'Kabir' is the voice of rebellion: DU professor

'Kahat Kabir', organised by Delhi School of Social Work on Tuesday, saw students and teachers from DU coming together to raise the "voice of rebellion".

New Delhi: With the Delhi University (DU) campus reverberating with debates and protests over the idea of nationalism, an event here aimed to dispel the language of "hatred" and "violence" through the verses of Kabir.

'Kahat Kabir', organised by Delhi School of Social Work yesterday, saw students and teachers from DU coming together to raise the "voice of rebellion".

"Today what we are seeing outside is a conflict between two languages. One is of Kabir which talks about love, transparency and peace, while the other is about hatred and violence.

"The reason we have gathered here today is to hear that voice... The voice of rebellion which fights for unity and talks about eliminating differences," Apoorvanand, a professor at DU's Hindi Department and the organiser of the event, said.

The venue of the event was shifted to Constitution Club here following the recent turmoil in Ramjas college.

Apoorvanand said it was "unfortunate" that a "campus event" had to be moved outside the premises of the University.

"It is unfortunate that we are forced to do a university campus event here. This tells us about the times we are living in. I wish we could do the event in Ramjas and the verses of Kabir would have reached the entire university.

"But this is happening everywhere. Be it postponing the street-play competition in Khalsa college or scanning the names of the panelists for future seminars. Some seminars are getting cancelled because the panelists are controversial and might say something anti-national," he said.

Also present at the event was professor Manoj K Jha, who said hatred and violence in normal conversations were "never a characteristic of India", and everything should be done to "make sure they never are".

"India has unique characteristics of which we all are proud of. This definitely comes with its own limitations. We have to work on those limitations.

"Violence and hatred have never defined India. I really wonder if Kabir was alive today, where he would stand on this national and anti-national debate," he said.

The event was also attended by renowned folk singer Prahlad Singh Tipanya and his team, who sung and explained some of the famous couplets of Kabir.