 Summary of this article
- The essay argues that education should nurture leadership, critical thinking, and democratic values, not merely focus on market-driven skill development and job placements — a trend increasingly visible in India’s post-liberalisation private education system.
- It highlights how student movements, such as Jayaprakash Narayan’s 1970s movement and the 1990s Mandal agitation, have historically played crucial roles in promoting social justice, equality, and political reform.
- The piece questions why academic institutions often discourage student political engagement, especially among marginalised groups, suggesting that such opposition stems from fear of challenges to entrenched power structures.
“The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” The leadership qualities, the nurturing of confidence and generating solidarity should be the rationale for any academic institution whether it is public or private. The values associated with Eton, both forged within the classroom and outside, helped the British in its colonial enterprise. More recently, Harvard University fought to retain its autonomy amidst the freezing of federal funds. In India, too many institutions are struggling to maintain their academic commitments in the face of statist pressure. |
