A Brief History of India’s Education System

Part 4F: Assault on Autonomy and Academic Freedom of Our Universities

[This article is a part of a series of articles on ‘India’s Education Journey: From Macaulay to NEP’. This is the tenth part of this series. The previous articles have been published in previous issues of Janata Weekly.]

Importance of Academic Freedom and Dissent in Universities

The Radhakrishnan Commission on Higher Education (1948–49) powerfully underscored the link between democracy and academic freedom in universities. It warned that “exclusive control of education by the State has been an important factor in facilitating the maintenance of totalitarian tyrannies”, and stressed that while the State has an obligation to support higher education, “State aid must not be confused with State control” (emphasis added). The Commission emphasised that intellectual progress depends on nurturing a “spirit of free inquiry” and the “pursuit and practice of truth, regardless of consequences”, and called for complete freedom for teachers “to speak on controversial issues”—an essential principle for cultivating a “morality of the mind” (Section 29).[102]

The Education Commission of 1964–66 further deepened this vision. It offered a profound reflection on the social responsibilities of our universities:

Theirs is the pursuit of truth and excellence in all its diversity—a pursuit which needs, above all, courage and fearlessness. Great universities and timid people go ill together…. (Section 11.01)

They must learn to strive to serve as the ‘conscience of the nation’, as assessors of the national way of life, and this responsibility becomes all the greater in the absence of an enlightened public opinion … Universities are pre-eminently the forum for a critical assessment of society—sympathetic, objective, unafraid … (Section 11.04)

To fulfil these objectives, it called on universities to “encourage individuality, variety and dissent, within a climate of tolerance” (emphasis added), and to cultivate “free and disinterested thinking which can challenge vested interests and established ways” (Section 11.05).

The Commission also made insightful observations on the structure of governance needed for universities to be able to fulfil their role in nation building:

The character of a university as a society of teachers and students engaged in the pursuit of learning and discovery distinguishes fundamentally the regulation of its affairs from, say, the profit-motivated management of commercial or industrial concerns or the administration of a government department, a municipal corporation, or a unit of the armed forces (Section 13.02).

The Kothari Commission strongly advocated autonomy for universities. It declared that only an autonomous university—free from regimentation of ideas and political pressures—can effectively discharge its principal functions of teaching, research and service to the community, and “pursue truth fearlessly and build up, in its teachers and students, habits of independent thinking and a spirit of enquiry” (emphasis added) (Section 13.07).

Making a distinction between university autonomy and academic freedom, the Commission supported the latter for teachers, affirming that no teacher should be compelled to teach something which goes against their conscience or conflicts with their conception of truth. It further stated:

We would also like to emphasise the freedom of teachers to hold and express their views, however radical, within the classroom (and outside) provided they are careful to present the different aspects of a problem without confusing teaching with ‘propaganda’ in favour of their own particular views. A teacher should be free to pursue and publish his studies and research; and speak and write about and participate in debates on significant national and international issues. He should receive all facilities and encouragement in his work, teaching and research, even when his views and approach be in opposition to those of his seniors and the head of his department or faculty (Section 13.03).[103]

During the Nehruvian period and even in the neoliberal decades (1990s to 2014)—barring the Emergency—governments largely respected these principles. Political interference was limited, universities largely enjoyed autonomy, and governments did not attempt to impose their ideological leanings, influence appointments or curtail academic freedom.

Post-2014: Suppressing Critical Enquiry in Universities

This has completely changed during the past decade. After the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government came to power at the Centre with an absolute majority in 2014, it began imposing its Hindutva ideology across all spheres of public life. For this, it needed to silence all critical enquiry. Since universities are crucial spaces for questioning authority and expressing dissent, the BJP has launched a vicious assault on our universities to bring them under its ideological control.

i) Right-Wing Appointments to Academic and Cultural Institutions

This offensive began almost immediately, in 2014 itself. Heads of premier academic, research and cultural bodies were swiftly replaced with individuals affiliated with RSS-backed organisations, regardless of academic credentials. The sole criterion was loyalty to the Hindutva ideology. Below are some striking examples:

