The decision of the University of Mumbai to drop the Booker-nominated novel of Rohinton Mistry Such a Long Journey from its BA syllabus following objections from the Shiv Sena students’ wing sets a dangerous precedent. This not the first time that the rightwing party has managed to armtwist someone into complying with its chauvinistic assertions, but this episode sends out portentous signals in being an exemplar for many things that are not right.
On September 14, the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS), the Sena's student wing, burnt copies of the book in front of the University of Mumbai gates. It offered an ultimatum of 24 hours to the university to withdraw it from the syllabus of the second year Bachelor of Arts (English). The group was apparently displeased with with “anti-Shiv Sena passages”; “derogatory references” to Mumbai’s dabbawalas, the Marathi Manoos and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; and “extremely obscene and vulgar language in its’ text”. The Vice Chancellor, Rajan Welukar, acceded within the deadline without even a murmur. No questions were asked.
What has been most disconcerting about this incident is the promptness and timidity with which the authorities caved in. This time the Shiv Sena didn’t have to burn effigies, or ransack libraries. Its students didn’t have to assault Parsis (Mistry is a Mumbai-born Paris who migrated to Canada in 1975), or call for a bandh. Just the burning of books and the ultimatum served its purpose. It didn’t even have to issue overt threats to anyone’s life or property, a veiled one worked effectively. This is what makes it disconcerting. While the Shiv Sena’s protests over Pakistani actors being featured in the Bigg Boss 4 reality show hasn’t yielded dividends for the party, the Mistry book removal shows that mere threats can be effective moral policing.
The Congress-led government in New Delhi is notorious for banning books. And the rightwingers in Maharashtra, for their part, are infamous for targeting books and authors. A case in point was Oxford University Press virtually giving in to the detractors of James Laine’s book on Shivaji. But all these instances were pegged either to the book’s launch, or erupted shortly after. Mistry’s book, on the other hand, was published way back in 1991. If that is not all, this book has had been in the syllabus since 2007. The University of Mumbai’s decision, therefore, gives credence to all those who want to go back in time to undo things. Not surprising, since the lopsided Ayodhya judgment has already set the ball rolling on that count.
Even more disturbing is the fact that all protests and petitions have gone unheard. Voices from civil society are not heeded, while a hooligan gets all the attention he does not deserve.
Worse still, the Frankenstein University has created this new monster – Aditya Thackeray, grandson of Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. It was Aditya who had been the subverted mind behind the anti-Mistry short-lived agitation. He is yet to launch the party’s youth wing, Yuva Sena, but has got the mileage that he badly needed. And he has tasted blood.
Now he will be after our lives. Unless, civil society emasculates him first.
