Thought Police

Are Indian universities turning into suffocating spaces where constant censorship and surveillance is leaving no room for protests or dissenting voices?

- Apeksha Priyadarshini

MORE than a century after French philosopher Claude Helvétius published Essays On The Mind (1758), Evelyn Beatrice Hall, an English writer, narrated a particularly striking anecdote about the opposition the book faced in its time. Such was the outrage that critics took to burning its copies publicly, she notes in her 1906 biography. "What a fuss about an omelette!" François-Marie Arouet—better known as the French philosopher Voltaire—had remarked upon hearing of the incineration. The book by Helvétius may have failed to impress Voltaire. But his persecution for writing it made a mark on him. In Hall's words, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" became Voltaire's attitude.

In 'new' India, Voltaire is passé. The ethos of the injustice he felt at the persecution of a fellow philosopher has been thrown out of the window. Now, those studying works like his are told by their universities that “Activism and a Liberal Arts University are not joined at the hip”. Academics and intellectuals, having anything to say that is remotely critical of the current regime, are wilfully thrown under the bus by their own institutions. Worse, institutions now lead the mob hounding individuals who exercise their right to free expression—a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution.

In May this year, Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a professor of Political Science at Ashoka University, Sonipat, was arrested by Haryana police for writing two social media posts relating to the India-Pakistan military conflict in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in April. A response that Ashoka university’s co-founder, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, wrote when he was held accountable by an alumnus of the institution for not standing behind Mahmudabad, gave rise to a heated debate on where dissent stands today in the country.