President Invokes Ancient Universities For Peaceful Culture On Campus
In his valedictory address at International Buddhist Conference in Nalanda, Bihar, the President Pranab Mukherjee invoked the rich heritage of Ancient universities at Nalanda and Taxila. He said that the modern universities need to learn from the ancient universities and promote an atmosphere free of prejudice and violence on the university campuses. The President's call for a peaceful culture in universities comes at a time when there is a raging debate over freedom of speech. "If there cannot be free atmosphere in a university, in an academic institution, then what type of lessons we can give to our students? An atmosphere must be free from prejudice, anger, violence, doctrines. It must be conducive to free flow intellectual persuasions," he said.
Pranab Mukherjee emphasized that education essentially means improvement of the faculties of mind and constant interaction with teachers and fellow students. According to reports in Press Trust of India, talking about ancient universities like Nalanda, Taxila, and Vikramshila, he said that these universities were thronged by great minds in form of students and teachers from all over the world.
He said that these universities were not just centres of learning but were a confluence of the four different civilizations of India, Persia, Greek, and China. The main premise followed at these universities was to promote open discussions. The teachers at these universities encouraged students to ask questions and counter-questions before a conclusion could be drawn which was accepted by everyone.
The President's comments come at a time when there have been incidents of student unrest on the issue of freedom of speech and expression at university campuses at some of the big universities in the country such as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University.
(With Inputs from Press Trust of India)
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