Are IITs to Produce Technology Zombies?

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, the first and the biggest IIT in the country, and the institution that I taught in previously, was in the news recently for the wrong reasons. The dean of students’ affairs sent an email to all students against participating in the demonstration planned by a student body—the Ambedkar Bhagat Singh Study Circle (ABSC) in solidarity with the students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) who were brutally lathi charged on 2 May 2018. Thereafter, the registrar issued a communiqué threatening students against indulging in such activities without the permission of a “competent authority.” Defying these threats when 40-odd students came out for a peaceful demonstration in front of the gymkhana, the authorities unleashed its posse of security forces to forcibly block the demonstration in police style, physically manhandling the students.

The dean’s mail had read: