Frederick Noronha fredericknoronha@gmail.com [docuwallahs2]
2018-02-05 18:31:45 UTC
âCampus Risingâ documentary captures the anger of students across Indian
universitiesDirector Yousuf Saeed was guided by the belief that âthrough
politics, students are asking the right questionsâ.[image: âCampus Risingâ
documentary captures the anger of students across Indian universities]Campus
Rising | Yousuf Saeed
Oct 26, 2017 · 08:15 am
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The students of Indiaâs university campuses are angry and not going to take
it anymore â this is the upshot of Yousuf Saeedâs documentary *Campus
Rising*. The 74-minute film looks at student agitations in colleges and
universities across India over the past few years. The documentary features
interviews with several students voicing their grievances against
administrative bodies, parochial attitudes, institutionalised casteism, and
all-round intolerance towards the freedom of expression. Kanhaiya Kumar and
historians Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib make appearances in the film,
among others.
Saeed, who has been making documentaries since 1990, was inspired by the
furore at Jawaharlal Nehru University in February last year. Following
clashes between rival student groups, Kanhaiya Kumar and others were
arrested on trumped-up charges of sedition. That and the suicide of
Hyderabad Central University PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in the previous
month set the ball rolling for *Campus Rising*.
âThe starting point of my film was the JNU incident last year,â Saeed said.
âI shot the film in January and February this year, which is when the
Ramjas incident happened.â
Vemulaâs suicide generated protests across campuses in India. This was
followed by the JNU incident, which was in turn followed by clashes between
students and authorities at the Banaras Hindu University in May over the
issue of timings allotted for cyber libraries to be open. In February this
year, students of Delhi Universityâs Ramjas College clashed with right-wing
student groups. In September, BHU students protested against the
administrationâs inability to address molestation.
Saeed wondered about the reason behind these repeated agitations at
university campuses. âI realised that there is hardly any opposition now,â
he Saeed. âThe opposition parties are inactive. Then I saw that the
students are active and kind of trying to do something. So I started to go
to universities and began exploring the subject.â
Play
Campus Rising.
*Campus Rising* is structured as a series of interviews with students from
JNU, BHU, HCU, Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. The
message is the same across campuses: student rights are being curbed by the
system. While a JNU student argues for his right to debate without
violence, a BHU student asks why his caste is a matter of interest to his
peers. One student points out that for 70 upper caste teachers, there are
only two or three teachers from marginalised communities. A female student
speaks about the way women are being repressed with gender-biased hostel
rules.
The students featured in *Campus Rising* are resentful towards their
university administrations. The rare right-wing student appears for a few
seconds to perhaps provide a semblance of balance, but by and large, *Campus
Rising* is far from being a well-rounded look at Indiaâs students. In one
scene, riled up by public accounts of marginalisation by his lower caste
peers, an upper caste student asks, âSo, should we people leave the
country?â He is greeted with claps and whistles but the mic is taken away
from him by the organisers.
Apart from students of the leftist and the liberal persuasions, the film
does not explore students from suburban universities, and does not feature
enough interviews with teachers and administrative members. For some
viewers, *Campus Rising* may come off as one note. Saeed has some answers
for the criticism.
[image: Yogendra Yadav in a still from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf
Saeed.]Yogendra Yadav in a still from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf
Saeed.
âMost teachers were not open to talk in front of the camera,â Saeed
explained. âThey were concerned about their jobs. Plus the right-wing
students I interviewed had mostly one thing to say: this and this is
against the country. There was hardly any new opinion. They were speaking
on the same anti-JNU, why-do-they-support-Kashmir lines. That approach has
no depth. So, if I put more of their stuff in, it would seem like I am
ridiculing them.â
Saeed also cited the strict regulations under which he had to shoot as a
reason for the filmâs incompleteness. Either the on-campus staff would not
cooperate, or the security people would intervene. At Jamia Milia Islamia
and BHU, he had to shoot clandestinely.
