New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Faculty members at the Haryana-based Ashoka University have written a letter to the varsity administration flagging concerns over the academic freedom in the institution.
Though the letter, dated August 13, surfaced after varsity’s Economics Department Professor Pulapre Balakrishnan offered to quit the institution in protest over the acceptance of the resignation of assistant professor Sabyasachi Das, faculty members have claimed that it was drafted and circulated for signature before the resignations of Das and Balakrishnan were known.
Das resigned from his job after a controversy erupted over his research paper that suggested voter manipulation in the 2019 general elections.
Faculty members, in the letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor and the Dean, said: “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,” reads the letter signed by 13 named faculty members and 69 others.
“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,” it adds.
“To stifle critique is to poison the life-blood of pedagogy; consequently, it is to damage whatever future our students might have as serious thinkers,” the faculty members said in the letter.
Highlighting the controversy over the research paper published by Das, they said: “Recent events around a paper published by Professor Sabyasachi Das are a reminder that the crisis is an ongoing and deep one, with implications for every academic working at Ashoka University and, for that matter, in India.”
The faculty members noted that it is not a crisis that will “go away by wishing that papers like Professor Das’s 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,” the letter reads.
The letter also highlighted that the “absence of the adopted document for academic freedom and committee on the same” and demanded that decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold until the committee is in place
“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 reads.
“…We ask, too, that the Committee for Academic Freedom, which the document (adopted by the varsity in 2021) had proposed be set up soon, be created immediately as it will bring much-needed transparency and procedural fairness whenever such issues arise,” faculty members demanded.
“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,” they added.
“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 added.
Meanwhile, the varsity’s student ‘government’ (union) also said that academic freedom is the cornerstone of a liberal arts education.
“Without institutional mechanisms to safeguard it, there are grave implications to the protection of stakeholders’ integrity,” the student government of the undergraduate students said on its Instagram page.
“We see time and time again that professors at this University are left with no option but to resign or step down from their position, due to a lack of upstanding support from the administration. Professor Das and allegedly Professor Balakrishnan-two esteemed members of our faculty- assessed the need to resign, clearly denoting the University’s unwillingness to protect academic expression and autonomy,” the student body said.
They pointed out that this has fabricated an environment that restricts scholars to flourish in their pedagogical research and exploration.
“The student body has been steered away from the complete process. Moreover, the administration has shown resistance to explicitly communicate with students, despite numerous attempts to engage. Regrettably, we were made aware of decisions surrounding our University’s matters through acclaimed news websites,” they alleged.
The students demanded that Das and Balakrishnan should be unconditionally offered their jobs back as faculty members and the administration must hold an open town hall with the entire student body where clear answers are provided as to the process that was internally followed regarding recent events and the proposed way forward.
They also demanded that the student body should be diligently informed about the constitution, scope, and functioning of the proposed committee on academic freedom.
“The University maintains complete transparency when discussing and implementing any changes relevant to policies going forward and ensures that student input is accounted for in such instances. This should occur through mechanisms such as the Student Government’s observer status in the Board of Management, open town halls with the student body, and student-facing surveys on changes,” the students added.
