‘Admin doesn’t want bad press’: Liberal arts universities are clamping down on dissent

NEW DELHI: “They will cut your resources, defame you, do a character assassination, bully you and physically stop your movement on campus. Similarly to what happened with Rohith Vemula,” said Dalit scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanandan, who has been barred from Tata Institute of Social Sciences ( TISS ), Mumbai campus, for participating in a protest organised by United Students of India in March. Sivanandan was referring to Rohith Vemula who took his own life in 2016 after facing action at the University of Hyderabad.

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At TISS, since last year, many speakers invited for the institute’s annual Bhagat Singh Memorial lecture like Bezwada Wilson, Harsha Mandar, and Aishe Ghosh have received backlash from the administration. The lecture is organised by the independent Students Organising Committee.

“Earlier students or student organisations were allowed to organise talks and lectures within the institutes and call speakers. That sort of freedom has been taken away,” said Lagan, general secretary, Progressive Students’ Front. He does not use a last name.

Not just TISS. “That sort of freedom” has been curtailed and cancelled across liberal arts and social science institutions that once prided themselves on allowing students the freedom to dissent. In February, two students were suspended at OP Jindal University and evicted overnight after a public discussion titled ‘Ram Mandir: A farcical project of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism’ was organised by the Revolutionary Students League at OP Jindal University.

“Liberal arts universities are no longer liberal now and it’s due to the current regime,” said a student from OP Jindal who didn’t want to be named. The vice-chancellor, C Raj Kumar was asked why an institution that once collaborated with Pakistani counterparts to jointly teach courses on the Partition would do this and ban reading circles. He did not respond.

Similarly, Ashoka University saw week-long protests in March demanding the caste census on campus by a student-led social justice forum. Since then, students feel the crackdown from the university has increased. “Previously, there were little crackdowns. Certain bureaucratic hurdles were created for students to slow us down, but it wasn’t up to the extent of suspension or disciplinary action. However, students are threatened with suspension now,” said Insha Husain, a student from Ashoka University.

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‘Witch-hunt’ in liberal arts colleges

Students, rather student-led collectives or groups, at private universities that raised their voice against ‘ saffronisation ’ – a term used to describe the adoption of the Hindutva point of view and ideology – in academic spaces faced a strong backlash from administrations. Groups were banned from campus.

“After the Ram Mandir incident, the administration banned student organisations that politicised the campus space, but only the Left-wing groups, not the right-wing ones. The administration didn’t do anything with the right-wing groups while embarking on a witch–hunt,” alleged a student from OP Jindal Global University.

Husain added that dissent as well as the action taken against it play out differently in private universities where every order comes from the administration. “Unlike public universities, we are not fighting against the state. We are fighting against different sets of people who all have different affiliations,” she stated.

A first-year law student added: “Further, private universities don’t have strong student movements and ultimately the administration has a bent towards earning profit. These universities lack complete vision or imagination of education itself.”

Students across private universities said they feel that public-university students still have a spine to speak against the witch-hunt on campuses but in private universities, even the promise of inclusive education is not ensured. A student added, “Jindal doesn’t even have an Equal Opportunity Cell, or ST/SC cell for marginalised students despite students demanding one.”

Liberal colleges and central government control

Lagan said that students have noticed that the TISS administration’s change in attitude toward students has coincided with administrative posts being filled by appointees who supported the central government. “With these new people, the administration is becoming more harsh on students. This has led to diminishing education spaces overall,” he stated. Careers360 was not able to independently confirm the allegations on appointments; however there was widespread outrage over the appointment of registrar in 2020.

The law student at OP Jindal University added that it’s getting difficult to seek support or talk to each other about the prevailing issues on campus. “For instance, students have died on campus. Some of them were suicides and some of them were not. But the administration never gave clarity on this,” she alleged.

Faculty members are reluctant to extend support, allege students. Husain stated, “They take a sort of neutral or laidback stance on most things and do not support us outrightly because they are also at risk. Though there are a few professors who do support us entirely, the faculty as a whole doesn’t support us when we face action from the administration.”

‘Image of the university’

Many students have noted that the crackdown on students has increased as these universities try to stave off bad press.

After a spate of incidents, including the Ram Mandir incident, faculty member Sameena Dalvai having an FIR filed against her for a class on sexuality and gender, and an event on Israel-Palestine.

Jindal University created “the largest human waving of the national flag” in March this year. Students saw it as an effort to “rebuild the image of the university after the news on Sameena Dalvai or Ram Mandir”. “The entire facade of this human flag formation was put across to get some positive PR in favour of the university,” they said.

Husain agreed that the university administration wants tight control over what is being said about it outside. “Admin doesn’t want bad press. Even during the recent convocation event, the representatives of the student government of Ashoka were called and told not to carry any Palestinian solidarity stickers, in reference to a petition signed by 451 students and 40 members of staff that demanded that the university cut all ties with Tel Aviv University. They were worried that protests or attention like this would have ended up covered in the news, and they wanted to avoid that. They mentioned that it was anti-Ashoka of us to do it,” she said.

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Students said that Ashoka University’s policy prohibits any sort of religious gathering or display. “But the event of celebrating Ram Mandir consecration in January was still allowed to happen. Meanwhile, there was an alternative event which was conducted by the Democracy Collective on screening of Ram Ke Naam’s documentary. During the event, the administration pulled a Muslim girl from the collective and said that this cannot happen. So while the Ram Mandir celebration happened, this screening became a problem for the administration,” Hasan added.

‘Protest is patriotism’

Despite the attempts to curb thought and speech, pockets of resistance continue to exist. To make sure they endure, students demand full-fledged student unions.

“We are currently demanding a students union at Ashoka University, a proper union which represents student demands. The current structure does not have student representation and eventually, students become part of the administration,” explained Hasan.

The recent caste census protest has set a precedent and showed the administration that student mobilisation can happen on campus. She added: “Setting a precedent would help. Because even private universities are not a bubble or echo chamber because the campus does have marginalised students who are on financial aid, who come from marginalised communities.”

At Jindal, students hope that faculty and students can come together to fight the alleged ‘saffronisation’ of academic spaces.

As for Sivanandan, he can’t even visit his campus but has no regrets about what he did. “I have taken a clear and firm stand and have no regret about my participation in the protest,” he added. “Our protest was on education for all. I believe that demanding education for all and protesting is truly a patriotic activity. And it can’t be termed as anti-national.”