The Idea of the University : Histories and Contexts. /Debaditya Bhattacharya.

Introduction: The University in History: From ‘Idea’ to Impossibility. Part I: Historicising the Contemporary 1. The Vocation of the Public University 2. The Surplus University 3. Perils and Prospects of the Modern University: African and Asian Contexts in a World-Historical Perspective Part II: Understanding Contexts 4. Divide and Educate 5. Of Utopias and Universities 6. Audit Cultures and the Indian University as Credit-Capital 7. Of Feudal Intellectual Capital: The History of the New Provincial Universities Part III: (A)politics in/of the University? 8. Is There a Calling on the Left? 9. The University as Passivity? The Role of Students’ Political Activism 10. The Convergence of Unequals: Struggle for Rights in the University Space Part IV: Reflections and Memoirs 11. Bearing Witness to the University-‘Idea’: Some Personal Reflections 12. Don’t Study, Be Happy 13. The Presidential Transition 14. University: The State’s Kitchen?

This volume traces the historical transformations of the university in medieval Europe and explores current debates on its existence and sustenance in a neoliberal India. It challenges the liberal-humanist ‘ideal’ of academic exchange to inquire into long befuddled debates on the true nature of the modern university.