âAnd besides me, a bunch of filmmakers are making documentaries on this
subject right now, Anand Patwardhan, for example,â Saeed said. âI have
spoken to them and we have decided that let us document it and put it out
in the public view. So, I am focusing on one aspect, someone else will
focus on another.â
Prior to filming, Saeed did not have an optimistic view of student
politics. For as long as he could remember he wondered, âIf they [students]
do politics all the time, when do they study?â He was a student of biology
at the Aligarh Muslim University in the 1980s. He stayed far away from
politics as an undergraduate and observed student unions from a distance.
It was when he studied mass communication at Jamia Milia Islamia that he
came in touch with the social sciences, which influenced his decision to
become a filmmaker.
âWhile making the film, I realised that the issues the students are raising
are important and if students donât raise them, who will?â Saeed said.
âSome amount of student politics is important because through politics,
they are asking the right questions.â
There is a tendency among science students to move away from the
socio-political discourse because of their focus on career-oriented
matters. He hopes for that to change.
âPolitics makes one aware,â Saeed said. âThe students in JNU are the way
they are because their teachers inculcate in them values of social justice
which the students try and implement them on the ground through activism.
Politics can help change the country and not just make one a corrupt neta.â
[image: A still from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.]A still
from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.
Saeed wishes to screen *Campus Rising *across colleges and universities,
but he has a problem. He needs his documentary to be cleared by the Central
Board of Film Certification, and he is not sure he will be given a censor
certificate. He is also wary of shows being cancelled because of
complaints. So far, the documentary has had just one public screening, at a
film festival in Nagpur. In November, it will be screened at Film Southasia
in Kathmandu.
âEarlier, if you raised your voice, nobody bothered, because most of the
time, it did not spread,â Saeed explained. âNow, the media, the internet
and related platforms are in the control of the corporates which are in
alliance with the present government and their control is being pushed on
us. Now we are being watched all the time. Anything we do is immediately
reported online. The problem is that there is a culture of fear around
right now. If we raise our voice, something may or may not happen. We donât
know. But the fear exists because we know that they are watching.â
[image: Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.]Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.
*We welcome your comments at ***@scroll.in.
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universitiesDirector Yousuf Saeed was guided by the belief that âthrough
politics, students are asking the right questionsâ.[image: âCampus Risingâ
documentary captures the anger of students across Indian universities]Campus
Rising | Yousuf Saeed
Oct 26, 2017 · 08:15 am
Devarsi Ghosh <https://scroll.in/author/11025>
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The students of Indiaâs university campuses are angry and not going to take
it anymore â this is the upshot of Yousuf Saeedâs documentary *Campus
Rising*. The 74-minute film looks at student agitations in colleges and
universities across India over the past few years. The documentary features
interviews with several students voicing their grievances against
administrative bodies, parochial attitudes, institutionalised casteism, and
all-round intolerance towards the freedom of expression. Kanhaiya Kumar and
historians Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib make appearances in the film,
among others.
Saeed, who has been making documentaries since 1990, was inspired by the
furore at Jawaharlal Nehru University in February last year. Following
clashes between rival student groups, Kanhaiya Kumar and others were
arrested on trumped-up charges of sedition. That and the suicide of
Hyderabad Central University PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in the previous
month set the ball rolling for *Campus Rising*.
âThe starting point of my film was the JNU incident last year,â Saeed said.
âI shot the film in January and February this year, which is when the
Ramjas incident happened.â
Vemulaâs suicide generated protests across campuses in India. This was
followed by the JNU incident, which was in turn followed by clashes between
students and authorities at the Banaras Hindu University in May over the
issue of timings allotted for cyber libraries to be open. In February this
year, students of Delhi Universityâs Ramjas College clashed with right-wing
student groups. In September, BHU students protested against the
administrationâs inability to address molestation.
Saeed wondered about the reason behind these repeated agitations at
university campuses. âI realised that there is hardly any opposition now,â
he Saeed. âThe opposition parties are inactive. Then I saw that the
students are active and kind of trying to do something. So I started to go
to universities and began exploring the subject.â
Play
Campus Rising.
