When Universities Stop Being Temples of Knowledge The Rising Darkness Against the Indian Constitution

Once upon a time, the universities of India were sanctuaries of reason the very places where truth, science, and intellect met in harmony. Today, however, a dark cloud looms over these institutions. The poison of intolerance is seeping into young minds, and organizations like ABVP and similar ideological fronts are planting the seeds of hatred, violence, and religious fanaticism in spaces meant for dialogue and discovery.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar once said that “Education is the weapon that can liberate the mind.” But today, that very weapon is being dulled by propaganda. The universities once the guardians of freedom, equality, and justice are turning into battlefields of ideology, where questioning is punished and conformity is rewarded.

The tragedy is not only the decline of education but the erosion of the soul of Indian democracy itself. The Constitution of India, the world’s greatest document of liberty and human dignity, guarantees every citizen the right to think, to speak, and to disagree. But when the youth the very protectors of the Constitution are blinded by rage, religion, and false nationalism, the democratic flame begins to flicker.

In the name of “patriotism,” students are taught to silence dissent. In the name of “culture,” they are trained to hate. And in the name of “faith,” they are being led away from the light of science and the spirit of Buddha’s compassion.

True religion, as Buddha taught, is not worship of power it is the purification of the mind. “Appo Deepo Bhava” “Be your own light.” But the new politics of campus culture extinguishes that light. It does not teach how to think; it commands what to think. The result is the slow death of curiosity the most sacred essence of education.

Once, universities like JNU, Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University, and Pune University were laboratories of ideas. They nurtured rationalism, humanism, and social reform. Today, they echo with slogans “us versus them,” “nation versus traitor” slogans that drown out logic and kill debate.

Is this the India that the Constitution envisioned?
Is this the democracy for which Ambedkar toiled, for which Buddha renounced his throne, and for which our freedom fighters sacrificed their lives?

The Constitution is not just a legal text it is a moral compass.
It is the living conscience of a civilization that chose knowledge over ignorance, compassion over cruelty, and equality over hierarchy.
Dr. Ambedkar designed it not for one religion, one ideology, or one class but for the liberation of the human mind itself.

He warned us long ago:

“If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, we must hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives.”

But when mobs replace debate, and when slogans replace scholarship, we are no longer using constitutional methods we are surrendering to chaos.

The danger is not external. It is internal.
When universities the heart of national intellect become shrines of blind faith, the entire nation begins to suffocate.
If we do not defend the freedom to think, to question, and to disagree, we will wake up one day in a country where thinking itself is a crime.

The path forward is not hatred, but enlightenment.
We must return to the teachings of Dr. Ambedkar to cultivate the mind, not to corrupt it. As he said,

“Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.”

Let our universities once again become temples of knowledge not battlefields of belief.
Let reason, not religion, guide the curriculum of the nation.
And let every young Indian remember: Our Constitution is our true religion, and our reason is our truest faith.

Only then will the dawn of intellect rise again a dawn where no student is chained by ideology, where no teacher fears truth, and where the light of the Constitution shines forever over the Republic of Ideas called India.