At one of the most venerable academic gatherings of the Delhi School of Economics (DSE) the “Friday Colloquium” series in its Sociology Department a scheduled seminar titled “Land, Property and Democratic Rights” was cancelled at the very last minute by the university administration. 

According to reports, the cancellation notice came via a WhatsApp message from the Registrar of Delhi University, requesting immediate compliance. No written reasoning or formal explanation was provided. 

In protest, the convenor of the colloquium, Nandini Sundar a prominent sociologist at DSE tendered her resignation. She expressed publicly that “since I can no longer guarantee the intellectual integrity of the research colloquium and that it will not be cancelled arbitrarily at the last minute, I have resigned…” 

The speaker slated for the now-cancelled event was Namita Wahi, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. Her topic: the constitutional trajectory and judicial interpretation of the “Right to Property” and how it interacts with democratic rights. 

From the side of the university administration, the justification offered was procedural: the department allegedly failed to seek prior permission for the event, which under new norms at the university is required for all departmental seminars. 

Faculty and student voices, however, see the move as symptomatic of deeper concerns. Sundar’s social-media post speculated that the cancellation may signal a shrinking space for discussing topics like land, property and democratic rights within campus intellectual life. 

The Friday Colloquium series has been a hallmark of DSE’s Sociology Department for decades, surviving past challenges including the Emergency era; its abrupt interruption has raised questions about institutional autonomy and the broader health of academic debate. 

In sum, what appears at first glance as an administrative hiccup may well be symptomatic of larger shifts in how campus events are regulated, what conversations are deemed acceptable and the signals sent to faculty, students and the wider academic community. The stakes go beyond a single cancelled seminar: they touch on the fundamental question of how freely ideas can be exchanged in our universities.