Bengaluru: “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind,” said Albert Einstein. On Saturday, a student from the Indian Institute of Science, who also happens to be an alumnus of Jadavpur University, posted the Einstein quote on the institute’s Facebook page.
This was enough to fetch him a volley of death threats, with right-wing nationalists telling him, in so many words, that he will be shot for “talking against the constitution.”
As hundreds of students, intellectuals and artists and young people angered by the incarceration of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and the way he was beaten by a group of lawyers as he was taken to court on Wednesday, gathered in the IT capital, the sense of unease over freedoms curtailed has grown.
Over the last month, the student, who wishes to remain anonymous for his own safety, says his Facebook profile had been hacked as well - a complaint that has now become a refrain amongst liberal-thinking students across educational institutes. “Now, even Einstein is being called anti-national!” he laughed. "I have always had these views, but death threats are definitely a first. This is no atmosphere for researchers, we're always afraid of being misunderstood. However, I want to stay and fight.”
The sense of menace underlying the torrents of abuse thrown at anyone who isn't fervently right-wing has seeped insidiously into daily life, with violence and sabotage quickly becoming the norm. The protest at Town Hall on Thursday evening was a far-cry from the violent outbursts being reported across the country. The organisers - the Consortium of Academicians and Researchers - didn't expect more than a 100 people to show up and were visibly overwhelmed by the support they received when thrice that number turned up.
