After a gap of nearly two years, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) finally has a new Vice-Chancellor: Badri Narayan Tiwari, former Director of the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute in Uttar Pradesh and author of “Republic of Hindutva: How the Sangh is Reshaping Indian Democracy”. Prof. Tiwari has long been an apologist for the RSS-BJP’s ideological project. He speaks admiringly of the appropriation of tribal deities and the Hinduization of oppressed minority communities, describing these tactics as “masterful political strategy.”
He finds the communal polarization of the Indian electorate through organized, state-sponsored violence “fascinating.” Another intellectual who observes society like an entomologist studies insects, carefully documenting and analyzing, while never daring to take a political stand. “He is a serious academic; he will remain neutral,” some say. Serious about what, other than preserving his own career? Neutral in the face of rising fascist assaults on campus democracy and the repression of students? How admirable indeed!
There is little to expect from such academics. Their role is to lend a veneer of scholarly legitimacy to the brutal dismantling of public education. They provide intellectual cover while the state wages war on the idea of the university as a democratic space. This step is part of the Sangh Parivar’s broader project of fascist infiltration into the education system, aimed at eliminating the remaining democratic spaces on campuses. The students of TISS must organize and intensify the struggle for their democratic rights. We must remember that our education, our leisure, and our freedoms have been made possible by the long struggles of the working masses across this country and around the world. We owe it to them to fight.
To quote Bertolt Brecht: “Your science will be valueless, you’ll find, And learning will be sterile, if inviting, Unless you pledge your intellect to fighting Against all enemies of all mankind.”
— Disha Students’ Organization
