Opinion Naseeruddin Shah writes: When a university speaks power to truth
The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend ( giving no reason, forget an apology) considered this not insulting enough. So they decided to rub a little salt in by announcing that I had refused to be there.
Would it be too far-fetched to equate the situation with George Orwell’s 1984, in which not singing the praise of the “great leader” is considered sedition? Ever since I undertook the stimulating — but often incomprehensible — tasks necessary before one considers oneself an actor, I’d dream of the day when I understood enough about it to share with those younger than me and who, like me, lacked guidance. For the last 40-odd years, some of the most joyous and educational experiences relating to my work have been with students, at various institutions and even privately. I have tried to participate in their growth, often without success, but never without joy. The job of trying to get across to a class of dreamers and often reluctant learners has over the years tempered my natural impatience somewhat. I have made many mistakes along the way, but I can say without qualification that I have gained more by working with students than I have from any teacher of acting.
The Jashn-e-Urdu organised by the Urdu department of Mumbai University for February 1, from which I was disinvited at the last moment, was an event I was greatly looking forward to because it meant interacting with students. The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend (on the night of January 31, and giving no reason for it, forget an apology) obviously considered this not insulting enough. So they decided to rub a little salt in by announcing to the audience that I had refused to be there.
It’s not really surprising they didn’t have the courage to state the truth — that I “openly make statements against the country”, (if they were covert I suppose that would be all right) or, at least, that’s what a senior university official reportedly said. If he’s not merely toeing the line and actually believes that statement, I hereby challenge the gentleman in question to produce one single statement of mine in which I run down my country.
Sure, I have never praised the self-proclaimed “Vishwaguru”. In fact, I have been critical of the way he conducts himself. His narcissism offends me and I haven’t been impressed by a single thing he’s done in 10 years. I have often been critical and continue to be so of many things the ruling dispensation does. I have often lamented the lack of civic sense and consideration for the other in our country. I have been vocal about several other issues because these are things that trouble people like me about the direction in which we seem to be headed, where student activists are held for years without trial but convicted rapists/murderers are frequently granted bail, where cow vigilantes have a free hand to maim and kill, where history is being rewritten and the content of textbooks revised, where even science is being fiddled with, where a Chief Minister, no less, talks of harassing the “Miyas”. Just how long can this hatred be sustained?
This is not the country I grew up in and was taught to love. The “thought police” and “doublespeak” have been deployed in full force, as has surveillance. The “two minutes of hate” have turned into 24 hours of hate. Would it be too far-fetched to equate the situation with George Orwell’s 1984, in which not singing the praise of the “great leader” is considered sedition?
Shah is an actor and author
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