For a brief while last week, the single biggest threat to the idea of India descended on a classroom at the Manipal Institute of Technology. But what followed showed why India has survived.

An assistant professor at the 65-year-old engineering college, one of the first self-financial tech schools in the country, allegedly addressed a Muslim student by the name of a terrorist.

However, in one of the most incisive and insightful articulations recorded in a classroom in recent memory, the student challenged the assistant professor and told him why it was not funny.

Later, the student turned the famed guru-shishya parampara on its head and soared above its traditional narrative, purportedly declaring that “we as a student community must let it (the teacher’s comment) go as a genuine mistake”.

A widely circulated video clip that purportedly captures the student’s conversation with the teacher does not indicate which terrorist’s name was used. But a WhatsApp message, written purportedly by the aggrieved student, suggests he was called “Kasab” after the 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab who was hanged in 2012.

The institute has debarred the assistant professor from conducting classes pending an internal inquiry.

Manipal is 400km from Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley and the capital of Karnataka that is increasingly becoming a lab for testing several of Hindutva’s polarising themes before they are deployed elsewhere in the country.

The conversation according to the 45-second video clip, apparently recorded by another student, goes like this:

Student: No, these jokes are not acceptable. You can’t talk about my religion in such a derogatory manner. Teacher: No, no, you’re just like my kid.

Student: No. If my father says this I will disown him. (Other students laugh)

Teacher: It’s a funny thing (comment).

Student: No, it’s not, Sir. It’s not. 26/11 was not funny. Being a Muslim in this country and facing all this every day is not funny

Teacher: You’re just like my son.

Student: No, no, no. Will you talk to your son like that? Will you call him by the name of a terrorist?

Teacher: No.

Student: How can you call me like that in front of so many people in the class?

Teacher: Sorry, I told, no?

Student: You’re a professional, you are teaching.

Teacher: Sorry, I told, no?

Student: You can’t call me that.

Teacher: Sorry.

Student: Arrey, your “sorry” — that doesn’t change how you think or how you portray yourself here.

As screenshot of a WhatsApp message posted on November 26 — the 14th anniversary of the Mumbai attacks — in a group named “MIT footballers” and purportedly written by the aggrieved student says he has accepted the teacher’s apology.

“All of you must have seen a video going viral where a student is telling his teacher that racist comments are not acceptable. The reason behind this was him calling me by an unacceptable name, ‘Kasab’, one of the biggest terrorists the country has ever seen,” the message says.

“It was a joke, which cannot be considered a valid enough reason to question the identity of a human being. However, I had a conversation with the lecturer and realised that he genuinely meant that apology, and we as a student community must let it go as a genuine mistake.

“I understand what was happening in his head behind this and would like to believe he didn’t mean it. It came across wrong from a teacher, a person we admire, but it can be ignored this time. Thank you for standing with me through this. It means a lot.” The institute in Manipal said the incident had occurred last week. It declined to name the teacher or the first-year civil engineering student but promised action based on the inquiry report.

A statement the institute issued on Monday said: “The institute has already initiated an inquiry into the incident and the concerned staff has been debarred from classes till the inquiry is over. We would like everyone to know that the institute does not condone this kind of behaviour and this isolated incident will be dealt with in accordance with the laid-down policy.”

Asked why the teacher had not been suspended, institute spokesperson S.P. Kar told The Telegraph: “Debarring is tantamount to suspension since he cannot take any classes until the inquiry is over.”

On why the matter had not been reported to the police, Kar said the student and his parents wanted the matter limited to the institution and its inquiry. “We fully understand the seriousness of such a comment,” he said.