The controversy at Ashoka University has once again sparked a debate on academic freedom. This is not the first time professors have resigned from their positions to express their dissent. Renowned political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who was a professor at St Xaviers University, and another professor at IIMC have made headlines by leaving their prestigious jobs over concerns about academic freedom in recent years.
The resignation of Mehta has led to protests by students and criticism from respected scholars around the world. Mehta has been consistently challenging the ruling establishment. In his resignation letter from Ashoka University, he stated that the founders had made it “abundantly clear” that his association with the institution was a “political liability.” It is worth noting that Mehta had already stepped down as Vice-Chancellor of the University two years before resigning as a professor.
In 2016, Mehta resigned from the Executive Council of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library to protest against the marginalization of academic credentials in the selection process of its director. He also quit the National Knowledge Commission in 2006 to protest against the UPA’s decision to introduce numerically mandated OBC quotas in Central institutions, calling it a hindrance to meaningful affirmative action.
A graduate of Oxford and Princeton, Mehta has taught at Harvard, JNU, and the New York University School of Law. He serves on the editorial board of leading academic journals including the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Democracy, and India and Global Affairs.
Following Mehta’s resignation, former Chief Economic Advisor in the Modi government, Arvind Subramanian, also resigned as a professor at Ashoka University. He described Mehta’s departure as “ominously disturbing” for academic freedom, citing the university’s inability to provide space for academic expression and freedom, despite its private status and capital.
Subramanian joined Ashoka in July 2020 as a professor in the Department of Economics. He is also the founding director of the new Ashoka Center for Economic Policy, which focuses on researching policy issues related to India and global development.
In 2016, three professors, Rajendran Narayanan, Saurav Goswami, and Adil Mushtaq Shah, resigned from Ashoka University. They had signed a petition condemning violence over Hizbul militant Burhan Wani’s death and calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir. Although the university claimed it did not force them to leave, emails from the university’s Faculty Council suggested otherwise.
In 2019, Meena T Pillai, a professor at the University of Kerala, resigned from the Central University of Kerala as a mark of protest against the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development’s instructions regarding the choice of theses for PhD candidates. Pillai emphasized the importance of academic freedom and criticized the Ministry’s attempt to limit research areas.
In 2016, Amit Sengupta, an Associate Professor in the English Journalism department at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), resigned from his position in protest against being transferred to another campus. He accused the government of targeting him due to his support for protests over the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula. Sengupta emphasized the violation of academic freedom and autonomy at IIMC in his resignation letter. He also expressed his commitment to standing up for Dalit rights and supporting student protests at JNU and FTII.
