• How an American college refused to be cowed down

    Author(s):
    Pramod Ranjan (see profile)
    Date:
    2022
    Group(s):
    Race/Ethnicity in Classical Antiquity, Scholarly Communication
    Subject(s):
    Black Panther Party, Academic freedom--Social aspects, Freedom of speech, Dalits--Political activity
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Brockport College, State University of New York, Curriculum and Social Inquiry, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education, Higher education
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/2shp-5k66
    Abstract:
    For the Brockport College of the State University of New York, March 2022 was a period of frenetic activity. The College faced acerbic attacks from White politicians and a section of newspapers. Reason: The College had invited a convicted Black Panther intellectual for giving a lecture. It may be pertinent to mention here that Black Panther was the inspiration behind the founding of Dalit Panther in India in the year 1972. The ideology of the Black Panther was the guiding light of the Dalit Panther. But what happened at Brockport holds significance for India in other contexts, too. Freedom of expression is being mercilessly crushed in the Indian institutions of higher learning. The past few years have witnessed innumerable instances of colleges and universities being bamboozled into cancelling their programmes involving intellectuals opposed to the ideology and the policies of the ruling government. The Indian institutions of higher learning are so weak-kneed that they don’t even utter a word of protest in such cases. In contrast, the Brockport College stood its ground and defended its autonomy even in the face of tremendous pressure mounted by the dominant politicians and groups. No Indian institution of higher learning can respond in this manner. In this article, the writer tries to find that why Indian higher education institutes are so scared? Is it because in the present-day India, the oppressive machinery is very swift and very severe? Or, is it because our educational institutions are much too dependent on the government in administrative and financial matters? Or is it because of the social composition of these institutions, which are dominated by the dwijs? Or is it because of a combination of all these factors?
    Notes:
    This article was written originally in Hindi. THe Hindi version can be found here:https://doi.org/10.17613/3kd0-fk46
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/e4ytu
    Pub. Date:
    29/04/2022
    Journal:
    Mainstream
    Volume:
    LX
    Issue:
    19
    ISSN:
    2582-7316
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    1 year ago
    License:
    Attribution
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