Students gather at venue of cancelled talk, read Devy’s text

Students and faculty at IIT Bombay protest cancellation of lecture by cultural activist Ganesh Devy, reading out his written work and discussing education in India.

Mumbai: A day after the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay cancelled a lecture by cultural activist, literary critic and former professor Ganesh Devy, around 25-30 students and faculty members gathered at PC Saxena auditorium, the venue of the lecture, on Wednesday to register their protest.

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Participants read out 14 pages written by Devy on ‘The crisis within: On Knowledge and Education in India’, which was the topic of the lecture. They also discussed his writing during the two-hour event.

“I am very thankful that I joined this event and got to know Professor Devy’s thoughts on education. The article which was read out stated that education in India has been debated throughout the last two centuries, and practically every major philosopher and social reformer during has taken a stand on this issue. We understood that not a single leader is serious to solve the basic problem of the education,” said a student who participated in Wednesday’s event.

Another student said, “Today, I feel that our knowledge is not inclusive and there is something missing. We learn mechanism but not socialism in our curriculum.” Quoting a line from Devy’s article, the student said, “The challenge before us is not just how to make our education inclusive but also how to make our knowledge inclusive.”

IIT Bombay authorities had invited Devy under the ‘Institute Lecture’ series to deliver a talk. Students and faculty were informed a month in advance about the talk. But on the eve of the event, on January 30, the authorities informed students and faculty members that the lecture was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Sources said that the committee appointed to regulate lectures organised in the campus decided to call off his lecture.