Student Ajay Gandhi Questions Yale Legacy By Francis C. Assisi

Email this page Print this page

Gandhi sums up his views with: "Yale, through its historical amnesia about its roots in colonialism and slavery, its unethical investment policies and demeaning work culture, abrogates the responsibility it claims to bear as a global university."

Gandhi accuses Yale University president Richard Levin's of making lofty proclamations during a recent high profile visit to India, where he was toasted by the Prime Minister as well as the business establishment, but managed to sideline Yale's own "historical complicity with the exploitation and exclusion of minorities." Gandhi is angry because there is a dissonance between Levin's lofty rhetoric on the "global university" and Yale's "embarrassing lack of accountability and accessibility, particularly to international students and scholars such as those from India." He also punches holes in Levin's argument for India to adhere to intellectual property rights because it “is intertwined with Yale potentially gaining lucrative profits from its patents being enforced in India's consumer market.”

As Gandhi explains, while Levin publicly and dutifully proclaimed that India was finally "emerging as a global economic and political power" and with missionary zeal propounded a notion of the "global university" standing for "transcendent principles" and embodying a "noble mission", he was in fact "continuing a tradition stretching back to Yale's inception, whereby lofty rhetoric has disguised powerful self-interest."

Gandhi reminds us that Yale University is actually named after Elihu Yale, who served in the British East India Company between 1670 and 1699 and whose donation of books, textiles and arms helped construct the university's first building. Which means that Yale was founded on money made in India. Elihu Yale went to India as a humble writer for the British and returned as a Nabob or a multi-millionaire. Some historians suggest that he was also a slave owner. Thus, says Gandhi, Yale's history "is bound up with colonial profiteering and violent slavery."

Yale, who spent twenty-seven years in India, was governor of Fort St. George at Madras from 1687 to 1692, married the widow of his friend, accumulated a fortune in the diamond trade while in Madras, and later retired to England as a ‘Nabob’ or multi-millionaire. Yale's official correspondence as Governor preserved in the India Office papers, show that on 22 February 1699 he sailed for London with ‘five tons of a most valuable cargo, including spices, precious stones, leather goods and oriental screens'.

Yale's activities in India are not above suspicion. Ajay Gandhi explains: 'As governor of Fort St. George, Yale purchased territory for private purposes with East India Company funds, including a fort at Tevnapatam (present-day Cuddalore). He imposed steep taxation towards the upkeep of the colonial garrison and town. His punitive measures against Indians who defaulted included threats of property confiscation and forced exile. This spurred various Indian revolts, which were ruthlessly quelled by Company soldiers. Yale was also notorious for arresting and trying Indians on his own private authority, including the hanging of a stable boy who had absconded with a Company horse.'

Gandhi adds: "More audaciously, Yale amassed a private fortune through secret contracts with Madras merchants, against the East India Company's directives. This imperial plunder, which enabled his patronage of the American university, occurred through his monopolisation of traders and castes in the textiles and jewel trade. By 1692, Elihu Yale's repeated flouting of East India Company regulations, and growing embarrassment at his illegal profiteering resulted in his being relieved of the post of governor."

Gandhi reveals that some of Yale's direct investments today in South Asia include a Canadian oil and gas company, Niko Resources Ltd, which operates fields in Gujarat, the Bay of Bengal, and Bangladesh -- which have resulted in safety violations and environmental concerns.

In an attempt to unmask some of the fancy language and the exploitative labor hierarchies underpinning contemporary university research, Gandhi observes that when the University President Levin touted that Yale "invests" in Indian students through limited scholarships, he had forgotten to mention that Yale profits enormously from these students' labor. “This is especially true in the sciences and engineering, where South Asian and other international students conduct the majority of research for increasingly profit-driven projects and joint university-industry initiatives.”

In fact, observes Gandhi, Yale University's history, bound up with violence against both Indians and African-Americans, is forcefully symbolised in a portrait that hangs in a campus boardroom. This picture from the early 18th century shows Elihu Yale adorned in colonial splendor, with a black slave kneeling in the foreground, silver collar and long metal chain hanging from his neck.

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Ajay Gandhi completed an MA in Anthropology from McGill University, building upon an earlier BA (Honors) in Anthropology from the University of Alberta. His research experience in India involved advocacy networks, development politics and resource conflicts. He served as an intern with the International Development Research Centre's South Asia Regional Office (IDRC-SARO), involved with environment and natural resource management projects. “Living in New Delhi for six months offers its own humbling insights into the rhythm and pace of a manic but ultimately endearing place," he once commented.

He has also spent time in Palestine and Israel, working with 2 Arab-Palestinian NGOs, and the International Palestinian Youth League conducting research on the impact of Israeli occupation on Palestinian youth education.

francisassisi@hotmail.com