The Tata Institute of Social Sciences has decided to shut down four centres, citing a funds deficit of ₹5.11 crore, with the UGC not releasing funds over the last year. However, the choice of the centres — Centre for Excellence in Human Rights Education; School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance; Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies; Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies — raises a few questions. These areas of study have recently gained recognition in central universities as part of an effort to promote inclusion and diversity in the discourse on rights and entitlements.

Courses on women’s studies and centres on social inclusion are now a part of numerous institutions teaching law and the humanities. While it may well be true that TISS is stretched for resources, the decision to shut down precisely these centres sends a larger message that such disciplines could be on the chopping block in other institutions as well. The Centre should spell out its reasons, before critics conveniently attribute such moves to ‘majoritarian or patriarchal bias’.

The TISS episode is also suggestive of a broader bias against the humanities, and in favour of technical and management education. The New Education Policy 2016, and the reports of the National Knowledge Commission before it, betray this overly instrumentalist bias — of promoting only those streams that are supposed to have tangible job creation potential and economic worth. But isn’t education supposed to be about promoting critical thinking, which stems from a broader awareness of history, law, politics, society and the arts? It is heartening that the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science are interested in an inter-disciplinary approach, but this needs to be encouraged. Engineers, managers and bureaucrats who know little else — and there are many of them — can become cannon fodder for political forces of the day.

A Srinivas, Senior Deputy Editor

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