Education News

DelhiChurch shadow over St. Stephen‚sThere is much head-shaking and anguish in the groves of academe in Delhi over a decision taken on June 14 by the supreme council of St. Stephen‚s College (estb. 1881), widely regarded as the country‚s premier liberal arts college, to reserve 40 percent of its annual intake of 400 for students from the country‚s 24 million-strong Christian community. Although a minority education institution entitled under Article 30 of the Constitution to reserve upto 49.5 percent of institutional capacity for Christian students, thus far successive liberal managements of St. Stephen‚s have refrained from mandating a formal quota for Christian students, who currently comprise about one-third of the student body. Now the reservation of a formal 40 percent of annual intake for Christian students ‚ and creation of a new sub-quota of 25 percent for ‚Ëœdalit Christians‚ ‚ is widely being interpreted in academic circles and beyond, as an assertion of intent of the Church of North India (CNI) to play a larger role in the management of St. Stephen‚s. Hitherto management of this high-profile college founded in 1881 by the Cambridge Brotherhood ‚ an association of Church of England dons of Cambridge University (UK) ‚ was the province of liberal Christian academics who took pains to highlight the college‚s broad secular ethos and character. But with the supreme council accepting the ‚Ëœvoluntary resignation‚ of St. Stephen‚s principal Dr. Anil Wilson, on leave since January 2007, at its June 14 meeting and appointing pro-Church hardliner Valson Thampu as the new principal, St. Stephen‚s is all set to assert its “Christian heritage” more aggressively and unapologetically. Wilson who served as the college‚s 11th principal for 16 years (1991-2007) was criticised as a secular liberal who had diluted St. Stephen‚s Christian identity.However although he put in his papers on June 14 when he opposed the formal quota and sub-quota proposals, Wilson who is now vice-chancellor of Himachal University (his alma mater) didn‚t go quietly. In a penned 800 word article featured on the front page of the Delhi edition of Times of India (June 19), Wilson questioned the advisability of changing the status of St. Stephen‚s from a Christian college to a church institution as indicated by its new admissions policy. “A Christian institution is at the service of mankind-at-large: eclectic, cosmopolitan and ecumenical in the widest possible sense. A church institution is at the service of the power structures of the political establishment within the church: insular, blinkered, dogmatically sectarian and concerned only about I, me and mine,” he wrote. Like Wilson, influential St. Stephen‚s alumni have questioned CNI tinkering with the college‚s broad liberal ethos. But dalit Christian activists have welcomed the initiative of the CNI establishment to reassert the college‚s Christian identity. “These moves will go a long way in removing the impression that the church runs only elite schools for the rich and powerful without concern for the poor. These revolutionary measures will also go a long way in the empowerment of 60 percent of the…