The Reign of Unfreedom: IIT-Bombay & the cancellation of the Dr Ganesh Devy lecture
Abhay Kumar | 05 February 2024 | Sabrang India
After the dawn of Independence, Tagore was recognised as the national poet and his work was made an inseparable part of the school syllabus by the political elites as a symbolic expression of gratitude to him. But when it comes to imbibing the true message of Tagore in free India and respecting freedom of expression and civil liberty, the establishment of “democratic” India has often faltered. While the previous secular governments discouraged critical voices on several occasions, the current BJP-led regimes have gone far ahead in crushing dissents.
The latest victim of Hindutva wrath is Professor Ganesh Devy. A former professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Prof Devy, a renowned cultural critic and rationalist thinker, was scheduled to deliver a lecture at IIT-Mumbai on Wednesday. A recipient of the Padma Shri, Prof Devy’s lecture was finalised months ago and he was all set to speak on “The Crisis Within: On Knowledge and Education in India”. The students and faculty members of IIT-Mumbai were eagerly waiting to feast on an intellectual interaction with him. But at the last movement, they were shocked to be informed that the lecture had been cancelled by the administration due to “unforeseen circumstances”….