ACDR has learned of a worrying circular that has been sent to the heads of all centrally funded higher educational institutions by the ministry of education. The ministry asks these institutions to review employees
periodically and determine their suitability for continued service by checking:
1. doubtful integrity
2. ineffectiveness
3. conduct unbecoming of a government servant.
On Tuesday, 15 October, 7 pm Academics for Democratic Rights has organized a virtual discussion led by Dr. S. S. Chakrabarti who is an author of a study on Covid-19 vaccines that has attracted significant recent attention.
We will be hosting a zoom panel discussion on Academic Freedom, CCS Rules and Democratic Rights in Academic Institutes on 9th December 2023 at 11… Read More »Panel Discussion on Academic Freedom, CCS Rules and Democratic Rights in Academic Institutes
Rabindranath Tagore founded Visva-Bharati as an institution of learning in 1921 in a district named Birbhum in the southern part of the present day West Bengal, arguably using a part of his Nobel Prize award money. He gave the name Visva-Bharati very consciously which meant a communion of the world with India and he wanted to create an education system opposing the colonial education system. Tagore wanted his students’ view of society to be informed by internationalism, humanism and universal brotherhood. He viewed the traditional school, bounded by its four walls and weighed down by a rigid curriculum, as a prison. At Bolpur-Shantiniketan Visva-Bharati campus, classes are held in open air. The idea is to be close to nature, where students could define their boundaries of knowledge.
After independence, in 1951 i.e. exactly a decade after Tagore’s demise it was converted into a central University with the Prime Minister as its Chancellor. The university is divided into institutes, centres, departments and schools, spread over a large part of the University city of Bolpur in Birbhum district.
Read More »Attack on Democratic rights at Visva-Bharati University30 June 2023 Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru Dear Prof. Rangarajan, We are a group of scientists and academics. Our group… Read More »Letter to IISc Director
This month witnessed a spate of suicides at institutions of higher learning: IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, NIT Kozhikode, and IIIT Idupulapaya, in addition to another attempted suicide at IIT Madras. This is part of a worsening trend: between 2014–2021, more than 120 suicides have taken place at the IITs, IIMs, and Central Universities, and more than half of these were committed by students belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. In response to the suicide of Darshan Solanki, a first-year undergraduate at IIT Bombay, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has released a statement emphasising the institutionalised nature of caste discrimination at the IITs. The suicide of Stephen Sunny, a postgraduate student at IIT Madras sparked protests that underscored the discrimination that scholars from disadvantaged communities face.
A new report by the V-Dem Institute finds that India has less academic freedom today than it did ten years ago, echoing findings by Nandini Sundar and Gowhar Fazili a few years ago. We quote from their report:
Read More »Monthly Update, February ’23Date: 31 January 2023
We are a group of Indian scientists and academics.
We are dismayed at the censorship of the two-part BBC documentary, “India: the Modi Question”. The Indian government has had the documentary removed from social media under the pretext that it is “undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India”. This justification does not withstand scrutiny and the removal violates our rights, as Indians, to access and discuss important information about our society and government.
Read More »Statement on censorship of the BBC documentary “India: the Modi Question”