• Y. Sudershan Rao, head of the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the RSS’s Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana and known for his anti-Muslim views and support for the caste system, was appointed the chief of the prestigious Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR).
• Lokesh Chandra, an 87-year-old man, who called Modi “an incarnation of God”, was appointed head of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).
• Baldev Sharma, former editor of the RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya, was made chairman of the National Book Trust.
• Pahlaj Nihalani, best known for crafting the BJP election slogan “Har Ghar Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi”, was appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification.
• Gajendra Chauhan, a C-grade actor with no serious artistic credentials, was appointed head of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
• Chetan Chauhan, an ex-cricketer, former BJP MP and vice-president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, was made chair of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).
• Braj Bihari Kumar, an obscure editor of Sangh journals, was made head of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)—despite being unknown in the country’s social sciences fraternity.
• Eminent scholars who headed bodies like the Lalit Kala Akademi, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and the National Museum were replaced by individuals linked to Vivekananda International Foundation and other Sangh affiliates.
• The Central Advisory Board of Education was reconstituted and filled with yoga instructors, Sanskrit scholars and even actors.[104]

Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities—from Allahabad University and Banaras Hindu University to Hyderabad Central University and Jawaharlal Nehru University—were forced out and replaced by RSS loyalists. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was pressured to step down as Chancellor of Nalanda University.[105]

Even India’s best science and technology institutions were not spared. In December 2014, the Director of IIT Delhi, Dr. R.K. Shevgaonkar, resigned, likely because of growing interference by the RSS in the institution. Two months later, nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar resigned as chairman of the Board of Governors, IIT Bombay, accusing the HRD Ministry of a casual approach and “wrongdoing” in the selection of IIT Directors.[106]

Today, the control of the Modi Government over our academic and cultural institutions is complete. According to a recent news report, around 80 percent of Central University vice-chancellors now have RSS/BJP affiliations.[107]

ii) Assault on Academic Freedom

Until 2014—except for the Emergency (1975–77) interregnum—academic freedom, though occasionally curtailed, was never under serious threat. Governments generally refrained from imposing ideological control on universities. Faculty enjoyed the freedom to teach, pursue research projects of their choice with government funding and publish their work, speak, write and express their opinions, and organise and participate in conferences and seminars—without fear of reprisal.

In sharp contrast, the current regime has aggressively imposed its Hindutva ideology on academic institutions. University and college administrations are routinely pressured to deny permission to programs that question BJP policies or ideology. With compliant individuals appointed as heads of universities and other academic bodies, this suppression has been easy. In institutions where there has been some resistance to these diktats, Hindu right-wing groups frequently organise militant protests forcing institutions to cancel even academic events.

A glaring example is the 2017 incident at Ramjas College, one of Delhi University’s oldest and most respected colleges. The college had organised a two-day seminar titled Cultures of Protest: Exploring Representations of Dissent. It was meant to be a celebration—of ideas, stories and debates around gender, of protests and individual expressions of resistance, of the sanctity of university spaces. The event was violently disrupted by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, forcing its cancellation.[108] The right-wing forces that dominate academic spaces today do not want students to be exposed to the injustices in Indian society—like patriarchy, casteism, hunger, corruption, unemployment and oppression—fearing that students might be drawn to the ethics of justice and the charms of dissent.

Such incidents have now become routine on campuses across the country. In 2023, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, had to call off a discussion on the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), organised by its students and faculty.[109] IIT-Bombay has cancelled multiple seminars and guest lectures on topics like environmental protection, the education system and urban employment—subjects that should be a fundamental part of academic dialogue in any university. The speakers whose talks were cancelled include prominent intellectuals like environmentalist and historian Ramachandra Guha, cultural activist Ganesh Devy, social scientist Dunu Roy and RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi (the latter two are also IIT alumni). A statement by the student-run Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle at IIT-Bombay notes that such cancellations have become routine, adding that:

Even reading-sessions which have focused on nuances of caste, class or gender have been disrupted by the campus security, or unilaterally cancelled.[110]

More recently, in April 2024, a series of talks at the Muktiparv festival at IISER Pune celebrating the legacy of Babasaheb Ambedkar and other social reformers was cancelled after the ABVP objected to some of the invited speakers, accusing them of being “anti-nationals”.[111]

University administrations have even initiated disciplinary action against organisers of events viewed by them as ‘anti-national’. In 2017, Prof. Rajshri Ranawat of Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur invited Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Nivedita Menon to speak at a conference organised by her at the university. The very next day, the governing body of the university issued a show-cause notice to her for inviting an “anti-national”, and soon after, suspended her.[112]

The increasingly intolerant and anti-intellectual atmosphere in our academic institutions is making it difficult for teachers to discuss even basic issues. In a 2023 incident at a Kolhapur college, a professor told students in her class that heinous crimes can be committed by people from any religion or community. Soon after, a doctored video of her remarks started circulating online. Bowing to public pressure, the college management asked the professor to apologise, a demand she refused. She was then reportedly forced to work from home until tensions eased.[113]

In 2021, the Union Ministry of Education issued a directive requiring government approval for all online academic events or conferences taking place at or with the participation of government-funded institutions. The events could not discuss internal affairs, sensitive issues or matters of national security. Following widespread backlash from academics, the order was later withdrawn.

