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Jolly good Walker
Posted by the lazy knight
on
2:57 PM
I wonder how many of you followed the success of Tyler Walker Williams last week. Tyler Walker who? you may ask. The only Walker that rings a bell in Indian minds usually is Johnny Walker (sorry Mr.Mohandas Gandhi, but your endless walking didn’t exactly reach this generation); so for those who didn’t open the news channels over the last few days (wow, the lucky ones!) or scan the front pages of the daily newspapers, Tyler Walker is the new Vice President of the student's union at the JNU. Duh! big deal!, did I head you say? Well, maybe yes and maybe no.
Tyler Walker presents a very interesting and humorous paradox in an equally complex place. The JNU is one of India's most respected universities. It the regarded widely (and not incorrectly to a great extent) as the fountainhead of intellectual thinking in Delhi. It wouldn’t be unfair to call it the India International Centre of the educational institutions, where if you don’t have an opinion you are wasting your and other people's time.
But it has been equally notorious for being politically dedicated to the communist bent of thinking. The Student Union has been a communist bastion since decades and is a training ground for future politburo members. It has had its tough times, most notably during the tenure of the previous NDA regime when it got labeled as a 'madrasa' by the motor mouth of Praveen Togadia of the VHP. It was again in the news for the wrong reasons when last year the PM's speech at the university was disrupted by the Communist union members who raved and ranted and carried black flags. During this day and age, it is safe to say that if Lenin was to be reborn, he would like to land in India and contest student elections at the JNU for it is only there that he stands any chance of getting his ideas heard.
In this red fort now comes an American – the country, the economy, the very idea which is an antithesis to the Communist manifesto. You would think that Tyler Williams is another one of those young American hippies attracted to the ethnic and rural chic of India; one of those goras who landed up to learn Hindi and would gush about the rich diversity, spiritual beauty and other similar things about which India was noticed before the reforms and software came along. But taken at his words Williams is none of that. He is simply put – a communist who happens to be an American. In fact if you hear him speak about the economic policies of Manmohan Singh or the foreign policy of George Bush, you would think that he is more of a commie than even Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. (But then these days everyone seems to be more of a commiee than Buddha babu). Tyler Williams denounces the Iraq invasion, believes that the democrats won because the American public is tired of a disastrous war, thinks that the economic reforms of the Indian government are bypassing the rural poor and in fact proudly proclaims that he was one of those raising a black flag against the PM last year at the JNU.
So why am I gloating about an American who believes in Communism? Simply because of the paradox I touched earlier. Tyler Williams won an election (something that most communist nations never experienced during their years of Red Raj), in a foreign country (a rare occurrence in student politics) and that too by proclaiming a line of thinking which if heard by Mr.George W can lead to a revocation of his American passport. Just as the Communist party can ride to power in a democratic India (though only in a couple some states) and exert influence at the centre, so can an American become a student union leader (without any anti-gora campaigns against him) in a student electoral franchise in an essentially liberal Indian university. Walker in a sense has succeeded in a set up which his ideology has historically stood against and that too without any racial or national prejudice. In a sense, it only highlights the inclusiveness of democracy and the wide and sometimes odd examples it can throw. Walker’s success thus may be seen as a vindication of giving the people the power to choose… and perhaps the final nail in the already decaying coffin of Soviet communism…and perhaps also a timely reminder to Mr.George W, a reminder that policy making is more about of achieving consensus amongst diverse opinions rather than using a bulldozer to swamp over them.
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Tyler Walker presents a very interesting and humorous paradox in an equally complex place. The JNU is one of India's most respected universities. It the regarded widely (and not incorrectly to a great extent) as the fountainhead of intellectual thinking in Delhi. It wouldn’t be unfair to call it the India International Centre of the educational institutions, where if you don’t have an opinion you are wasting your and other people's time.
But it has been equally notorious for being politically dedicated to the communist bent of thinking. The Student Union has been a communist bastion since decades and is a training ground for future politburo members. It has had its tough times, most notably during the tenure of the previous NDA regime when it got labeled as a 'madrasa' by the motor mouth of Praveen Togadia of the VHP. It was again in the news for the wrong reasons when last year the PM's speech at the university was disrupted by the Communist union members who raved and ranted and carried black flags. During this day and age, it is safe to say that if Lenin was to be reborn, he would like to land in India and contest student elections at the JNU for it is only there that he stands any chance of getting his ideas heard.
In this red fort now comes an American – the country, the economy, the very idea which is an antithesis to the Communist manifesto. You would think that Tyler Williams is another one of those young American hippies attracted to the ethnic and rural chic of India; one of those goras who landed up to learn Hindi and would gush about the rich diversity, spiritual beauty and other similar things about which India was noticed before the reforms and software came along. But taken at his words Williams is none of that. He is simply put – a communist who happens to be an American. In fact if you hear him speak about the economic policies of Manmohan Singh or the foreign policy of George Bush, you would think that he is more of a commie than even Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. (But then these days everyone seems to be more of a commiee than Buddha babu). Tyler Williams denounces the Iraq invasion, believes that the democrats won because the American public is tired of a disastrous war, thinks that the economic reforms of the Indian government are bypassing the rural poor and in fact proudly proclaims that he was one of those raising a black flag against the PM last year at the JNU.
So why am I gloating about an American who believes in Communism? Simply because of the paradox I touched earlier. Tyler Williams won an election (something that most communist nations never experienced during their years of Red Raj), in a foreign country (a rare occurrence in student politics) and that too by proclaiming a line of thinking which if heard by Mr.George W can lead to a revocation of his American passport. Just as the Communist party can ride to power in a democratic India (though only in a couple some states) and exert influence at the centre, so can an American become a student union leader (without any anti-gora campaigns against him) in a student electoral franchise in an essentially liberal Indian university. Walker in a sense has succeeded in a set up which his ideology has historically stood against and that too without any racial or national prejudice. In a sense, it only highlights the inclusiveness of democracy and the wide and sometimes odd examples it can throw. Walker’s success thus may be seen as a vindication of giving the people the power to choose… and perhaps the final nail in the already decaying coffin of Soviet communism…and perhaps also a timely reminder to Mr.George W, a reminder that policy making is more about of achieving consensus amongst diverse opinions rather than using a bulldozer to swamp over them.
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