The Indian University: A Critical History

Contents: Introduction: What is the ‘Indian’ University? Part I: Stories of a Making. 1. The Great Ancient Indian Universities: History or Myth? 2. The Long Nineteenth Century: Caste and Collegiate Life in Colonial India. 3. Pre-Independence Youth Movements (1905–47): The Force of Religion and the Making of a Nationalist Student Subject. Part II: Histories of a Re-/Un-making. 4. Post-Independence University Planning (1947–86): The Ideology of Welfare. 5. Reaping Dividends on Discrimination: The Neoliberal ‘Turn’ to the Market (1986–2012). 6. Towards NEP 2020: The Age of the Platform University? Conclusion: The Return to ‘Publicness’: A History for the University’s Futures. Index.

Is there such a thing as an ‘Indian university’? Is there an ‘idea’ of an Indian university? Were universities in India living and breathing products of the soil, or were they conceptual imports from a colonial heritage? What is the relationship between universities in India and the ‘publics’ that have inhabited or are alienated by them? More pointedly, how ‘public’ is the Indian public university?

This volume explores the historical makings of the Indian university as it stands today, by sifting through archives, colonial/postcolonial policies, textual-literary records and political-economic developments. What results is a ‘critical history’ – navigating the force of myth and promise, revolutions and reforms, communities and markets. From the glorification of ancient ‘greatness’ to the riskiness of ‘Platform futures’, this book offers a time travel through one of the most exalted and yet most abused institutions of our age – the university.