00:00The images of students at American universities protesting against Israel and for Palestinians
00:10is something that has reverberated around the world and it sparked off a debate about
00:14whether students should be protesting about anything at all.
00:19There are incredibly many voices that have come out and said that campuses are not places
00:23for protest, that students have been sent there by their parents who've paid very huge
00:28tuition fees in order to study, in order to make their careers, make their lives and not
00:33to get involved in politics or protest of any kind.
00:36I find that a very baffling argument because campuses, university campuses have always
00:41been the bedrock of protest, of dissent, of debate and of politics and that's actually
00:47a very good thing.
00:48I would argue that in fact protest is very much a part of any college student's education
00:54and whether you look at the history of protest movements in US universities or even protests
00:59at universities here in India, politics is very much a part of these protests and debate
01:07and discussion and disagreement as well.
01:10Students should be encouraged in fact to protest, to dissent, to talk about current issues,
01:16to debate them and that is ultimately what I feel will shape their futures and their
01:22lives going ahead rather than boxing them into some kind of academic life where there's
01:29really no scope to think beyond one's textbooks.
01:33That's not what university education is about and that's what I take away from these protests in America.
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