It is by any measure a curious higher education initiative: five new minority universities to be set up under the aegis of the

Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, run as public-private partnerships, and located in five tates of the country that have si!eable minority populations" #he scheme, mooted by Union Minister for Minority Affairs $" %ahman $han, and currently under deliberation by a team of education e&perts led by Indian 'ouncil of ocial cience %esearch chairperson u(hadeo #horat, is still very much at the drawing-board stage" )owever, the announcement by Mr" $han that one of the universities would be set up in rirangapatna and named after #ipu ultan, the iconic *+th century ruler of Mysore who made the river-island his capital, drew the predictable roar of protest from those ,uarters in $arnata(a that have been consistently hostile to the secular and progressive legacy of #ipu ultan" #he )igher -ducation minister in the .haratiya /anata 0arty government, '"#" %avis stated opposition to a 1Muslim2 university named after a 1foreigner2 is not only avowedly communal but misleading too" #he university, if and when it comes into e&istence, will be a minority institution and not be 3ust for Muslims" econdly, though the present government has in the past tried hard to e&orcise #ipu from school te&tboo(s, his contributions to the fight against colonialism is an inalienable part of our history" It is therefore entirely fitting that a centre of higher education to be set up in rirangapatna be named after him" More problematic, however, is the legal and 3urisdictional ambiguity in the very scheme of setting up a string of minority universities" A seven-member e&pert committee under 0rofessor #horat, which is to submit its report on 4ebruary *5, is to consider whether these institutions will be set up under an Act of 0arliament or as autonomous institutions of national importance" As these universities will come directly under the overarching 3urisdiction of the Ministry for )uman %esource 6evelopment, they are clearly incompatible as enterprises based on public-private partnership" Indeed the che,uered trac( record of this model in other spheres is a serious cause for concern" #he achar 'ommittee %eport noted that only four per cent of Muslims in India are graduates, and that the gap between Muslims and other socio-religious categories increases as the level of education increases" 7hile this imposes greater urgency upon the government to address the under-representation of minorities in higher education, a hasty and ill-thought out mechanism runs the ris( of becoming yet another e&ercise in to(enism"