The attack on Harvard is attack on knowledge, and the very idea of America | Vijay Kumar

Trump has, literally, declared a war on Harvard and other Ivy League institutions. The freezing of 2.2 billion endowments funds of Harvard and the threat to withdraw the tax-free exemptions will annihilate the autonomy of Harvard and other universities. In fact, the attack on Harvard will negate all that are positives about America.

UNIVERSITY’AUTONOMY--- a sine qua non FOR LIBERAL DEMOCRACY

University is a crucible for production of knowledge. University is an arena where knowledge is produced, debated, contested, and in the process, gets rejected, modified, refined and reproduced. This presupposes absolute freedom in college and university campuses. It is university’s unfettered prerogative to decide whom to admit and what to teach. It is not for the government of the day to dictate what to teach. That is why universities are granted autonomy, as there is robust culture of freedom of speech and expression in the campuses. The right to agitation by students is an integral facet of this autonomy. Any interference with the independent functioning of university will debilitate the very foundation of liberal democracy.

IVY LEAGUE----FOUNDATIONAL PILLARS FOR AMERICAN POWER

The all- round progress of America, culminating in its emergence of the most powerful, developed and rich country, after the Second World War, is underpinned, immeasurably, on great contribution made by IVY league institutions, and Harvard being the predominant of them. The sheer numbers of Nobel laureates in all fields: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, Literature and world peace are testimony to this. The Harvard, too, has produced galaxy of geniuses in different fields, who were honoured with Nobel Prize. In fact, in Princeton University, another prestigious Ivy League institution, a special parking is reserved exclusively for Nobel Laureates. As Ivy League institutions are foundational pillars on which greatness and power of US rest, any attack on them will only be detrimental to US’s interest.

IVY LEAGUE--- A FOUNTAINHEAD OF SOFT POWER

It is these Ivy League institutions which produced great amount of knowledge and innovation that made America a great technological and military power. But the Ivy League institutions are also font of production of soft power through excellence in humanities and literature. I have been arguing for more than 30 years that US won the cold war against erstwhile USSR, not on the strength of military prowess, but on its soft power. In respect of hard power, the results were mixed one. Whereas Vietnam War was an unmitigated disaster for US, Afghanistan’s misadventure turned out to be an Achilles’ heel for USSR, eventually leading to its disintegration and collapse of communism. The soft power of US emanates from three sources: first, complete autonomy of IVY league institutions, second, absolute freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under first amendment and its robust enforcement by the US judiciary, especially by the Supreme Court, and third, Hollywood and Music Industry.

RESURRECTION OF GHOST OF MCCARTHYISM

The mayhem unleashed by Trump Administration is not entirely unprecedent; nor is it unique in US. The dictators and authoritarian governments of all hues, world over, are afraid of the soft power of the State. In America, it happened during Joseph McCarthy era when US administration during presidency of Eisenhower, in early phase of cold war, was paranoid by the very word, “communism”. All sorts of left literatures were banned and seized. But McCarthyism and its terror were interrogated boldly by the Supreme Court, especially during Chief Justiceships of Earl Warren. Similar efforts to destroy the independent functioning of universities and other educational institutions are afoot in India under conservative and right-wing Modi GOVT.

Today, there is recrudescence of McCarthyism with more sinister intensity with the return of Trump in White House in November 2024. As the Supreme Court is packed by 6 to 3 majority of conservative justices – three of them: Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett were appointed by Trump in his first term – It is not clear that attack on soft power of US by squeezing the endowment of Harvard and other universities would be interrogated effectively by the Supreme Court. However, of late, the sign of Justice Amy Coney Barrett shifting from right to middle could be discernible, and this provides flicker of hope that the challenge to Trumps order by Harvard may succeed in the Supreme Court. This hope is further brightened by the fact that overwhelming majority of US Supreme Court justices have been and are alumni of Harvard and Yale. Even in the present time, 4 out of 9 Justices: Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Elena Kagan (appointed by Obama), Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (the first black woman is a last appointee, appointed by last president Joe Biden) and Chief Justice Jhon Roberts are product of Harvard. Except Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who studied in Notre Dame Law School, rest of the four justices, namely Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Sonia Sotomayor (appointed by Obama), Justice Clarence Thomas (oldest Justice and second black in US history, appointed by Bush Sr) and Justice Samuel Alito (appointed by Bush Jr) obtained their Law degree from the Yale Law School.

HEROIC PUSHBACK BY HARVARD AND ITS PRESIDENT

It is heartening that Harvard and its president, Alan Garber, are standing up against bullying of Trumps, and Yale, another high-profile IVY league institution, is following suit and other universities may emulate them. The association of American University, in act of solidarity, has joined the Harvard fight against Trump Administration. On the other hand, Columbia University, which was the epicentre of protest against Israel’s attack on Gaza, has buckled under pressure.

LIBERAL SOLIDARITY----AN IMPERATIVE NEED

The return of Trump has marked the most lethal attack on liberalism. Liberal intellectuals and scholars from all parts of the globe, including India, should rise to challenge and come to the aid of Harvard and other IVY league institutions. Martin Luther King’s memorable exhortation that “injustice anywhere is attack on justice everywhere” must become the rallying slogan for all the liberal intellectuals of the world. In these days of internet and AI, the production of knowledge cannot be confined to particular country.
Therefore, attack on knowledge by squeezing the very source of funding of the Harvard and other universities by Trump administration is attack on the knowledge everywhere and must be resisted, not only by Harvard professors and Students, but by all liberal intellectuals across the globe. It is encouraging that Barack Obama, who was the president of the Harvard student union, has come out with spirited defence of Harvard and he needs to be emulated by other quondam presidents, especially by Bill Clinton, who was in forefront in opposing Vietnam War, when he was in Yale Law School.

ENDURING LEGACY OF HARVARD AND OTHER IVY LEAGUE INSTITUTIONS

Harvard is older than America and will pull through the assault on its autonomy by autocratic and megalomaniac Trump, who will be at the helm for less than four years. One of the beauties and salient features of American Constitution, after historic 22nd amendment, is that the President can be the occupant of the White House only for two terms, lasting maximum eight years, whereas the justices of the Supreme Court are appointed for life terms. Likewise, Harvard and other Ivy League institutions are in existence from centuries and had survived the horror of McCarthyism, and will endure in their glory much beyond the transient political majority of ephemeral tenant of the White House.

(Author: Vijay Kumar
senior advocate
supreme court of india
and author of recent book
the theory of basic structure:
saviour of the constitution and democracy)