Speaking at the Fr Herbert A de Souza Memorial Lecture at St Xavier&rsquo;s College on Thursday, Parliamentarian and author Dr Shashi Tharoor shared his views on the Idea of a University. 
While he drew heavily from the work of John Henry Newman and name-dropped educationist Robert Anderson, the most compelling draw of the evening was the speaker himself. 
His hour-long lecture highlighted how most universities today are &ldquo;under-resourced, and over-regulated,&rdquo; facing threats to freedom of the academic expression so imperative to the development of critical thinking among students. He also touched on the need to balance STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education with the liberal arts; without the humanities, he said, a mind trained only in STEM is more susceptible to falling prey to the &ldquo;fundamentalist binary&rdquo;. 
To paraphrase, he said, that while not all engineers are terrorists, at least in the 1990s, the maxim was that most terrorists happened to be engineers&mdash;clearly a joke to punch home his point, and one that the audience appreciated. 
He also spoke of the human mind being a parachute&mdash;most useful when it is open. However, he left it to the audience to wonder what happens if that parachute opens too early or too late, or when it is still on the ground.
Tackling the issue of educational institutes&mdash;and policies&mdash;keeping up with the fast-changing employment scenario, he stressed the need for &ldquo;well-formed minds&rdquo; and not just &ldquo;well-filled ones,&rdquo; rightly pointing out that jobs that are popular today were not even imagined in the previous decades. 
Ever the politician, he also took the opportunity to promote &ldquo;informed dissent&rdquo; and &ldquo;peaceful protests&rdquo; on university campuses. This was particularly interesting since the college he was speaking at does not allow students to participate in politics of any kind.
&ldquo;Dr Tharoor was very under the weather. I think the Ahmedabad heat got to him,&rdquo; said one volunteer tasked with accompanying the speaker to the event, adding that nimbu pani had been at the rescue.
However, if the veteran public speaker and one-time stand-up comedian was ill, he did not show it, except for a few coughs that were sorted out with a couple of sips of water. 
The hour of thought-provoking discourse led into a 45-minute Q&amp;A session, where students, alumni, faculty members and one lucky member of the press got to grill Tharoor further. However, even that seemed too short of an interaction for the audience, who then proceeded to mob him for selfies and autographs, even as he attempted to make a graceful exit to his next commitment. 
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Shruti; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">&ldquo;I can die happy now,&rdquo; proclaimed 21-year-old Jay Barot, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a selfie with Tharoor,&rdquo; as he exited the Fr Herbert A de Souza Memorial Hall after the talk. 
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Shruti; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Watch the whole talk&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(186, 55, 42);" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtHVp2dKp8o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Shruti; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Follow&nbsp;</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">B</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enefit&nbsp;</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">News</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;channel on</a></ins><ins><a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ERXCnA7lrMp57S3N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;WhatsApp</a></ins><ins>&nbsp;</ins>

Dr Shashi Tharoor flanked by Fr Anthony Pitchai (left), Fr Fernand Durai and St Xavier's College Principle Dr Fr Vinayak Jadav

Dr Shashi Tharoor underpinned the importance of the liberal arts alongside STEM in modern university campuses

‘Not All Engineers Are Terrorists, But…’

Dr Shashi Tharoor underpinned the importance of the liberal arts alongside STEM in modern university campuses

April 10, 2025 | 21:43 IST