Historically it has been observed that fascism is engendered by an acute crisis of capitalism. It has some very evident markers like the dehumanisation of certain communities, crushing of communist organisations with an iron fist, critical shrinkage of spaces for unionising, passing of draconian laws, etc. However, there is also a more subtle way in which fascism always expresses itself– through a clampdown on education and educational institutes. India under the fascist RSS-BJP is no exception. The escalating attacks on students, particularly those speaking out against the excesses of the current regime, have to be seen in this context. The attack is not limited to targeting individuals, it is also directed towards existing curricula, affirmative action norms, democratic spaces left within campuses, and overall governmental thrust towards education.
Ever since the BJP came to power in 2014, there have been repeated efforts to change school syllabi, particularly for NCERT textbooks and state board books, wherever BJP has been in power. The forcefully introduced National Education Policy, 2020, has these curricular changes codified into it. There have been consistent efforts at removing the chapters on Mughal history, Tipu Sultan, and Delhi Sultanate from NCERT texts. Even science has not been spared, chapters on Darwin’s theory of evolution, periodic table, gravitation, and climate change were quietly dropped in the name of rationalisation. Important political events like assassination of Gandhi, Babri Masjid demolition, and 2002 Godhra riots, events that the BJP has bloodied their hands in, were also dropped. As suggested by the NEP, Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) focusing on the ideas of dharma, karma, ahimsa, swachchhata, etc., have been made part of the curriculum in many colleges, including colleges in Karnataka. Under the guise of IKS, promotion of Brahminical ideas including whitewashing of the caste system, have now become mainstream.
In continuation of that casteist narrative, it must be noted that the NEP 2020 does not talk about reservation, rather it combines Dalits, Adivasis, religious and gender minorities into one section called the Socio-economically Disadvantaged Group (SEDG). How this group would be connected with the existing reservation norms, is not mentioned anywhere. Even the skill-based curriculum to be introduced in schools under the NEP 2020 are meant to perpetuate caste-based vocations. With the provision of including ‘local volunteers’ in the day-to-day functioning of government schools, the NEP has paved the way for interference of RSS pracharaks in schools. Recently, the Supreme Court stayed the UGC equity guidelines aimed at addressing caste discrimination within campuses after protests from Savarna groups. The spate of caste-based harassment however has only intensified.
In the face of surrender of the highest court to Bramhinical forces, student groups across India have risen in protest demanding implementation of the UGC equity guidelines. The months of February and March saw massive mobilisation of students across campuses. There was counter mobilisation from ABVP as well in repeated attempts to crush whatever spaces to engage in dissent are left on campuses. They beat up students, heckled them, chanted casteist slogans, vandalised campuses, and engaged in incessant social media slander. From JNU to APU, nowhere were students spared. The police acted as silent bystanders in these cases, allowing the ABVP goons to terrorise their targets. The fascist RSS-BJP is leaving no stone unturned to ensure complete erasure of opposition to their institutional propaganda of Hindutva.
There have been policy-level attacks on student unions to make them toothless with elections being deliberately delayed by the administration. The root cause can be traced to the increasing privatisation of education to the extent where public funding on education is reduced to crumbs. This is creating the perfect environment for unbridled mushrooming of private universities. Even institutes like IITs, IISc, JNU, HCU, etc. are being forced to take loans from the Higher Education Funding Agency and hike fees to be able to pay back the loans. The worst sufferers are of course students coming from margins of the society. Historically, student unions have stood up as the first line of defence between the government imposing unjust policies on educational institutes. Dilution or outright scrapping of student unions is therefore in line with privatisation of the education sector. In this scenario, NEP 2020 was the final death knell in the coffin of public education. It must be treated as a tool for entrenchment of fascism, nothing less.
The reaction from the state machinery is also getting extreme with increasing desperation of the ruling classes. Acts well within constitutional bounds like social media posts, study circles, seminars, and peaceful protests are branded as anti-national activities. Detention of students and slapping of serious charges under the BNS are being normalised. The few student groups that talk about any kind of radical social change are being particularly targeted. Broader student masses have been systemically depoliticised wherein they fail to connect their individual issues with the broader socio-economic crisis, creating a gap that helps the ruling classes. It is to fill this very lacuna that spaces like Spark magazine and study circles are necessary and must be preserved.
