I feel compelled to write this piece after listening to all of the vitriol around a letter Fr (Dr) Frazer Mascarenhas wrote to students at St Xaviers. A few tweets of support in favor of Fr Frazer later, trolls pounced on me as a Vatican stooge. I can't help but laugh in spite of my stated position as an atheist. But like most Xaverities, I feel strongly because it is my alma mater, class of '93.
I think it impossible Fr. Frazer remembers me. There is no reason he ought to either because there is nothing remarkable I achieved there unlike its distinguished alumni that include Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata and Azim Premji.
I wasn't in his class. But I remember him as one of those members of the faculty everybody on campus loved to tease. His gait was the butt of many unkind remarks and hoots. And as he used to do the rounds of the hostels, a chant would go up in the choicest of Hindi cuss words. I think it unfair to reproduce that chant here. Suffice to say, in hindsight, it makes me squirm. I can't think of too many people who would view all of these hoots and chants indulgently. He is among those rare men who did.
That out of the way, for those unfamiliar with the college, the political environment on campus was always a charged one. Most of us had very strong Leftist leanings and it showed in the kind of causes students took up. Among the more famous ones is Arun Ferreira. I don't know him personally. But he was part of my graduating class, he was, and he continues to be in the news for allegedly being a Naxalite activist. He has been exonerated and his persecution by the authorities rapped in all courts. Another matter altogether that unlike Arun, once out of college, most of our leanings changed. I think myself a conscious capitalist now. As a friend recently told me, "When young and you aren't a Leftist, you're stupid. When older and you're still a Leftist, you're stupider."
My larger point here is while in college, all of us held strong views, the outcomes of which were healthy and often times vociferous debates between faculty and students. On some issues we agreed. On others we disagreed. But there was no animosity. What always emerged though was a culture of openness.
I view Fr Frazer's letter from this perspective. The letter is an exchange between him, members of the faculty and students at the college. I must add here while the institution is run by Jesuits, they don't make secular institutions like Xaviers any more. That is why it upsets me even more when the letter is being given a communal tinge. Xaviers isn't a communal institute. It is perhaps one of the most liberal ones in the country.
That raises another set of questions. Can the head of an academic institution take a political stance? Allow me quote some excerpts from an interview with Fr Frazer on why he took a strong stance around two volatile political issues in the past.
- Mumbai University's decision to drop Rohinton Mistry's book Such a Long Journey
- The Binayak Sen Sedition Case.
The full transcript of the two part interview is on Gyan Central.
You were recently in the news for protesting against the proposed ban of Rohinton Mistry's book, and also for protesting against the treatment of Binayak Sen.
Both the protagonists were students (or ex-students) of this college. Rohinton Mistry is an eminent alumnus of our college. And the person who got the book banned is a present student of the College. Now this is an academic issue. An issue that affects academia. If an academic institution is not going to have a say in the matter, then I think we should be ashamed of ourselves. So all I did was make a simple statement on our website of what we – my teachers, and I and the management-- thought about the withdrawal of Rohinton Mistry's book. We put the statement up for our students and our alumni on our notice board, because it intimately affected us. It affected our academics; it affected our alumnus and present students. We had to take a stand. That's all.
Then, the media took hold of that and made it headlines. I didn't have anything further to say. That was my one statement. And we do think that if we don't take a stand on issues of this type, we are not doing our job anymore. Our job is to have a free flow of ideas. We took a stand for academic freedom. Yes, they did point out to some slang words used. But we said "look at any novel. They all reflect life." And this novel is reflecting the life of not today, but of that age when the particular political party was aggressive. We only made an academic statement on an academic issue. The media turned it into something else.
What about Dr. Sen's case?
Dr. Sen's case also... we teach a course in Human Rights to our students. My students came and told me that they had gone to Kala Ghoda with banners and placards protesting against the arrest and the sentence awarded to Dr Sen. And they were treated very harshly by the police. They were just bundled up into vans. So once again we made a statement on our website that this is not the way to solve an issue. People have the right to protest. Binayak Sen has done good work. If he has been implicated in such a thing, it could be that it is politically motivated. And you've see the results. He is out on bail now. Even the central Government has called him on to a committee of the planning commission! In other words, human rights are something that you have to respect. And if there is a conflict, there are democratic ways of solving that. Not the way it has been done in Dantewada. Of course, there are political ramifications to any statement made. But these are issues which academic institutions and academicians have to battle with. They have to voice counterviews. Otherwise, there's no hope for our society.
If he could state his positions on these issues on public forums without attracting vitriol, I see no reason why he ought to be attacked now.