India, Nov. 23 -- When the red-brick corridors of Panjab University (PU) echo with chants instead of lectures, it feels like more than a campus disturbance. The university, that grand old institution straddling history and aspiration, has once again become a mirror reflecting how India's public universities are wrestling with a contemporary question: who gets to decide what autonomy really means.

From senate seats to street chants

For over two weeks, PU has lived in protest mode. What began as opposition to an October notification by the ministry of education, which proposed a downsized and partly nominated senate and syndicate, has grown into a wider debate on institutional democracy.

The Centre's notification, which sought to trim th...