This is no doubt why what would be in any other college a minor fracas between the principal and a student has become front-page news and is being studied for signs of where Indian higher education and college culture is going. The facts, as far as they are known, are these: a final-year student named Devansh Mehta set up, with three others, an online magazine. This was enough to arouse the interest and ire of the principal, Mr Valson Thampu. In the words of the "one-man inquiry commission" from the faculty that has submitted a report on the issue, the students wanted to keep the magazine "completely independent", ignoring the "legality/ viability" of this since it would "use the name of the college and the weekly also aimed to write about college affairs". It is important to note that it is the independence of the weekly that was the casus belli here, and not the interview that Mr Mehta conducted of Mr Thampu for the website, which the latter says was uploaded without his permission. The interview in question makes for entertaining reading in context. It is full of complaints about how "young people" today "want everything on their terms" and reject the "joy of working together", a rather Orwellian description of Victorian discipline. This rejection is, according to Mr Thampu, a "disease".
Once the magazine was in fact published online, without the principal's express permission - in spite of waiting for it, according to Mr Mehta - a series of increasingly loud and noticeable incidents took place. Mr Mehta was suspended by the principal, and forbidden from attending the Dismissal Service, St Stephen's version of graduation; a prize the philosophy faculty had awarded him was cancelled by the principal; Mr Mehta went to the Delhi High Court to demand his suspension be lifted; and the High Court, in what can only be seen as reflecting its view of College as an institution of national importance, prioritised the case and stayed Mr Mehta's suspension order. In the midst of all this litigation and protest, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the chief guest at Dismissal Service, must have felt thoroughly at home.
The greatest harm that this incident has done is to the reputation of St Stephen's College. This is the year 2015. The internet exists. It is difficult for anyone to stop students from expressing themselves about the college and its faculty. If rules framed by the College have been violated, there must also be mechanisms where these can be reviewed in the changed context and the disputes, if any, settled in a transparent manner. A college and a principal that fail to recognise this reality will be considered behind the times. In other words, it only underlines the sense that St Stephen's is little more than a relic of past decades today. If its powerful alumni and its governing body wish to change that, the answer is obvious: its principal and the faculty must become more dedicated to creative expression and educational standards, and less concerned about notions of discipline that date back to 1830s English public schools.