Opinion Hoisting the national flag in Central universities is a great idea. But why at 207 feet?
In all respects, our Central universities are well placed — except for the wavering commitment to Mother India of many of their students, and (shameful to say) of even some of their faculty
Ordinary patriotism, desh bhakti, is grievously lacking in sections of our youth, more particularly those studying in overfunded Central universities prone to overexposure to noxious Anglo-American influence. (Source: PTI photo)
When I heard that at a meeting of vice chancellors of Central universities, the human resource development ministry had mandated that they must fly the national flag at all times, I was immensely pleased — and relieved. Ordinary patriotism, desh bhakti, is grievously lacking in sections of our youth, more particularly those studying in overfunded Central universities prone to overexposure to noxious Anglo-American influence and, even worse, to infiltration from the dangerous neighbour to our northwest.
That the flag question was, so to say, especially flagged also met with my approval. Our Central universities are, as I have already noted, massively flush with funds. Their libraries have more books than they can handle. Their laboratories are generously equipped. The Seventh Pay Commission has handsomely (too handsomely?) rewarded the professors for their (uncertain) labours. In all respects, our Central universities are well placed — except for the wavering commitment to Mother India of many of their students, and (shameful to say) of even some of their faculty.
From time to time, malicious stories are run in sections of our press, drawing attention to the fact that no Indian institution figures in the lists periodically produced of the top universities in the world. Now it is well known that these lists are curated by that notorious agent of Western imperialism, the Times Educational Supplement, and by a private firm called Quacquarelli Symonds, which, as its first name suggests, is clearly a “quack” (which, to quote a dictionary definition, is “a person who talks loudly and foolishly”). To the true desh bhakt, these rankings should not matter. In any case, once the proposal to hoist our flag in all campuses is put into effect, the surge of patriotism that will manifest itself in students, faculty and staff will surely propel our desi universities into the front row of even the most motivated foreign rankings.
I was also pleased with the proposal to place the flag in a prominent central place, to have it hoisted at a high level, and for it to be illuminated at night. For it is important for students to be reminded at all times of their primary commitment to Mother India, and surely the best way to achieve that would be to make the tiranga visible to them as they walk to and from class, to and from the library or laboratory, and, not least, at night, which (as so much scientific research has demonstrated) is precisely the time when dark, dangerous, in sum anti-patriotic, thoughts enter the minds of the insufficiently enlightened young.
I was therefore delighted when I heard of the HRD ministry’s proposal — delighted as a former student of a Central university, as a former teacher at a Central university, and, above all, as a proudly patriotic Indian increasingly nervous about the declining desh bhakti of first- and second-time voters. But there was one aspect of the proposal that disturbed me. Why had the ministry specified that the flag should be hoisted on a pole 207-feet high?
That the tiranga had to be high was self-evident. Students had to watch it all the time; and the flag needed to watch them all the time, too. But why 207 feet? Why not 200? To hoist the flag at precisely 200 feet would, in fact, further deepen their sense of patriotism. For it is well known that we Indians invented the number zero, and in effect the decimal system itself. (Notably, the official flag code of the government of India, where it offers specification, of sizes for example, does it all in patriotic zeroes).
The number 200 has another, and scarcely less patriotic, meaning. For it is the number of Test matches that Sachin Tendulkar played. Cricket, as Ashis Nandy once reminded us, is an Indian game accidentally invented in the West. And Tendulkar is the one Indian whose patriotism is widely and unreservedly admired across the political spectrum. If the flag is hoisted at 200 rather than 207 feet, the students would be reminded of our great scientific invention, the zero, and of the stirring patriotic deeds of Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar, MP, the boy who proudly placed the tricolour on his helmet before anyone else had done so, the young man who, off his own bat, was winning Tests and tournaments against Pakistan at an age when students of Central universities are coping so uncertainly with their personal and their national identity.
Why then did the ministry choose the number 207 instead? Could it be something to do with numerology? I typed “symbolic significance of the number 207” into my search engine, and I came across a site that termed 207 an “angel number” which “asks you to devote your time in pursuit of spiritual growth and you will be rewarded in wisdom and knowledge”. Could this be it?
Surely not. For the site where these magical qualities are ascribed to the number 207 has a dangerously videshi whiff to it (the site is fronted by a bearded man calling himself an “angelical padre”). Besides, the honourable HRD minister has taken her oath of office on the Constitution, which avows that the promotion of a scientific temper is one of the fundamental duties of an Indian citizen.
So numerology is not the answer. Perhaps that other Indian tradition, bureaucratic inertia, is. It appears there is extant a national flag hoisted in Connaught Place at precisely 207 feet. It further appears that this was done at the behest of a then member of Parliament belonging to the (variably patriotic) Congress party. It may be that, when asked to execute the minister’s order, a babu in the ministry cited “precedent” and stipulated that odd, and oddly unpatriotic, number.
But ministers exist in part to overrule babus. The HRD order was, as I have repeatedly and loyally emphasised, exemplary and admirable in asking that the flag be prominently placed, flown high, and made visible at night. The one (surely accidental) flaw is the height specified. I urge the HRD minister to issue a further order reducing the height by a mere seven feet. Generations of Indian patriots still unborn will honour her for that.
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