Bigotry reaches dangerous levels at BHU

The stand-off between the BHU Sanskrit students and the university authorities should go down the annals of BHU history as the most shameful incident.

It speaks volumes about the rabid fundamentalism that has seeped into young minds. The classes are to begin with the students claiming that the Vice-Chancellor had agreed to put in place corrective measures.

The Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has reopened, the university announced, after days of protests by a section of students over the appointment of a professor at the department.

"The Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan, Banaras Hindu University, has reopened," a tweet by the university said on Thursday. Though BHU has backed him, Feroze Khan, an Indian professor, has been unable to take classes.

Going by the protesting students' logic, the professor should not teach them Sanskrit because he is a Muslim. Are the Hindus the sole custodians of Sanskrit which they themselves have forgotten and have given a decent burial to the same?

For that matter, is any language the whole and sole property of a particular people? If we agree to that, what next? Should one confine oneself to his mother-tongue? Those striking students surely would have opted for Sanskrit out of several considerations other than it being the language of their forefathers once.

Again by the same yardstick, what business does any Indian have to study or teach any foreign language? One should have taken pride that a non-Hindu has opted to study Sanskrit and teach the same to make it his livelihood in the times when Hindus have forgotten what Sanskrit is all about.

Max Muller is really lucky that he was not taken birth during these days of bigotry. Otherwise, these chauvinists would have attacked him and perhaps even lynched him. How come the student community across the country did not protest the same is bewildering.

It is far more serious than the frivolous agitation launched by the JNU students against the purported fee hike of 300 per cent by their authorities. (They are paying Rs 10 per month for staying in JNU hostels and it has been raised to Rs 300).

Why did not those political parties which supported the JNU students protest this far more serious development at the BHU? The authorities should have rusticated the protesting students at the BHU instead of trying to talk to them.

It is good that sanity has prevailed, and the authorities are firm on their stand. There are thousands of students studying languages not just in India but elsewhere. If dirty politics is extended to everything in life, then the life itself would not be worth living.

The BHU students' protest indicates the dangerous levels that the agenda of illogical Hinduism has reached in the country. First it was about food.

Next was the dress. Then the identity and the ideology were questioned. Those questioning are now branded as anti-nationals.

What next? That non-Hindu languages should not be taught? Non-Hindu language? Yes, because some people see religion in it.