Later this month, Kofl Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, is due to receive an honorary degree from the University of Oxford. Several societies at the university have asked him not to come - the Majlis Asian Society, the Pakistan Society, the Russian Society, the African Society and the Middle Eastern Society.
All this is because a young, Brixton-born-and-bred postgraduate student of Asian origin claims he has suffered severe racial discrimination at the hands of a tutor and that the university, at several junctures, has failed to do anything about it.
The student, Nadeem Ahmed, is a former comprehensive school pupil. He was the editor of the school magazine, as well as head boy. He once came to interview C L R James, who lived above the Race Today premises in Brixton. In those days, about a decade ago, a light intellectual breeze filtered easily through corridors of such comprehensives, exciting young minds with pan-Africanism, particularly the history of the fights against Portuguese colonialism and apartheid.
Nadeem went to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London to study philosophy, and was heavily recommended to do a post-graduate degree at Oxford's Oriental Institute. The department is a remote and rather bizarre place, stuck in a pre-colonial mode, where some dons are used to studying the natives for their rather odd habits.
One day, a tutor gave a test - a translation from Arabic to English - to his students, who included Nadeem and one other Asian. The two Asians failed, the others passed. Nadeem also failed a resit. He was then asked to leave - although, he alleges, it was suggested to him that he could complete his MPhil in medieval Arabic thought, provided he did not return to take his PhD.
Routine in a university, you may think, but these tests were, Oxford's senior proctor agreed, "flawed as qualifying examinations". One, set by the supervisor, lacked independence and was not double-marked. The other breached regulations because Nadeem was not made sufficiently aware of its status.
Nadeem alleged that the tests racially discriminated against him and that this was evidence of institutional racism at the Oriental Institute. He received support from Tom Paulin, the poet and don, who was his personal collece tutor. Nadeem was also supported by Sir Michael and Lady Dummett, founders of the Institute of Race Relations - he is a distinguished Oxford professor of logic, she is the author of numerous books on race and the law.
Nadeem won leave for a judicial review of the university's examination and assessment procedures, but the High Court threw out the case. He then took his allegations of discrimination to Oxford county court, claiming compensation. The authorities spent huge sums trying to convince the court that Nadeem's suit was frivolous and that the court itself has no jurisdiction. A few days they got a whipping. They lost hands down. The Brixton spirit had prevailed over the British bulldog.
It has to be admitted that the authorities at Oxford have recently increased the university's black and Asian intake. And, as is often the case, when the first layer of discrimination is exposed, several layers beneath disintegrate. But Oxford is fighting tooth and nail for the process of change to be done in its own time and at its own pace. However, history never moves that way.
The issue, which was tussled and wrestled over in the corridors of academia, has now spilt over into the public arena. Even the secretary general of the UN has been drawn in. So be it.