An appeal to the fellow students and respected teachers for the establishment of an organic and vibrant social life and political culture in the university

‘Speak up! Your lips are free....’

Our dear friends of Mumbai University,

University life is an important part of our life. It comes just once in our life and moulds our dreams, ideals, principles and thoughts in a new shape forever. As it is clear from the word itself, it originates from the word ‘universe’; university is a place where we get knowledge not only from books and classrooms, but we also learn a lot of things about life, about philosophy of life, about the whole of world. Right from the ancient times to the modern era, university has given rise to the greatest thoughts and philosophies of the world. While the ancient universities of Taxshila, Nalanda and Kandhar were the cradle for our ancient Indian philosophies and philosophers, the ancient Greek university nurtured and nourished the initial science and western philosophy. In modern age too, great values like democracy, liberty and equality were born in universities only. These were the institutions which nourished philosophers and thinkers like Kant, Descartes and innumerable others like them. In the contemporary world too, who does not know about the immortal contributions of the students and teachers of university? Peace movement of American students and teachers against the genocide committed by US in Vietnam, the heroic overthrow of the dictatorship of Suharto by the students of Indonesia, the great May-1968 movement of the students of Paris and Sorbonne university for democratic rights, the May 4^th Movement of 1919 of the Chinese students, movements of the students of Patna, Calcutta and many other universities of our own country against the Emergency…even hundreds of pages will not suffice to accommodate such a list. In short, what we intend to say is that university is not a place for reading textbooks, attending classes and appearing in the examinations only; it is a place for reading the book of the Life, to learn to struggle for justice and equality, to internalize the ideas of democracy and to cultivate the courage to pay any price for the truth. To understand the role of university, it would suffice to cast a cursory glance at the history of universities.

However, at present, if we look at universities, we find that the universities are losing their true meaning. An atmosphere of lull and silence is ubiquitous. The rat-race of careerism is rampant. Instead of being transformed into an instrument to understand and change the world, education has been transformed into a lifeless burden. Three or five precious years of our lives pass into the endless cycle of assignments, semester and attendance just like that and in the end, we graduate from university as uneducated literates. Textbooks have been crammed up, but we become even more ignorant about life than ever before. The teachers who have no dearth of democratic values and spirit, are unable to impart true knowledge, true education to students, despite their genuine desire to do so, due to academic structure and “discipline” imposed from above. At the same time, a kind of coldness and passivity has taken roots among the students, which is a result of the culture of Globalization. But still, we believe that there are students who can express their ideas, can unleash their limitless creativity, only if a suitable platform is provided to them. Unfortunately, at present, there is no such platform in the university and there is an urgent need for such a platform.

Friends! Just imagine, what would have been the picture of our country, had Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev carried on mugging up in the famous National College of Lahore; or, had the likes of Gandhi and Ambedkar kept on cramming up books in their universities? It would be difficult to find a person among ourselves who would claim that everything is alright in our country at present. Anybody can see that our country and our society are based on injustice, inequality and exploitation, and today this whole system is reaching a dead end. In this situation, what will be our role? Where will we stand? What will our partisanship be? Will we stay prisoned silently in our cocoons? Or will we accept the challenges of expressing ourselves and come together on a platform? Shouldn’t we cultivate the habit of thinking-contemplating, debating-discussing, organizing cultural-literary activities, and also of taking the side of truth and justice? To accomplish this, activities like regular discussion circles, study circles, putting up wall magazines, organizing progressive and radical dramatic teams and music bands, lecture series, etc should be initiated. We know that majority of our teachers support us whole-heartedly. We need their guidance and help! And our fellow students! We need your participation. Let’s establish an organic social, political culture in our campus! Let’s share our heartfelt ideas! Let’s share our concerns, inquietude and unrest! Let hundred ideas collide and let thousands flowers blossom! Let us create a new vibrant political culture in this university!

Awaiting your response, support and participation,

With humility,

University Community of Democracy and Equality