By Sidharth Mishra
Delhi University under the current dispensation, led by vice chancellor Yogesh Singh, is facing a dilemma, whether to uphold its autonomous character or make it subservient to the government. This dilemma arises from largely two reasons.
First the university head is not well conversant about the culture of Delhi University. Second the people in his team are not scholars of eminence, who would use their intellectual gravitas to give him the strength to sustain university’s standing.
Delhi University’s growth has mostly been moistened by government grants but the university has always considered itself to be independent of the government and fiercely guarded its autonomy. This has been possible because the people at the helm have been scholars who on the sheer strength of their intellectual metier withstood the aura of government.
This tradition could be traced to the pre-independence era, when Sir Maurice Gwyer, one of the best known vice-chancellors of Delhi University, gave the cultural shape to the 100 years old academe. It’s mentioned in the book titled ‘University of Delhi: 1922-1997’, published on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee in 1997, that when Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow once asked Gwyer to come and see him, the vice-chancellor replied that Delhi University was very pleasant and the Viceroy might enjoy a change of environment by coming over.
This tradition of taking pride in carrying the name and the badge of the university has continued ever since. Today the university leadership acts in a subservient manner not only in private but also in public. The best example of this being that the expensive official vehicles of the university officials carry the sticker of ‘Government of India’ and in some cases also a covered Tricolour on the bonnet of these vehicles.
In one’s four decade long association with the campus, one doesn’t recall ever these university vehicles bearing the ‘Bharat Sarkar’ stickers. The present crop may be suffering from some kind of a complex to not showcase the name of the pristine campus.
Delhi University had begun 100 years ago with some colleges which were largely functioning in the walled city area. It was Gwyer’s dream to have a varsity with a cluster of residential colleges, thus the campus was planned around some existing imperial structures. Almost all the colleges which exist on what’s now called the North Campus, started from the walled city.
One of the unique features of the North Campus is that it’s an open campus, no gates or walls bound the North Campus. Even the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus routes passes through the campus.
The idea was that the campus should remain accessible to all irrespective of community, cultural and ideological ancestries. This has always been upheld by the Delhi University and it has witnessed many a public movements emerging from meetings at the Maurice Nagar Chowk.
Thus the university officials threatening to issue notice to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for visiting and breaking bread on the campus sounded very jarring. When leaders like Jaya Prakash Narayan, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Chandrashekhar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Arjun Singh and many more visiting campus for public meetings or hostel dining halls are part of folklore, university proctor rushing to PG Men’s Hostel to check on Rahul Gandhi’s visit was nothing less than ludicrous.
Somebody like then vice chancellor Deepak Nayyar, on the sheer strength of his intellectual strength, could visit then Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and request that police should not use harsh sections of the Indian Penal Code while booking protesting students. The beauty being that Advani would appreciate Nayyar’s point of view. But then that was another era, another time.
(First Published in The Morning Standard)
