Key Points
- India’s academic freedom score dropped from 0.6 to 0.2 points over the last decade.
- The country is now tagged as “completely restricted” for academic freedom.
- New government rules are making it harder for students to protest at universities.
- There are rising conflicts between the central and state governments about higher education control.
- Reports of academic pressure and censorship are on the rise.
Looma News
There’s this recent report from Scholars at Risk (SAR) that’s pretty alarming about academic freedom in India. Over the last ten years, it dropped from 0.6 to just 0.2 points, putting India in a “completely restricted” zone, its worst ranking since the 1940s.
The “Free to Think 2024” report shows how the ruling BJP is really affecting universities. One big issue is their push for a Hindu nationalist agenda and their efforts to shut down student protests. Schools like Jawaharlal Nehru University and South Asian University have put in strict rules about how and where students can voice their opinions.
Campus Clashes
Campuses are getting pretty heated these days. In Kerala, for instance, there’s a big clash between the Union and State governments over who controls higher education. The Union-appointed governor is trying to hold onto his power against local legislative changes, and this isn’t just happening in Kerala—similar issues are popping up in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Punjab.
Pressure on Academics
There’s a lot of pressure on academics too. Take Sabyasachi Das, an assistant prof at Ashoka University. After he shared a paper about political manipulation in the 2019 elections, he faced backlash from BJP leaders, which probably led to him resigning. Plus, other academics like Professor Natasha Kaul have faced tough restrictions, like being denied entry into India for criticizing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
On top of that, there have been multiple student protests that got shut down. Recently, over 200 students were detained while protesting outside the Israeli Embassy in support of Palestinians. Oh, and there was this one time a professor got heckled by students linked to a political group during a talk.
All in all, this report doesn’t paint a pretty picture for academic freedom in India and raises some serious questions about the future of higher education and free expression in the country.
However, the real question is how much we can trust these reports. These actions are necessary to maintain law and order while also preventing the spread of any false narratives.
