Why Humanities at IITs? Arts Courses Spark Debate on Left Liberal Agenda
Sushim Mukul | 16 September 2025 | India Today
A flyer meant to promote a workshop on 'South Asian Capitalism(s)' at IIT Bombay has sparked a controversy due to the cartoons targeting Indian political leadership and the armed forces. The row has snowballed into a debate over whether humanities and liberal arts courses in technical institutes are a misfit for the "brand IIT", with many alleging that they are being used by the Left-liberal ecosystem to take over premier tech institutes.
The UC Berkeley-University of Massachusetts-Amherst–linked workshop, of which IIT Bombay was a partner, sparked a row after a cartoon in it depicted PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and UP CM Yogi Adityanath under the caption "We Fool You" and Indian security forces under "We Shoot You". The cartoon, a reimagined version of the century-old 'Pyramid of the Capitalist System', forced IIT Bombay to distance itself, saying it had no knowledge of the poster. The premier tech institute said it had cut ties with the faculty behind it…