THE ABBEY OF BLISS IN INDIA

The Abbey of Bliss is the title of the first English publication of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s eternal literary work Anandamath, a novel set in 18th century Bengal famine during the British rule. It is about the Sanyasi rebellion by the monk brotherhood of a remote Bengal village and the source of the eternal song,Vande Matram, which was incorporated as the National Song after Independence.

What brings the novel and song to the mind may be a question that may crop up in the minds of the readers of this piece. But the recent incidents that took place on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus and the sequence of events that followed necessitate the recapitulation. An insidious debate has started in the aftermath of the police action that took place on the campus after certain sections of the electronic media highlighted the high voltage seditious sloganeering in the university. Some students while observing the anniversary of hanging of Afzal Guru, the man charged with the heinous crime of attack on Parliament, were shown raising anti-India slogans and indulging in behaviour that no democracy could permit.

But the events that followed have been subject to so many twists and turns that the entire issue has been skirted. The issue is now the arrest of the students’ union president and whether his aggressive anti-Government, RSS and ABVP posture was seditious or not. Instead of a serious national debate on nationalism as a value, a political debate has started with battlelines clearly drawn. The arrest of the JNU students’ union president is an issue that has to be decided by the judiciary. His utterances against the Government may or may not be proved to be sedition and the argument that in a democracy citizens have a right to speak against the Government may have many takers. But what about sympathisers of Afzal Guru and the likes? What about the sloganeering that took place on the campus while organising the anniversary of his hanging? Talking against political parties cannot come under the charge of sedition, but what about talking against the country?

True the Constitution does not specifically mention sedition as a ground for restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, but sedition does embrace all those practices, whether by word, deed or writing which are calculated to disturb the tranquillity of the state and lead ignorant persons to subvert the Government. The intention or tendency is an issue that cannot be overlooked.

It is against this backdrop that the entire episode has to be viewed. But somehow the focus of the entire debate from universities of far away US to streets of London and serene campuses of Indian universities has shifted to a different issue. It is not about the right to expression. It is about the very definition of a citizen and his duty towards his country. There is a Section on fundamental duties in the Indian Constitution.

The issue is about the definition of a nation state. And of course it is about the values of a citizen. It is about Mother India. None can doubt that India is a nation that has its boundaries. Those claiming license in the name of freedom of expression must understand that the freedom is guaranteed only because of the country and its Constitution. The debate must focus on that.