The dialectic tension between the "institutional" and the "charismatic" is inherent in any social system. Indeed, charismatic inspiration and authority need institutionalization for continuity; yet at the same time, it is alienated by these very structures. While the dialectic between these two necessary polarities constitutes an inescapable dilemma, the tension between them could be a source of creative growth and innovative adaptation - rather than of confusion or ossification, as would happen if only one or the other horn of the dilemma were stressed. Religious organizations illustrate this very convincingly. Consider the beginnings of a church or religious congregation, where the early charism of the founder(s) is institutionalized in later structures, precisely to extend it over time and space. Educational institutions, too, particularly when they derive from a religious, or otherwise charismatic inspiration, are also subject to this dialectic tension, and Jesuit education certainly falls into this category.

Jesuit educational institutions are an important apostolic commitment of the Society of Jesus. Indeed, the education ministry was one of the earliest apostolates of the Society, and today one of its largest commitments as well. St. Paul's College in Goa, which the Jesuits took over in 1549, was one of the earliest colleges of the Society of Jesus, and one of the first Western institutions of higher education in India. Giving expression in this ministry to our Jesuit charism and the mission it calls us to has always been a challenge, and an increasingly difficult one today - especially in this country and most particularly with higher education here. This is not because our charism and our mission today and tomorrow, as once again affirmed by our most recent General Congregations, have no relevance for this country, but rather because the institutional constraints of the educational system here are becoming increasingly problematic: overbureaucratization, excessive governmental control, inadequate finances, and widespread politicization, to mention but a few of the problems plaguing the system. Moreover, for lack of political will, even carefully worked out and much-needed reforms have time and again been stymied. In fact, the very relevance of the system is being questioned and it is fast losing credibility, but as yet, no alternative to the present formal system has emerged to replace it.

The affiliating university has aptly been described by the well-known educationist, Suma Chitnis, as a "minimum demands system" for all the constituencies involved: students, teachers, administrators, and government officials. As such, it creates powerful vested interests that resist change. This progressively alienates the university and its colleges from changing social realities and needs. In the post-Independence period this is glaringly apparent.

More recently, the "autonomous colleges," first recommended by the National Education Commission 1964Ü66, are a promising innovation that might well provide a breakthrough for undergraduate education in the affiliating university. Jesuit institutions have welcomed the recommendation, and most would certainly qualify for selection. But as yet, few universities are willing to grant such autonomy, and where they have, the scale of implementation has been more symbolic than significant. Indeed, only in South Asia does the original form of the centralized affiliating system survive. Elsewhere, various degrees of autonomy, academic and otherwise, for the affiliated institutions of the university have long been a necessary decentralization as the system grew unmanageable.

Jesuit higher education in India is mostly located in undergraduate colleges today. These are among the most prestigious in the country. But, paradoxically, their very success within this system has become their own worst enemy. For institutional prestige all too easily becomes the measure of academic excellence. When this is in an academic system that by our own admission has become increasingly irrelevant educationally, in terms of a positive contribution to the needs of a changing society, can such "excellence" be an authentic expression of Jesuit commitment today? This is a difficult and painful question that must be squarely faced in the light of recent Jesuit understandings of our mission today. For in the final analysis, institutional structures are but means, albeit necessary ones, and hence they cannot be allowed to displace educational goals and values, which must be derived from the vision that inspires the Jesuit mission.

More specifically, the challenge facing Jesuit higher education today in India is to achieve not just an academic excellence, but one that is socially relevant as well. The institutional expression of such relevance, at a first level, must be in terms of the people we have opted to serve. Thus, admission criteria must express our option for the poor, and not be based solely on a class-biased merit system that negates this. For a "meritocracy" will be as unjust as an aristocracy, in a class-caste-ridden society such as ours, where equality of opportunity is severely constrained and access to good education is limited from the earliest stages.

At a second level, besides the students we select, the graduates we produce must be, in Fr. Arrupe's words, "men for others" and "agents of change" for justice and faith. Course content and administrative structures are but means to be geared to these pedagogic goals. Obviously, there are the constraints of the system, particularly acute in the affiliating universities in this country. But the challenge is precisely to use what freedom we have to create the freedom we want, rather than find alibis for continuing with the status quo.

At a third level, such in-house goals must be complemented with out-reach programs in terms of an extension service that is compatible with the pedagogic commitments of an educational institution. This is sometimes called "service education," which really amounts to education through service. The institutional goodwill and the professional and other resources of a prestigious college can indeed make a real contribution to the local community and beyond. The specific contribution could vary from making institutional facilities available to the neighborhood, to advocacy programs, and engaging faculty and students on issues of social concern.

In addition to community service, a fourth level of relevance for a Jesuit college could well be in research that is action-oriented on issues of social concern, particularly those issues that are neglected by professional academics. In fact, Jesuit colleges in India did cultivate a strong research tradition as long as they had graduate departments. Once these were centralized in the university, the emphasis shifted to undergraduate teaching. But research today opens into a much larger space than the academic graduate world. There are nongovernmental agencies that are leaders in new areas of research, where the Jesuits would be challenged to revive their lost tradition.

A "Study of Jesuit Colleges in India" by Fr. John Macia in 1982, concludes with "the conflict between two organizational goals: (a) the pursuit of academic excellence, (b) the promotion of greater social justice." In the present context of the affiliating university in this country, our mission today indicates an obvious choice in favor of the second. The new economic policies being adopted in the country, which are likely to hasten growth and certainly sharpen inequalities, only make this choice all the more urgent. The real creative challenge is not in the resolution of this played-out goal-conflict, but rather in the dialectic tension between a critical intellectual quest and an effective commitment to education for justice. This, we believe, must be the real creative challenge for Jesuit higher education in India on the threshold of the 21st century.