From Sir with hope

Suspended dean of the arts faculty of MS University Baroda, Shivaji K. Panikkar, writes to his students. His message: difficult times must re-energise democratic values

I had wanted to meet all of you and discuss the issues that have gripped us since the terrible evening of May 11 when I was suspended by the university authorities for defending our common interests. Even now, I cannot believe that I cannot enter the premises of what has been my workplace, my karmabhoomi of the last 27 years. I find it so hard to believe that the Art History Department is sealed.

Do you remember, the whole faculty would gather to discuss, argue about things in the space in front of the archives over chai? In fact, the Archives and the Department of Art History was the place that we could find students of the whole faculty together, whether it was for Art History classes, seminars or 8216;Meet the Artist8217; slide shows. No wonder, then, that you decided to put up your display of work right at that spot on May 11.

As we go through these difficult times, the lessons we learn and the truths we recognise are going to help us to commit ourselves more firmly in upholding and re-energising progressive democratic values, freedom of speech and most important, the autonomy of the space of the university. These are threatened today. I feel so proud of the way you have resisted these encroachments on our dignity and our academic space. I want to reassure you that we will never succumb to pressure tactics. In the time of crisis we shall not forgo the profound truths and values that we have been learning from history. We dedicate ourselves completely to eradicating the last bit of complacence, ignorance, fundamentalisms of all sorts.

This is also the time to analyse the events of May 9 and the following days in a larger context, as a part of a larger scheme of reactionary intervention into basic human rights and institutional autonomy.

If human life was only about toiling for mere subsistence, human beings wouldn8217;t have left behind such a varied cultural heritage. Culture, too, is a product of a special kind of labour. Life8217;s inner quests are indeed the content of all arts. Also, art and life in the present age are radically different from the previous ages. Individualism is one of the most important aspects of art making in modern times. The unprecedented individual freedom in devising one8217;s expressions in the creative field has always been tempered with social consciousness that seeks to hold a mirror to society from which it originated.

It is time for us to gather our strength from the past year8217;s fruitful engagements. We had world renowned scholars visiting the faculty from whom we learnt to think through new frameworks. The National Workshop on 8216;Gender and Sexuality in Disciplinary Paradigms8217; organised by all of you enabled us to deeply engage with these issues.

An exceptionally brilliant experience last year was the national seminar hosted at the faculty on 8216;Discourses on the Minor and Cultural practices8217;. It was an exceptional year for me; two of my colleagues and I went on an extensive documentation tour to Saurashtra 8212; we presented our work on the Swaminarayan temples at JNU and Santiniketan where it was greatly appreciated.

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You have all been a part of the work that has gone into the Sir Ratan Tata Trust proposals. How happy we all were when it was approved by our University Syndicate. Now all of this is in jeopardy. Do you know that Prof. Walter Spink, one of the leading experts on Ajanta and Ellora, had invited the whole department to Ajanta with him for a site seminar? Senior scholar Prof. R.N. Misra had excitedly responded to our invitation and was ready to spend a long period of time to research and teach in the department. Unbelievable, that all that work seems to have gone waste. All came to a standstill on the evening of May 11.