Stories
Protect Students, Don't Put IITs on Trial: Navigating Campus Tragedies and Politicization
- •45 student suicides reported across 23 IITs from 2020-21 to 2024-25, highlighting a critical need for intervention and support.
- •The author, as a father, emphasizes the need to protect students from discrimination, bullying, and provide robust counseling mechanisms.
- •As the son of an academician, the author expresses concern over campus politicization, which erodes trust between teachers and students.
- •A prompt, impartial investigation into student deaths is crucial, but the potential for irreversible damage to faculty and institutional trust from unproven allegations is also a concern.
- •The article warns against subverting IITs' core mission of scientific and technological excellence through ideological activism, while acknowledging the need for both IITs and humanities-focused institutions like JNU.
Key Questions Answered
According to official data covering all 23 IITs from the academic year 2020-21 through 2024-25, 45 students were reported to have died by suicide. Other related reports and political statements cite varying figures, such as 53 student deaths during a similar timeframe and 39 deaths reported between 2018 and 2023.
The book referenced is 'The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India' by Harvard University professor Ajantha Subramanian. The author accused the IITs of transforming caste privilege into merit by operating with a structure that innately favored Brahmins and upper-caste Hindus while discriminating against lower castes.
On September 12, 2025, IIT-Bombay hosted a discussion titled 'Capitalism and Majoritarianism: Exploring South Asian Capitalism'. Such campus events have raised questions about how ideological activities relate to the central mission of a premier technological institution.
