'Free thought within Indian universities is in crisis today'

A group of faculty members of Ashoka University has written to its vice chancellor claiming that free thought within universities in India is in crisis today and demanded that all decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold till the promised committee for academic freedom is in place.

The letter comes following the resignation of assistant professor Sabyasachi Das after a controversy over his research paper which argued that the BJP won a disproportionate share of closely contested parliamentary seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, especially in states where it was the ruling party at the time.

While another professor Pulapre Balakrishnan has put in his papers in support of Das, the faculty members from Economics, Political Science, English and creative writing departments have have written to the governing body threatening a faculty exodus if Das is not offered reinstatement. The faculty members have also warned of stopping teaching till their demands are met.

"Free thought within universities in India is in crisis today, largely because of the near-absolute intolerance of critique. What is critique! It is legitimate disagreement, and comprises the raising of questions that are inextricable, at any given point, from the fabric of a free and healthy society. It is to be distinguished, firmly, from defamation or incitement to hatred or all categories of expression that will not stand up in a court of law or which do not abide by the Constitution.

"To stifle critique is to poison the life-blood of pedagogy, consequently, it is to dam age whatever future our students might have as serious thinkers. Recent events around a paper published by Professor Sabyasachi Das are a reminder that the cri sis is an ongoing and deep one, with implications for every academic working at Ashoka University and, for that matter, in India," the joint letter signed by nearly 100 faculty members said.

The letter noted that it is not a crisis that will go away by wishing that papers like the one by Das will not be written in the future, because that is not a realistic possibility in a working institution.

"It will not be solved by apologies and resignations. It has to be addressed with academic freedom constituting the core of our position with regard to the crisis. Ashoka University drafted and adopted a document for academic freedom in 2021. It has been bewildering to witness events unfold in the last two weeks that are directly related to academic freedom in a way that makes no reference to this document and behaves, to all purposes, as if it does not exist.

"We ask that all responses to the matter of what may or may not be admissible in research and academic practice at Ashoka University proceed from now on according to the guidelines set out in this document, which, rather than any tweet or individual opinion, expresses the university's position on this all-important subject," it said.

The faculty has demanded that the committee for academic freedom, which the document had proposed be set up soon, be created immediately.

"It will bring much-needed transparency and procedural fairness whenever such issues arise. The absence of both are being felt acutely at this moment. It would also prevent, on such occasions, public pronouncements that claim to speak on behalf of Ashoka University of whose provenance almost no one at the university is aware.

"All such pronouncements and decisions about actions to be taken in such circumstances should emanate, after deliberation, from the committee for academic freedom. Decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold until the committee is in place," the letter said.

The university had earlier distanced itself from the paper, "Democratic Backsliding in the World's Largest Democracy" which was published on the Social Science Research Network on July 25 saying social media activity or public activism by Ashoka faculty, students or staff in their "individual capacity" does not reflect its stand.