*Campus Rising* is structured as a series of interviews with students from
JNU, BHU, HCU, Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. The
message is the same across campuses: student rights are being curbed by the
system. While a JNU student argues for his right to debate without
violence, a BHU student asks why his caste is a matter of interest to his
peers. One student points out that for 70 upper caste teachers, there are
only two or three teachers from marginalised communities. A female student
speaks about the way women are being repressed with gender-biased hostel
rules.
The students featured in *Campus Rising* are resentful towards their
university administrations. The rare right-wing student appears for a few
seconds to perhaps provide a semblance of balance, but by and large, *Campus
Rising* is far from being a well-rounded look at Indiaâs students. In one
scene, riled up by public accounts of marginalisation by his lower caste
peers, an upper caste student asks, âSo, should we people leave the
country?â He is greeted with claps and whistles but the mic is taken away
from him by the organisers.
Apart from students of the leftist and the liberal persuasions, the film
does not explore students from suburban universities, and does not feature
enough interviews with teachers and administrative members. For some
viewers, *Campus Rising* may come off as one note. Saeed has some answers
for the criticism.
[image: Yogendra Yadav in a still from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf
Saeed.]Yogendra Yadav in a still from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf
Saeed.
âMost teachers were not open to talk in front of the camera,â Saeed
explained. âThey were concerned about their jobs. Plus the right-wing
students I interviewed had mostly one thing to say: this and this is
against the country. There was hardly any new opinion. They were speaking
on the same anti-JNU, why-do-they-support-Kashmir lines. That approach has
no depth. So, if I put more of their stuff in, it would seem like I am
ridiculing them.â
Saeed also cited the strict regulations under which he had to shoot as a
reason for the filmâs incompleteness. Either the on-campus staff would not
cooperate, or the security people would intervene. At Jamia Milia Islamia
and BHU, he had to shoot clandestinely.
âAnd besides me, a bunch of filmmakers are making documentaries on this
subject right now, Anand Patwardhan, for example,â Saeed said. âI have
spoken to them and we have decided that let us document it and put it out
in the public view. So, I am focusing on one aspect, someone else will
focus on another.â
Prior to filming, Saeed did not have an optimistic view of student
politics. For as long as he could remember he wondered, âIf they [students]
do politics all the time, when do they study?â He was a student of biology
at the Aligarh Muslim University in the 1980s. He stayed far away from
politics as an undergraduate and observed student unions from a distance.
It was when he studied mass communication at Jamia Milia Islamia that he
came in touch with the social sciences, which influenced his decision to
become a filmmaker.
âWhile making the film, I realised that the issues the students are raising
are important and if students donât raise them, who will?â Saeed said.
âSome amount of student politics is important because through politics,
they are asking the right questions.â
There is a tendency among science students to move away from the
socio-political discourse because of their focus on career-oriented
matters. He hopes for that to change.
âPolitics makes one aware,â Saeed said. âThe students in JNU are the way
they are because their teachers inculcate in them values of social justice
which the students try and implement them on the ground through activism.
Politics can help change the country and not just make one a corrupt neta.â
[image: A still from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.]A still
from Campus Rising. Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.
Saeed wishes to screen *Campus Rising *across colleges and universities,
but he has a problem. He needs his documentary to be cleared by the Central
Board of Film Certification, and he is not sure he will be given a censor
certificate. He is also wary of shows being cancelled because of
complaints. So far, the documentary has had just one public screening, at a
film festival in Nagpur. In November, it will be screened at Film Southasia
in Kathmandu.
âEarlier, if you raised your voice, nobody bothered, because most of the
time, it did not spread,â Saeed explained. âNow, the media, the internet
and related platforms are in the control of the corporates which are in
alliance with the present government and their control is being pushed on
us. Now we are being watched all the time. Anything we do is immediately
reported online. The problem is that there is a culture of fear around
right now. If we raise our voice, something may or may not happen. We donât
know. But the fear exists because we know that they are watching.â
[image: Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.]Photo credit: Yousuf Saeed.
*We welcome your comments at ***@scroll.in.
<?Subject=%E2%80%98Campus%20Rising%E2%80%99%20documentary%20captures%20the%20anger%20of%20students%20across%20Indian%20universities&to=***@scroll.in>*
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