known to the outsider world as its tukde tukde (break India into pieces) phase. I even had the privilege of crossing, so to speak, intellectual swords with none other than Kanhaiya Kumar, then Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president.

Kumar, formerly the losing Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate from Begusarai in Bihar in the 2019 General Election, is now a Congress candidate from the North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. What is more, with no competing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate in the fray, he may even have a chance of toppling the incumbent and two-time winner, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Manoj Tiwari, in a straight contest.

In my book JNU: Nationalism and India’s Uncivil War (2022), I argued that JNU’s political theatre was the symbolic stage where the ideological battle for the nation’s soul was acted out. I showed how the left was bested if not entirely ousted by Modi Sarkar in its first term in office from 2014 to 2019. This swing reflected a turning point in the country’s return to a right-of-centre pro-nationalist discourse.

Is something similar happening in the US? American campuses, long a stronghold of the left, are now increasingly seeing a vocal, even physical pushback, from the right. The trigger, or rather the lightning rod, has been the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in the Middle East. How and why this distant thunder should bring conflicting groups into pitched battles across US campuses is a puzzle to most outsiders. Even to those in the US who have little experience or understanding of leftwing politics and how it has managed to engulf the country’s best-regarded institutions.

However, this time, the dominant and deeply entrenched, one would go so far as to say doctrinaire if not indoctrinated left, will not get a walkover. Used to getting their way through bullying and browbeating the establishment into turning a blind eye, not to mention the other cheek, to their targeted attacks and disruptions, this time they are on a backfoot. Why? Because their chosen enemy is Israel and its strong support base in the US. The Jewish community, although a minority of about 7.6 million among over 350 million, is well-organised, powerful, and wealthy. Even though 25 per cent of its adult population claims not to identify with any religion, when it comes to Israel, most of them come together. Even the left-liberal New York Times habitually takes a pro-Israel stance. The Palestinian cause, unfortunately, also gets a radical Islamist and anti-Semitic tag.

As a consequence, several top US university presidents have been fired over pro-Hamas protests and rallies on their campuses. Where freedom of expression ends and hate speech crosses the line is something they have not been able to accurately gauge. Nor have university administrators, as in the ongoing Columbia and UCLA campuses, been able to contain, let alone anticipate, the disturbances and outbreaks of violence.

More often than not, riot police have had to be called in to restore peace and order. Many reports suggest that as in JNU, a large number of the protesters are actually non-students and outsiders. This was documented during the disturbances on the campus of one of the largest public schools in the country, the University of Texas at Austin. Hence the tag, andolanjeevis, given by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seems so apt.

The roots of campus protests are deep and varied. According to some, they are driven by a sense of injustice, whether arising out of racial discrimination, gender inequality, climate change, or resentment over curbs in free speech. Social media plays a crucial role in mobilising students and transforming individual grievances into collective action.

Campus activism has also been catalysed by police brutality and controversial government policies. Furthermore, US campuses today are more ethnically diverse, socially aware, and politically active than previous generations. This demographic shift contributes to a campus culture that is less tolerant of perceived injustices and more willing to demand change. But the dangerous and vicious underbelly of campus politics is the bullying, even deadly attacks on certain demographics. Indian students have been targets of hate speech and violence, even overt and repeated instances of Hindumisia (hatred of Hindus) and Hinduphobia.

Several top US university presidents have been fired over pro-Hamas protests and rallies on their campuses. Where freedom of expression ends and hate speech crosses the line is something they have not been able to accurately gauge

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What makes college-age youth so susceptible to outside manipulation? Their syllabi, so the argument runs, are so tainted and slanted, with the proffessoriat playing an active role in brainwashing. Some also allege that there is a strong Chinese hand in destabilising US campuses as a long-term strategy in their smart war against what is still the world’s number one power. All the enemies of America would want to undermine and degrade US academic and intellectual excellence by undermining its world-famous higher education system, which continues to attract the world’s best talent.

US universities have always been sites of multiple points of view vigorously expressed and debated. Dissent, even anti-establishment rhetoric and counterculture, are par for the course. But what is different this time round is the hugely politicised and polarised environment. This makes dialogue and dissent difficult. Moreover, the violence is not directed at the university or state authorities but against Israel and the US government’s support for its war on Hamas. The crackdown against those breaking into buildings, destroying property, and disrupting classes is inevitable.

The political pendulum is swinging back to the right-of-centre on many prominent campuses across the country. Whether it also translates, as it did in India, to voting back the right to power in Washington DC, is as yet unclear. But one thing is certain. The days when left-liberal dominance, even wokeism, prevailed unchallenged in American universities, are indeed over.

What is more, the causes for this shift are not because the conservatives came up with a better narrative. But because the leftist-Islamist alliance took on an adversary who would not be a pushover. In fact, it would fight back equally, or even harder. The adventitious benefits and unintended consequences of such a pushback will benefit many other hitherto suppressed sections of US campuses like Indians, in general, and Hindus, in particular.

The writing on the wall is clear. A Jewish-Hindu alignment in academic and intellectual circles. Whether it will actually come about remains to be seen. Hindu student and community activism is still in a nascent stage, but the green shoots of commitment and community involvement are now increasingly evident.

About The Author

Makarand R Paranjape

Makarand R Paranjape is an author and columnist. Views are personal.

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