Page 36 - EW April 2021

Expert Comment

Private varsity

governance pitfalls

SHIV VISVANATHAN

NE OF THE DRAWBACKS OF ACADEMIC Re Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s recent
controversies is that they surface without resignation, one should bear in mind
articulation of genealogy, or context. They erupt
Oas scandal, evoke a few personalities, allow a trail that Ashoka’s financiers have always
of gossip, and fade quickly. The recent controversy around been ambivalent about dissent which is
Ashoka University (AU) has that drawing room flavour. It
will cease to command attention or meaning soon. normative in the university system
The genealogy of Ashoka University can be traced back
to the writings of Patrick Geddes, India’s first sociologist
recognised as the inventor of town planning. Geddes wrote colourful personalities like Mehta to the basic character of
about the modern university in an inimitable way. He ar- universities as intellectual terrain. The threat to emasculate
gued that a university is incomplete without dissenting the autonomy and diversity of the university has been one
academics. The holism of the university as an intellectual of the RSS-BJP combo’s priority objectives.
powerhouse needs the creative power of dissenting per- Against this backdrop, one should not be lulled into be-
spectives. Thus, every Western university system grew by lieving that the regime’s National Education Policy (NEP)
absorbing intelligent dissenting viewpoints within its en- 2020 guarantees academic autonomy. NEP 2020 decep-
vironment. This is precisely the balance that Pratap Bhanu tively promises little streams of administrative and financial
Mehta provided as an autonomous and dissenting force autonomy at the cost of intellectual and political freedom.
within Ashoka University. It comments about diversity and autonomy but regards
In this particular case which forced Mehta’s resignation education as an assembly line process requiring minimal
as vice chancellor in 2019 and as professor of political sci- operational freedom. It also views the structural problems
ence on March 15, one should bear in mind that Ashoka’s of the country’s archaic education system as technical issues
financiers have always been ambivalent about dissent. They unconnected with philosophy and ethics. The university is
should have known it is normative in the university system. reduced to a skilling academy, without any awareness of
Nor is Mehta’s resignation a unique case for AU, pro- the theory of knowledge which is necessary to create new
moted seven years ago with high aspirations. In 2017, knowledge. One has to be aware that functional literacy and
the AU management fired a young lecturer for his public authoritarianism often weave into each other. NEP 2020 is
stand on retaining the special status of Kashmir, claiming an embodiment of such limited vision.
it threatened the university. Even more embarrassing was believe it’s time to call a spade a spade. Dr. Kasturirangan,
the resignation of Prof. Meena Surie Wilson, head of AU’s Ithe architect of NEP 2020, is an influential technocrat
women’s leadership cell. A brilliant professional with deep who has authored two insidious reports. His report on the
roots in Asia and the US, Surie discovered that the cell was Western Ghats challenges the ecological possibilities of
without real content. As she sought to write its curriculum, democracy and NEP destroys the university as an ecology
she discovered the university trustees wanted to use money of plural knowledges. The logic is clear: supporting Mehta is
officially allocated to her department for other purposes. also a challenge to NEP 2020, and the ruling regime which
She challenged it quietly but firmly and chose to resign over has no understanding of the plurality of universities.
the issue in 2018. The integrity and dignity of that protest This is why the university must respond collectively to
should not be forgotten. Mehta’s protest and resignation from AU. While it is indi-
If Prof. Surie challenged the ethical integrity of Ashoka, vidually inspiring, it should focus the attention of academ-
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a formidable public intellectual, be- ics on raising similar questions, especially on the recent
came an example of political and intellectual autonomy, a protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Jamia.
status unacceptable to its founder-trustees, who envisioned What frightens the regime is a prospect of a Shaheen Bagh-
AU as an investment opportunity rather than a truly inde- style protest not just at a liberal Ashoka, but in Delhi and
pendent liberal arts university. The follow-up resignation Aligarh universities and the IITs. If they are added to the
of Arvind Subramaniam, former chief economic advisor of 130-day protest of farmers on the peripheries of Delhi, it
the BJP/NDA government at the Centre who had signed up would expose the mediocrity of the BJP/NDA government.
as AU faculty, highlights this structural weakness. Against this backdrop it is time that academics reinvent
There is a second facet of this controversy that needs un- the university with a rigorous independent evaluation of
derlining. This situation is not peculiar to AU. It is common NEP 2020. The impact of such a project will be unimagi-
to a whole chain of universities ranging from Jamia Islamia, nable. It will challenge the Macaulayite authoritarianism of
Aligarh, Delhi, Hyderabad and JNU which are desperately the ruling dispensation.
struggling for academic and intellectual freedom within an (Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat
insidious political environment. This issue goes beyond (Haryana) and a member of Compost Heap, an academic think tank)

38 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021