The FEDCUTA notes with concern the ugly row brewing over the staging of the play Draupadi at the Central University Haryana, Mahendragarh. The play was based on a story written by the world renowned author Mahashweta Devi. From all accounts the play was staged by the English literature department in memory of the late Mahashweta Devi and has attracted adverse reactions and protests in the name of nationalism from the local ABVP outfit, some ex-servicemen and some local community leaders. In response the university administration has constituted an enquiry committee to look in to the matter.
The main objection to the play is to the scene where two soldiers engage in the horrific act of rape of the protagonist for not revealing some information. This has been construed as an attempt to malign the Indian soldiers who were martyred at Uri in a terrorist attack recently. The FEDCUTA condemns such a construction on a story placed in the context of the 1970s and the attempt to play chauvinistic nationalist politics with it. Indeed as the well known scholar Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak had pointed out many years ago that through this story Mahashweta Devi was giving an anti- colonialist message. She was in fact opposing the terrible legacy of the colonial mindset which inevitably used rape as a weapon of war and as a ‘theory and practice of most efficient information retrieval’ as depicted in the story. Mahashweta Devi herself had forewarned in this context that she was working for a change in the social system and did not believe in ‘mere party politics’. FEDCUTA believes that such a deeply humanist message should be upheld and certainly no party politics should be encouraged over the play. Indeed this kind of politics demeans the martyrdom of the soldiers who fell prey to forces of terror created by imperialism and colonialism in the first place.
The FEDCUTA believes that the politics over the play are an attempt to stifle the freedom of expression and creativity of a young English department at a young university. This politics should be resolutely opposed. The VC was earlier right in seeing the whole episode as politicisation but seems to have succumbed to pressure as the composition of the enquiry committee shows. The FEDCUTA appeals to all the sections of the local society at Mahendragarh and to fellow Indians to allow the space for the development of this new university and defeat all forces who are trying to stifle its development. The FEDCUTA demands that both the state government and the central government should intervene to create academic normalcy in a situation where teachers, students and the staff of the university are facing an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
The FEDCUTA expresses its solidarity with the faculty and students of Haryana Central University and warns against any attempt to intimidate or victimize them.
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