With union HRD ministry clarifying that it has not issued any directive to restrict the choice of subjects for research, it is a sort of moral victory for director of Institute of English Meena T Pillai. Her resignation from the Board of Studies of the Central University of Kerala (CUK) which issued the controversial circular, triggered a nationwide debate in media.
Prof Pillai spoke to Gilvester Assary of DC on the controversy.
Q: Your stand seems to have been vindicated?
The Union HRD Ministry has clarified that it has not imposed any restrictions on research topics in central universities. I hope the central university withdraws the controversial circular at the earliest. The issue has been picked up by national media prominently.
Q: What prompted you to raise the banner of protest ?
I have been researching for the last three decades in India, US, Canada and UK. This is the limit that any system can cross. I think such restrictions have come off only in fascist regimes and dictatorial regimes where they wanted to stop younger generations from speaking independently and freely. I objected to the three clauses; priority to national subjects, discouraging research on irrelevant topics and faculty preparing a shelf of projects for the students to choose from. I objected to these clauses and sent in my resignation.
Q: Was the board of st-udies taken on board ?
Board of studies decides the syllabus to be taught in the universities. Till this point in time board of studies across universities in India have a certain amount of freedom to decide upon what will be the syllabus or curriculum like. To take it all away and say that we will dictate to the students as to what they should be doing amounts to insulting the board of studies. There is no point being part of that kind of lip service to research.
Q:Do you think student's freedom is being trampled upon ?
It is the student who decides the topic for research. It is the prerogative of the students and not that of anybody else. For instance if a student wants to do a study on a small community in Kerala, he is free to work on that as long as he convinces the academic body about academic investment. He can work on the subject within the disciplinary boundaries. To decide what the students should be doing is highly undemocratic.
Q: What could have prompted the CUK to issue the circular ?
I don't know what prompted this circular. No other university has come out with anything of this sort. Say for eg the NCERT has taken away the breast cloth revolt chapter. Is that national priority? What is national priority? Is there some kind of agenda that is being implemented as far as education is concerned? May be we will come to know about it during the course of the debate that is currently happening in the public sphere.
Q: Your take on national priority clause ?
A student of mine is working on the rise of reader in Malayalam. The whole process of reading in Malayalam, is it not a national priority? How will a language grow? How will literature grow? How will a culture grow? I mean how will a culture start looking at itself in a different way. How will we talk about history? These are questions that need to be addressed. So who decides national priority?
Q: Have you come across a similar controversy related to research during your career?
It's like an Orwellian nightmare coming true. We never thought that research will reach a point where somebody would be telling what to research on. Moreover with the corporatisation of education, the market interest will come into research. And the market will decide what the students would be researching on.
Q: Are you happy with the way the political class responded to the issue ?
I am glad that Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted against the circular, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan put a Facebook post and Shashi Tharoor spoke against the restrictions. I think the politicians have understood the danger especially in higher education sector. The media played a crucial role in educating the public. Otherwise it would have never reached the public. Media was very alert.
Q: Has your resignation triggered more protests?
The teachers associations have come out against the circular. The opposition against the central university circular has to go forward. The teaching community as well as research community ought to take up the matter in a big way. To say that citizens in a democracy between 21 and 25 years of age do not have the right to think is ridiculous.
