Bound by the Commons of Death

Abstract

Abstract This article springs from a larger project attempting to rethink the university conceptually. It proceeds by resignifying the cardinal registers through which the public university may realize the meanings of its publicness—that is, in its relationship with community, secularity, solidarity, and freedom. The focus here is on the basic theoretical scaffolding for understanding how the university has historically addressed the claims of community. The groundwork for such theoretical reflections is provided by the current policy conjuncture in Indian higher education, faced as it is with a dangerous encounter with the anti–citizenship law protests in 2019–20 and the subsequent impact of the pandemic.