By Professor Roger Jeffery – School of Social and Political Science
I’m sitting in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as a visiting professor for a couple of weeks.
My main reason for being here – to take forward activities under an Indian-European Research Network – has been somewhat overshadowed by the tumult that has broken at JNU since I arrived.
Under a colonial law once used to put Gandhi and Nehru behind bars, the JNU Student Union President has been arrested and charged with sedition.
Teachers, students and lawyers representing him were attacked within the court premises, and now students and faculty are both on strike.
As I write, many faculty and students are taking part in a march in central New Delhi; hundreds of foreign scholars have expressed their support and students across India have been demonstrating either in their favour or against them.
Some of this happened while I was in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in south India, where we held a very productive seminar on cross-border medical flows – often wrongly termed ‘medical tourism’.
Plans for a publication, for new research proposals, and for a teaching resource have all been set in motion. All three will make solid contributions to debate on an issue which currently tends to increase inequities in health.
Our post-graduate student workshop went ahead despite the strikes (but with the approval of the Teachers’ Association) and gave 22 students the opportunity to have their work critically assessed.
Papers on commercial surrogacy, diabetes self-help groups, safe delivery options in Western Nepal, blood transfusion and dental education – among others – all generated lively discussions, and student feedback was uniformly positive.
But it was hard not to be distracted. The issues at stake are, potentially, enormous. The police have undercover teams operating on the JNU campus, not looking just for possible ‘anti-national’ activities but also for anything the current Government doesn’t like (such as the eating of beef).
I’m living in ‘interesting times’.