Making Sense of the University

'Making Sense of the University is a daring and indispensable adventure in critical thought and historical inquiry. With enormous theoretical power and acute historical analysis, Debaditya Bhattacharya guides us through the history of contradictions that define the university and holds public universities in India accountable for decisive failures of justice and vision. With remarkable acuity, Bhattacharya gives us a way to think about institutional histories and radical democratic theory. This book compels us to understand the university as the institutional support for the desire for what has been unknown, insisting on an affirmative vision that calls for an end to repression and incursion. This book is unprecedented, brilliant, and indispensable.' Judith Butler, author of Gender Trouble
'The university is commonly thought of as the place where 'sense' – that is, things like knowledge and understanding – are produced. This provocative and intensely argued book invites us, instead, to 'make sense of the university' itself at a time when universities are under attack in much of the world. Structured as an interrogation of the idea of the public university and its relationships with community, secularity, solidarity and freedom, this book will not only intrigue and challenge but also inform and inspire anyone who has thought seriously about higher education and its institutional frames.' Satish Deshpande, author of Contemporary India: A Sociological View
'Why are universities being destroyed everywhere? This relentlessly thoughtful and innovative volume offers answers. Political and historical analysis are artfully combined to identify ways in which the university (and the idea of public good on which it depends) can be revalued, defended and salvaged. The argument exemplifies a strategic view of knowledge and knowing to which it points. This is a major intervention that deserves to be influential.' Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness
'This brilliant critique of the Indian university is informed by an alternative vision of what higher education might be. It is indeed 'a manifesto for our times' that is a vital read for anyone, anywhere concerned about the future of the university.' Joan W. Scott, author of Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom