Holi was recently celebrated at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. The number of Hindu students at the university has always been small but this has never stopped them from celebrating publicly and with a lot of fanfare.
This year the celebration was special. The administration dedicated a whole week to it. Symposiums and seminars were held on religious tolerance and interfaith harmony. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ali made sure that students from all religions including Hindus, Sikhs and Christians were represented and had an opportunity to share their thoughts.
Against the backdrop of a recent wave of myopic actions by heads of several universities, the news is refreshing. Prof Ali deserves our praise for standing out and standing up for values we can relate to as Pakistanis and as citizens of the global village. Only a few weeks ago the head of a public sector university famously sought to rename the Valentine’s Day, distributed headscarves among girl students and had himself filmed for mainstream TV channels. Others have ordered dress codes and specified the distance girls and boys must on campus.
Such actions tend to promote narrow self-righteousness and intolerance, first on our campuses and later in the society at large. There have been indications that this also hinders teaching and affects learning outcomes. No wonder harassment of fellow students as well as teachers at the hands of extremist groups is the order of the day. A university professor has already been killed in his own office by his student who it has come out had been in contact with a religious party. Extremist elements at the Quaid-i-Azam University too have been opposing celebration of Holi. There have been reports of some of them trying to whip up hatred against the participants and against university authorities. At this year’s Holi students as well as some faculty members sang Sufi songs. Most of the participants were Muslims.
The extremists rage at all things fun, particularly activities recognizing and emphasizing human equality is not entirely unexpected. It is saddening however, if not shocking that the number of people not reacting to it appears to have grown. The QAU Holi was under-reported in the national as well as international media.
There appears to be a pattern to this. The media seems to have a bias towards reporting conflict and controversy, possibly in pursuit of eyeballs and ratings. Unfortunately, the practice tends to cause confusion and chaos in the society. The message of peace, tolerance and religious harmony that the QAU has sought to send out deserves recognition. It is nice to see at the helm of affairs at a public university an educationist whose heart is in the right place. As for the media who are quick to name names when something is amiss, they should also be willing to report good news and give credit where it is due. *