This event is co-sponsored by the Center for South Asia and the Ambedkar King Study Circle. 

Synopsis
Universities are institutions of education and intellectual growth where young minds are nurtured in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and debate. But many well known universities in India in the last few years have been subjected to thought control, restrictions and social discrimination by the administration and the government. Unfortunately, much of this discrimination is meted out to students and staff belonging to India's marginalized communities, women, and those with liberal and left ideology - identities that the current ruling party and its ideologues have traditionally loathed and often suppressed. Persons with a particular ideology have been appointed as heads of most institutions to curtail academic freedom while funding and scholarships are cut down for deserving candidates.

But the students are not taking such fascism silently. They are protesting against the closing down of democratic spaces and the muzzling of voices in many universities. The prejudice against students of certain 'low caste' had been so drastic that a few students such as Rohit Vemula (Hyderabad) even committed suicide, giving rise to a further heat in the students' protest in many more institutions. Unfortunately, much of India's mainstream media, kowtowing the ruling party's line, has run campaigns to malign the protesting students. While the students' unrest continues in many cities, this film travels to some seven Indian universities (including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad Central University and Banaras Hindu University among others) to record what the students and some teachers have to say about how their freedom is being curtailed, and how this movement will not die until they bring some change of perception about the rights of the underprivileged. The film also explores a general decline in the production of knowledge in Indian universities, as enumerated by eminent scholars such as Romilla Thapar, Irfan Habib, Vivek Kumar and Ashok Vajpeyi, among others. Learn more

About the filmmaker
Yousuf Saeed is an independent filmmaker, author and archivist based in New Delhi, India, producing documentary films and writings on South Asia’s shared culture and arts since 1990. His most prominent films—Inside Ladakh, Basant, A Life in Science-Yashpal, and the Train to Heaven—have been shown at numerous film festivals, academic venues and on TV channels. Yousuf also worked for Encyclopedia Britannica (India) as the Arts Editor. He has been a Sarai Fellow (in 2004), the Asia Fellow (in 2005–06) and the Margaret Beveridge Senior Research Fellow (at J.B.Media Resource Centre, Jamia Millia, New Delhi, in 2009). Saeed's feature length documentary film Khayal Darpan (2006) about the state of classical music in Pakistan has been shown at numerous international film festivals. He is the co-founder and project director of TasveerGhar.net, a digital archive of India’s popular visual art. Saeed wrote and published an illustrated book Muslim Devotional Art in India (Routledge, 2012/2019) that explores the history of Islamic poster art in India. Yousuf regularly makes lecturing tours in India and abroad. Through much of his recent work, he tries to document and present the pluralistic and shared cultural traditions, music and arts in India. He continues to work on several new documentary films as well as writing projects. Learn more

The screening will be followed by Q&A with Director Yousuf Saeed.