By Fahad Zuberi
The turn of events at the Aligarh Muslim University in the last one week is not only a question mark on the understanding of democratic politics among the apparent Muslim leaders of tomorrow, it raises doubtful concerns over the quality of education and the admission procedures which are followed by the best institutes of the country.
While it is clear that the one-month-old post was dug up for purely political interests, the gullibility displayed by a large section of students at the AMU is deeply disturbing. Here we have a group of young minds, studying in one of the top ten institutions in the country, not being able to understand basic sentence structuring and the semantics of quoted texts even when it was pointed out to them.
It is funny in a sad way that even after pointing out the structuring and semantics of the text that Ms. Shehla wrote, most of the Muslims at AMU can still be found debating, in the typical threatening manner that their IQ allows, about the “blasphemy” committed by her. This is what happens when you get outraged without checking the facts. Even when the basic blind spot in their cognizance was pointed out, taking a step back from the extreme threat of beheading requires courage and intellect, the lack of both being a well-established fact by now.
This widespread gullibility and resort to violent threats and abuses is representative of a very low average value of IQ in the campus. However, the statistical variance in this value would be gigantic. Right from creative and illustrious scholar down to the violent scum. This once again raises questions about the efficiency of our admission procedures. How does that gullible violent megalomaniac make his way into the top Central University of the country?
One might argue that the purpose of these centres of learning is to raise an otherwise underprivileged Indian to a level where he can deserve to be called an educated citizen. Now, that the disease and its carriers have been exposed, are we taking any steps to eradicate violence and extreme intolerance from our campuses? Or will we let the society of tomorrow become worse than the society of today?
I disagree with many acquaintances of mine on many different topics. Right from the new earth creationists to global warming deniers to religious fanatics to capitalists to racial supremacists. In my pursuit to justify the education and manners that I have received from the society till now, I look forward to chances to debate with these people. So that I can criticize their ideology openly and with facts and logic. This exposes the inconsistencies in the ideology that I am debating against and therefore, ideologically destroys it in public. Only a person with strong insecurities would want to avoid such a debate by resorting to any and every tactic available at his intellect’s disposal. A reasonable and educated person uses the tactic of debate and discussion, the rest of us establish their ability to reason through the tactics they use, like some students at AMU who reacted to Ms. Shehla’s writings.
The fact that debating is the only civil and honourable way of handling differences in opinion was crystal clear in the mind of our founder, the great Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Knowing its importance, he envisioned the Siddons Debating Union. A debating chamber at AMU which would inculcate the glorious attitude of rationality, reason, debate and discussion in the students of the University. Siddons was meant to teach the students of AMU, the noble art of embracing dissent. Since it’s closing in 1961, the AMU which used to be at the zenith of rationality and reason has slowly turned into a lawless and dangerous place for the proponents of free speech and critical thought. Ms. Shehla Rashid, the student leader who raises the voice of minorities in the presently intolerant scenario of India ran a risk of violence by visiting the AMU campus. All of this because of a group of gullible students refusing to understand their mistake in analytical reading, almost resorting to violence and falling prey to the political insecurities of their leaders.
It is needless to say that the Aligarh Muslim University requires the Siddons Debating Union at this moment, more than it ever did before.
This article was originally published here.