Last Friday, after a week of wrangling with university authorities for permission, students of Calcutta’s Presidency University went ahead and held an open screening of the 1992 documentary, Ram ke Naam. Anand Patwardhan’s documentary chronicles the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s campaign to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya where stood the Babri Masjid, and the communal violence that followed thereafter.

Ram ke Naam was originally scheduled to screen at Hyderabad Central University (HCU) on August 20. But the screening was interrupted and the organisers detained by police. Police were acting on the complaint of the university administration that the organisers had not secured requisite permission. The organisers countered saying the administration had abruptly withdrawn permission. Says Kalpok Guha, a second-year student of Presidency and one of the organisers of the screening, “We [at Presidency] have taken this initiative in solidarity with the HCU students.”

Since 2014, this kind of censorship of campus events has become common. National president of All India Students Association or AISA, Sucheta De, says, “In HCU itself, in 2016 the screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai, a film on the UP riots, was vandalised by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP. Rohith Vemula was one of the organisers... The first term of the Modi government began with the ban of the Ambedkar Periyar Study circle [an independent student body of IIT Madras].” She goes on to talk about “the muzzling of voices on campus” — the “institutional murder” of Vemula, the arrest of the then Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar for protesting the execution of Afzal Guru, the attack on students and staff of Ramjas College regarding a seminar invitation to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid — ABVP activists were allegedly involved in.

Says Sucheta, “In all of these, ABVP, in spite of open violence, has been shielded by the administration. Instead, those at the receiving end of violence were called anti-national.”

Arun Kumar Maiti, dean of students at Presidency, however, tells YOU, “We cannot promote any programme or assist students in promoting a programme which is in favour of any political ideology or against another ideology... A film like this hampers the sentiments of one political belief and promotes another; we cannot allow that.”

Ram ke Naam got the National Film Award for the Best Investigative Documentary in 1992. Says Devtanu Raha, a postgraduate student of history, “This film is not being endorsed by any political group, though it might have political resonances. It is the perfect time to screen it because of what is happening in the country.” He talks about how the Presidency campus has a culture of discussion and debates, and how now that is being suppressed. “Months ago, we organised a seminar on Kashmir and there were no issues. But during this screening, we had to face problems,” says Devtanu.

The original plan was to screen the film at the portico of the main building, but the venue had to be changed an hour before screening. Kalpok says, “Power connection was snapped. We had to shift.” But earlier that week, the screening at Jadavpur University, organised by the department of film studies, went off smoothly.

When asked to comment, Maity went on to elaborate permission protocol. He said, “If a particular department had wanted to screen an academics-related political film, it would have been allowed.” He said there are “democratic spaces” in the campus, such as the badminton court — where the open screening was eventually hosted. He said, “You [students] have every freedom to express opinions or ideologies but at the same time you should not harm others or show a film that may cause damage.”

Sourav Chattopadhyay, an undergraduate student of English at Presidency, feels such incidents offer students a chance to come together. Devtanu shares how juniors and classmates helped circulate posters, collect funds to rent microphones, projector, and supported their fight.

He says, “Ram ke Naam is also an academic documentary that helps understand the history of Babri mosque demolition. The fact that the permission to screen it was not given clearly shows how academic institutions and states are afraid of any kind of criticism and opposition that can raise certain question among the youth.”

Says Kalpok, “As students, we have the leverage of looking at issues through multiple lenses before forming an opinion; the walls of Presidency have always provided its students with an ambience conducive to free thought, free from the shackles of the stereotypes the State wants to enforce…”

Chandrika Guha, second-year student of political science at Presidency feels the incident “is disheartening”. She says, “I have heard from my seniors that this film was screened four times in 2014.” Kalpok says, “Presidency University is known for its progressive nature and free thinking. The refusal of permission for screening a national award winning documentary against communalism is another example of how freedom of speech is being curbed and democratic spaces are attacked.”

On Friday last, around 200 students gathered at the indoor badminton court of Presidency. As Ranjit Sur of the Association For Protection of Democratic Rights and Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay, a former professor of Jadavpur University, opened the screening with words of support, the students started to clap. On screen, a cityscape and a nasal voice said: Mitron, hazaron saal baad, ye aapki janta dharm ki ore karvat badli hai... Friends, after thousands of years people are awakening to religion.” The sheer gold of the September sun poured in through the skylights.