Vice President Hamid Ansari said there was an imperative need to defend the universities as free spaces, as independent, critical repositories of knowledge, and as sources of renewal of liberal values that provide avenues of social mobility and equality to people.
[File] Hamid Ansari | AP
“Academic freedom requires a robust tolerance for disagreement and criticism, a willingness to have one’s assumptions questioned, and openness to new ideas that may prove offensive. This tolerance always has the potential to conflict with other virtues and causes, so it needs to be defended repeatedly and vigilantly”, the vice president observed.
As chancellor of the Panjab University, where he delivered the 66th Convocational Address on Saturday, Ansari said a university has to be more than a mere polytechnic. Even in disciplines with obvious professional connections, the university should first aim to build a profound understanding of the discipline, he added.
“The right of dissent and agitation are ingrained in the fundamental rights under our Constitution, which sets out a plural framework and refuses any scope to define the country in narrow sectarian, ideological or religious terms. The ‘national interest’ in this scheme is constitutional rule. This is what Dr. Ambedkar had in mind when he said that,” the vice president stated.
Ansari said that the recent events in our own country have shown that there is much confusion about what a university should or should not be. The freedom of our universities has been challenged by narrow considerations of what is perceived to be ‘public good’, he added.
A university, in his view, has the twin responsibility of providing instruction on matters of intellectual importance and conducting research, questioning and deconstructing ‘social and cultural mythologies’ that circulate and proliferate in any society, especially during phases of change and uncertainty. A university must foster an environment that prizes intellectual freedom, he added.
