Drawing the Line on Campus Discourse: Ashoka Denies Entry to Scholar Ravikant Kisana Ahead of SAPSC Book Talk

On Wednesday, 2nd September, 2026, the Savitri Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (SAPSC), a student-led initiative “celebrating and spreading the revolutionary ideas of Phule, Shahu, Ambedkar, and Periyar” released a statement condemning Ashoka University’s denial of Dr. Ravikant Kisana’s entry for a book talk scheduled for 14th September. 

Dr. Ravikant Kisana, Assistant Dean of Woxsen University and scholar of Cultural and Critical Caste studies, was invited by SAPSC as a visiting speaker to discuss his book, Meet the Savarnas, a cultural ethnography and critique of upper-caste elites. When SAPSC attempted to secure entry approval for Professor Kisana, they were informed that his entry was denied and no classroom could be provided for the talk. Professor Kisana, popularly known online by his moniker “Buffalo Intellectual”, responded to SAPSC’s statement with concern over students being targeted for voicing their opinions, and by stating that a “campus should [ultimately] be a space for critical discourse.” 

On 28th September 2024, a group of YIF students alongside a few undergraduate students started a reading circle with the aim of creating an academic space to counter the lack of anti-caste dialogue in Ashoka. Existing without a formal constitutive body recognised by administration (unlike a club or an academic society), SAPSC built community through events such as reading circles, guest lectures, and film screenings centered around anti-caste discourse and has over a 100 members today. 

The standard procedure SAPSC follows when inviting a guest speaker involves emailing the Student Life Office (SLO) for prior entry approval and classroom bookings, Atharva Salve (UG ‘26) informed The Edict. On 31st August, Salve sent this email to SLO to approve Professor Kisana and Siddesh Gautam (known online by the moniker Bakery Prasad)  and received no official response regarding Kisan. 

Salve unofficially spoke to members of SLO in-person on 1st September, and was assured a response the next day. On 2nd September, Salve was informed that Gautam’s entry would be approved, but Kisan’s was denied. “From what it seems, it’s not really in [SLO’s] hands to approve speakers…it goes to the higher-ups,” Salve added. After sending an email regarding the situation to Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi, the Dean of Student Affairs (DSA) on the same day, Salve spoke with him in-person. However, he received a re-iteration of the previous message, and the DSA stated that “some people’s presence on campus would be undesirable”. The DSA also informed Salve of “background checks” speakers have to undergo, although the exact details behind these background checks and who runs them was unknown. The DSA shared that he would intervene in the decisions made to deny speakers entry, but that he didn’t wish to do so in this case. 

Professor Kisana had been invited to speak at Ashoka once before, in 2024, by the Social Justice Forum (SJF). SJF, a political group at Ashoka focusing on anti-caste mobilisation that disbanded in Spring 2024, faced similar challenges with Kisana’s talk, which Kisana ultimately gave outside the Library Cafe. Although the DSA denied any claims that the denial of Kisana’s entry this time had anything to do with the previous incident, issues like Kisana’s have been seen before. 

In January 2026, SAPSC invited Somnath Waghmare, a documentary filmmaker focusing on the political and social expression of Dalits in India. However, SLO raised issues when Waghmare’s guest Atul Howale, a journalist working at The Wire, began to record the event. “There’s a fear of this reportage that could go out,” Salve shared. Similarly, Antariksh Jain, a prominent video journalist, was invited by Navrang, Ashoka’s Film Society but denied entry a day before the scheduled event. 

“[This] keeps happening…But with professors, it’s alarming.” Salve said. The denial of Professor Kisana’s entry in particular raises questions surrounding academic freedom, and the university’s treatment of the same. “It’s also about institutional gatekeeping [and] who Ashoka lets you critique,” Salve remarked. “It’s not like it’s happening in Ashoka or in India for the first time…but what’s alarming is that Ashoka keeps doing this.” As SAPSC continues to organise around anti-caste scholarship and discourse, the denial of Kisana’s entry has placed a question that extends beyond 14th September at the centre of the conversation: how much room is there for students to create and sustain critical intellectual spaces on campus, particularly when the ideas being discussed challenge established social hierarchies?

In response to the denial of Kisana’s entry, SAPSC also announced a reading circle that will take place outside the mess hall. The Edict has reached out to the DSA for further information, but no response has been received yet. This is a developing story.

[Edited by Avika Mantri]

[With inputs from Ananya Mahnot]