New Delhi: On Friday (August 14), two realities unfolded right before the Independence Day, when the doorbell of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) professor emerita Zoya Hasan rang, and when goons and police met each other outside Delhi’s Sardar Patel Vidyalaya (SPV).Hasan, who was on her way to SPV, expected the teacher picking her up to be at the door. But to her surprise, a senior security in-charge and a senior teacher from the school, stood outside deeply regretful and apologetic that her talk as chief guest on ‘pluralism’ had been cancelled. The apology was not owed to a logistical or technical glitch. But it was rooted in the ruckus that the goons protesting against the talk had caused outside the school established by the Gujarat Education Society in 1958. Hasan confirmed to The Wire that she was invited by the school a month and a half ago, and she warmly accepted the invitation, and several emails have been exchanged until 8:30 am today. She said that the school told her it was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which created chaos.Meanwhile, sources told The Wire that at least “10-15 VHP goons” had assembled outside the school yelling slogans for cancelling Hasan’s talk.Soon, they were outnumbered by the police, which was not called by the school, The Wire has learnt.According to sources, the police went inside the school premises and told the principal and the administration that they must cancel this programme saying it would be a threat to professor Hasan’s security. Also read: Questions on Imo App, SIR: Bengaluru Police Targets, Beats and Detains Bengali Speaking MigrantsThe principal and the teachers reasoned with them and said if the police thought that there could be a threat, they must take the initiative to escort her into the school and make sure the programme flows smoothly. But the police, despite these requests, maintained that if anything happened then the school would be responsible; leaving SPV with no option but to cancel the talk. Several alumni, concerned citizens and journalists took to social media condemning the incident. Jayati Ghosh, development economist and a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, raised important questions about the whole incident. Ghosh told The Wire, “Who called the police? How come there were suddenly huge numbers of policemen then? Much larger than the number of protestors, I think the point is, that even a topic like pluralism is seen as such a threat, by the Delhi police, which is directly under the Union home ministry and that too is particularly remarkable, because Professor Hasan is known for very balanced and moderate positions, in which she carefully assesses, you know, both sides of arguments, and then comes to a conclusion.”The function, however, moved on with Gujarat Education Society (GES) president and school alumna Shveta Kalyanwala replacing Hasan, with the student choir singing Khaak-e Hind, a celebrated poem by Pandit Brij Narayan Chakbast. The poem begins with the famous line “Aiy khaak-e-hind teri azmat mein kya gumaan hai” (O soil of India, what doubt is there in your greatness). In a conversation with The Wire, VHP’s Vinod Bansal did not confirm the presence of members of their organisation at SPV, adding that he would “find out more and tell us in half an hour”.We are yet to hear from him. While initially sources at the school spoke of persons from the VHP, subsequently, teachers said they themselves had not seen any such persons.A formal statement from the school is awaited to confirm exactly at what level there was “pressure” to cancel the talk in this hurried and unprecedented fashion.The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat), a Delhi-based cultural organisation, condemned the cancellation of Professor Hasan’s address. It said in a statement that the incident reflects the police’s “surrender” to Hindutva groups and a serious threat to freedom of expression and India’s pluralist values. “The police, instead of dispersing the disruptors, forced the school authorities to cancel the talk,” said the statement.“Sahmat stands with the students, teachers and management of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya who stood their ground in the face of the surrender of the police before the VHP,” it said.Since July 1, SPV has been facing security threats as well.The school informed parents that it received a security threat after reopening following the summer vacation on the very first day. Again, on August 3, a similar threat surfaced.Naina Dayal, who teaches history at St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and also studied at SPV in the 80’s and 90’s recalls, “The school admitted students from a range of backgrounds – from different regions of the country, and different religious communities, as well as a small number of mixed-marriage children. We celebrated the festivals of the varied groups that were represented in the institution and sang songs in Indian languages we could not understand; in the early years of our schooling, before we started carrying our own tiffin boxes, the institution provided mid-day meals that included dishes from different parts of the country; some of us also reluctantly learnt an Indian language other than our own.”“We elected our representatives, and a third of them were girls. Sardar Patel Vidyalaya took its role in the task of nation-building very seriously – it attempted to nurture the ideal of ‘unity in diversity’ in a small space in New Delhi, and to create citizens committed to the values of the Indian constitution,” she says. Further, she adds, “This was, of course, when words such as ‘nation-building’ had a somewhat different, more benign, meaning. Even then, I think a lot of the teachers were fairly conservative, to use a mild term. But the principal and some truly remarkable teachers really made a difference – they pushed us to ask questions, to think for ourselves. But now, we live in a different India, so what is happening there is probably a reflection of what is happening everywhere”In October 2022, 237 former students of SPV wrote to the school’s principal and the Gujarat Education Society, which runs the institution, opposing the decision to invite Union home minister Amit Shah as the chief guest for the school’s celebration of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Jayanti.In the letter, the alumni argued that Shah’s presence was incompatible with the school’s commitment to constitutional values, pluralism, democratic debate and dissent. They said that inviting a senior political figure at a time of growing polarisation, hate and violence risked undermining the ethos that SPV had instilled in its students. The alumni mentioned that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s efforts to appropriate Vallabhbhai Patel’s legacy overlooked this history. They said Shah, as a senior BJP leader, represented politics fundamentally at odds with the values associated with Patel and taught at SPV. The letter emphasised that students at the school were encouraged to celebrate different festivals, question prevailing ideas, engage in debate and develop respect for diversity.“We, alumni, have always pushed back when there’s something like this. If the school stands by professor Hasan, they must apologise publicly,” another alumni told The Wire.This article was updated with VHP’s Vinod Bansal’s take on the issue and republished at 7.55 pm on the same day.