Debating the 'publicness' of the public university provokes the following questions: what lies in common between the university and the communities it excludes? What is the place of non-secular knowledges within the secular-modern instance of the university? How does the university solidarise with publics that never find place within it? Does academic freedom imply freedom against public opinion? This book looks at the current fortunes of the public university in India to call for a deep historical examination. It argues that perhaps the university's pursuit of 'thought' has not been as successful as we have imagined. The history of the public university might give us a cue for understanding the rise of authoritarian tendencies across the world.