In India’s 300 plus Central and state government universities characterised by poor infrastructure, negligible research activity and heavily subsidised students marking time until they enter the job market, there’s always an under-current of resentment and violence. This is particularly true of universities in the Hindi belt states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where intensive political interference has engendered militant student unionism and politicisation of faculty.
Therefore the news that Shahnawaz Alam, a final year B.Sc student of Aligarh Muslim University (estb.1875), was shot dead outside the campus on October 25 — the fourth murder in the university in the past two years — came as no surprise to academics in Lucknow, the administrative capital of Uttar Pradesh (pop. 166 million), India’s most populous and arguably most socio-economically backward state. In the immediate aftermath of Alam’s murder reportedly over a parking dispute, AMU students predictably ran riot indulging in vandalism, disrupting rail traffic, damaging public vehicles and pelting stones at the police.
“We have arrested one man in connection with the murder and are probing the role of two others,” says superintendent of police M.S. Chauhan. “Though no one has been seriously injured in the demonstrations, additional security has been deployed in the district. We do not want to take any chances with respect to the law and order situation,” he added.
Such violence is not unusual on the 467.6 hectare campus of AMU. In April 2007, the university was rocked by the twin murders of students Mohammed Sibet Ali and Ali Mazhar (the subject of a pending CBI enquiry). Later that year another student Mohammed Naeem was killed, leading to large scale rioting on campus during which the vice chancellor’s lodge, the proctor’s office, the teaching staff club and the university canteen were set on fire. Consequently, closure of the university was ordered sine die.
“The university’s vast campus and porous boundaries make it easy for criminal elements to enter the grounds. Adequate measures have not been taken to ensure security on the AMU campus. Some miscreants are always on the lookout for opportunities to create disturbances as there is a lot of factionalism within the faculty and students,” says Irfan Ahmed who graduated from AMU in 1974 and is currently secretary of the AMU Old Boys Association.
There is also simmering resentment on the AMU campus about the appointment of P.K. Abdul Azis, former vice chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Techno-logy, who was inducted as vice chancellor of AMU in June 2007. In addition to questioning his academic creden-tials, there is opposition to his decision to reduce student intake and not accept the theses of Ph D students if submitted after five years of registration, while teachers have protested the dilution of their administrative responsibilities.
Certainly AMU has belied the lofty dream of its founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), who in his inaugural address in 1875 had expressed the hope that “from the seed which we sow today there may spring up a mighty tree, whose branches, like those of the banyan of the soil shall in their turn strike firm roots into the earth, and themselves send forth new and vigorous saplings.”
Meanwhile a group of deans and chairmen of various departments have agreed to start a dialogue with agitating students. The university has made a job offer to a family member of the deceased, and will raise funds from staff and students for the bereaved family.
Yet the recurrent problems of AMU are more deeply rooted and centre around the larger questions of excessive subsidisation of higher education, updation of moribund curriculums, bridging the academia-industry divide and freedom from government micro-management. Until these root problems are addressed, AMU — like its counterparts in some other parts of the country — is likely to suffer mayhem and murder as usual.
Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)