Ashoka University: “Not a liberal leaning but a liberal arts university”

By Shubhankar Mukherjee

‘Public memory is short lived’ they say. The way Ashoka University has been described in the past couple of months certainly proves the point. Caught in the binaries of leftist, anti-national to conservative authoritarian, the University’s true identity – that of a Liberal Education – seems to be recognized by only those who know how things have started and progressed thus far. Unlike other rhetoric out there, I have tried to give the readers a chronological depiction of how things unfolded from the perspective of a student.

I have been an undergraduate at Ashoka University for less than a semester. So, I would like to rewind to a few months prior to our arrival when applicants were greeted by a news report published in the Srinagar newspaper, ‘Kashmir Reader’. The article, titled “Ashoka University students demand plebiscite for Kashmiris” left many of us stumped because of the sheer blatancy of the claim. The article seemed to be based on a petition put out by a handful of individuals on a blog. The Ashoka that we all had applied to was to be a politically unaffiliated sphere of liberal learning. A place where political ideas could be thrown back and forth, without a political intent or motive tarnishing the conversation.

A handful of students, professors and alumni had signed a petition asking the Indian administration to demilitarize the Kashmir valley and host a plebiscite there. The headline, in the process of editorial embellishment that we all have grown accustomed to, gave the impression that the university unanimously backed this provocative declaration, leading to all hell breaking loose. Separatist and Pakistani media outlets picked up this article and added fuel to the fire, spinning it off as a “valiant” attempt on behalf of a nascent liberal arts university to stand up to the “authoritarian Indian regime”, a far cry from what had actually happened.

Most of us -- potential and actual students -- spent the succeeding week embroiled in heated debates online, trying to separate fact from fiction. Extreme right-wingers and Nationalists called us Seditionists, Separatists and Anti-nationals while the extreme left-wingers branded us as Sanghis and pseudo-liberals. A handful of us, in our zeal and passion for a constructive argument, wrote to the authors of the petition, hoping they would see the infallible logic amidst their rain of rhetoric.

We argued that the situation in the valley was not as black and white as they made it out to be and neither is the political milieu. It involved too many geopolitical variables, and elements so nuanced in nature that a briefly-worded declaration of action could never express the truth or propose a solution for the problem. The petition did not demand a plan of action on humanitarian grounds; it made a plea laced with political motive. While our heart goes out to the people of Kashmir, it also bleeds for our soldiers, who -- miles away from the comforts of their homes -- secure the nation’s borders and lay down their lives fighting terror outfits there. Why must agreement with one be synonymous with disagreement with the other?

Quite typically, as most debates on the internet go, positions remained absolute and the situation remained unresolved. Thankfully though, the controversy died down for good, or so it seemed. We moved on to the campus a week later and the academic year commenced, the event but a distant memory and we getting accustomed to the rigors and intensity of a university life.

A few days back, on October 7, an article titled “‘Liberal’ Ashoka University crackdown: 2 staffers quit after signing student petition on J&K” was published on the front page of ‘The Indian Express’, reigniting the flames of the previous feud. The embellishments, the rhetoric, the outcry, the condemnation, all came flooding back into the Ashokan universe. Interestingly, the allegations had done a volte-face. Once accused of being dissidents, the university was now being labeled despotic and authoritarian. In a span of three months, the university had gone from being praised by leftists and condemned by right-wingers to being praised by right-wingers and condemned by leftists!

This is the truth about the sad state of public perception, shaped by the discourse in the media. To be liberal in its most elemental sense means to be open to new ideas, to be accommodating, to be flexible essentially. For people on either extremes of the political spectrum vocally condemning the other end, the concept of ‘liberal thinking’ fails to play a part. If a leftist is as adamant about his or her proposition as a right-winger, then he or she is equally conservative in his or her thinking.

The best way to define an authentic liberal environment is a space where the idea of thesis, antithesis and synthesis genuinely comes into play; where one proposes something, another opposes that, and both come to find common solutions and innovate to form something radically new. This is the liberal sphere that Ashoka University represents. Ashoka is not a liberal-leaning university -- it is a liberal arts university. And this is the point that people fail to understand. Liberal thinking requires a space where thoughts flow unrestricted and are not influenced by ideologies prematurely.

Liberal thinking doesn’t aim to indoctrinate, rather present a multitude of options for the thinkers to choose from. This is precisely why we do not have chapters of NSUI, ABVP, AISA or other politically affiliated unions on campus. We have our own student run parties. Ashoka is a philanthropic effort and unabashedly a meritocracy over anything else. It has a merit-based system for admission and a need-based system for provision of financial aid. Unlike many other private universities, there isn’t any one sponsor who has a say in the matters of the university. Over 80 philanthropists have come together to fund this dream of ours and theirs alike. Academic decisions rest with individual faculty members.

No one has a monopoly over Ashoka. Not a political monopoly, not a communal monopoly, not a corporate monopoly. In a world where it is easy to succumb to taking sides, Ashoka is gloriously apolitical and unaligned.

About the Author:

Shubhankar Mukherjee is a first year student at Ashoka University and plans to major in History and International Relations. He has directed a few short movies and held a TEDxYouth talk on Technological Singularity. He is a dedicated member of Kirdaar, their theatre society and aims to pursue film-making after his education.