'Are All Liberal Universities Activist In Nature?' A University Founder Asked AI This Question

Ashoka University founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s hollow sermon to his alumnus about the role of liberal arts universities is just a CYA, focused entirely on preventing government backlash.

“Are all liberal arts universities activist in nature?” The founder of one of India’s premier universities just asked Google AI this question and then proudly shared his response in an internal email. I can’t stop laughing.

When an alumnus of Ashoka University wrote to its founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, criticising the institution for its lack of moral courage in supporting Prof Ali Khan Mahmudabad—who was unjustly arrested for a Facebook post—Bikhchandani’s response was hilarious—and partly written by AI. It wasn’t even Chat GPT or Claude or Perplexity. He could only be bothered to ask Google AI.

In the letter, which I read on The Print, Bikhchandani says he went to a liberal arts and sciences college and there was “little or no activism and we got along just fine. In fact, some of us excelled.” I’m rolling on the floor.

I looked up where Bikhchandani went and it was St Stephen’s College in Delhi. Bhai Bikhchandani, the biggest activism in the history of India against the British played out in your college. The first call of non-cooperation came from Gandhi while he was at your college, he returned to India because of your college.

This history is on a government website: St Stephens & Non Cooperation

Your college has seen Naxalism, Maoism, political sloganeering and god knows what else: “China’s path is our path, China’s chairman is our chairman.” This was plastered across your college in 1969-70. See more here: Summer of 69 at St Stephen's

St Stephen’s is no JNU or Jamia but your college was active in the Mandal agitation and the anti-CAA protests.

The name of your college—St Stephens—also came from activism. According to Wikipedia (as bad as Google AI, I know): “The college was named after Saint Stephen, who was adopted by the Anglican Church as the patron saint of Delhi after Christians were reportedly stoned to death during the 1857 uprising, as they were the first Christian martyrs in North India and were stoned, parallels to Saint Stephen were obvious.”

Anyway, the larger point is this. Supporting a professor of your university who was arrested for simply calling out everyday Islamophobia is not activism. It’s basic humanity. And if by doing that you lose some money or some support from a bullying government, so be it. And that’s the crux of the matter.

Bikhchandani’s hollow sermon of a letter to his alumnus about the role of liberal arts universities is just a CYA, focused entirely on preventing government backlash.

Universities run by start-up founders are rolling down the same steep hill of betrayal, all set to crash and burn alongside all the Indian media houses run by big business.

One more funny question Bikhchandani asked and wants his governing body to “take up”: “Can a full-time academic also pursue a political career? In the private sector, we generally stay away from what are termed as “Politically Exposed Persons”. Should Ashoka have such a policy?”

If this criteria of political whitewashing is imposed, Ashoka can say farewell to all the social scientists it employs. Let engineers do the teaching at Ashoka.

The purpose of a liberal arts university is to teach the next generation critical thinking and develop a sense of social responsibility. Even Google AI knows this and tried explaining it to Bikhchandani, but the explanation fell on deaf ears.