This attack on academic freedom is affecting research in universities too. Research supervisors are no longer free to decide research topics. Sometimes, universities themselves provide topics that are explicitly pro-government and promote its political positions and politics.[114] A professor at Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi) recently described the academic atmosphere in the university as “suffocating”, marked by “censorship and monitoring of research topics chosen by students.”[115] In 2019, Professor Meena T. Pillai resigned from the Board of Studies of English and Comparative Literature at the Central University of Kerala. She quit in protest against a circular issued by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development asking vice-chancellors to “discourage research in irrelevant areas.” In an interview, she asked, “Who decides what is relevant and irrelevant? … Research is also critique, dissent and the right to ask questions. The moment you start deciding what areas of research one should limit oneself to, where is the academic freedom of the researcher?”[116]

In 2023, the UGC barred Ph.D. scholarships for students researching “politically sensitive” topics such as Kashmir, caste and Hindutva.[117]

Even the South Asian University (SAU)—a prestigious institution established in New Delhi by SAARC, a regional bloc of eight South Asian countries—has not been spared from academic arm-twisting by the Modi Government. In 2024, a Ph.D. scholar at SAU was issued a showcause notice over his research proposal on Kashmir’s ethnography and politics that cited American scholar Noam Chomsky’s critique of the Modi regime. A disciplinary inquiry was also initiated against the student’s supervisor, Prof. Sasanka Perera, a renowned Sri Lankan anthropologist and a senior faculty member at the SAU for 13 years. Calling the charges “trumped-up and irrational”, Prof. Perera resigned, stating that he had no hope of receiving a fair process or justice. Soon after, the student too withdrew from the programme.[118]

iii) Private Universities Under Attack

This assault on academic freedom in our public universities has now extended to private universities as well. Their governing bodies—mostly filled with business donors—are being pressured to interfere in academic matters and curb research critical of the Modi Government.

Ashoka University, considered to be one of India’s premier liberal arts universities, has seen several high-profile resignations over this issue. In 2021, political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta resigned. In his resignation letter, Mehta wrote that after a meeting with the university’s founders, it became clear that they saw him as a “political liability”. A globally respected scholar, Mehta has taught at Harvard, JNU and the New York University School of Law, and serves on the editorial boards of several leading academic journals.

Two days later, noted economist and founding director of the Ashoka Centre for Economic Policy, Arvind Subramanian, also resigned. In his resignation letter to the university, he raised the concern that “even Ashoka—with its private status and backing by private capital—can no longer provide a space for academic expression and freedom is ominously disturbing.”[119]

In 2023, academic freedom at the university once again came into question when Sabyasachi Das, Assistant Professor of Economics, published a research paper suggesting possible electoral fraud by the BJP in the 2019 general elections. The paper garnered wide attention on social media, and led to a right-wing backlash, following which the university distanced itself from the paper. Soon after, Das resigned. A week later, another economics professor, Pulapre Balakrishnan, also resigned in protest.[120]

These events strike at the heart of what a university should be—an autonomous space for free expression, critical inquiry and the fearless pursuit of knowledge.

iv) Imposing Government Programmes on Universities

While actively suppressing programmes that encourage critical debate, question Hindutva ideology or promote Constitutional values, the Modi regime has simultaneously sought to impose its ideology on higher education institutions—primarily through the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The mandate of the UGC is to promote and coordinate the field of higher education, determine and maintain quality and standards, and provide funding to higher education institutions. It is not supposed to give instructions on what kind of programmes and seminars should be held in a university. But now, the Modi Government has transformed it into a tool for government propaganda. It has been issuing directives to universities to organise events that promote the ruling party’s ideology.

First came the order to celebrate Swachh Bharat Diwas on October 2. Then came orders to organise National Unity Day on October 31, the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel; Good Governance Day on December 25, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday; and International Yoga Day on June 21.

In November 2022, the UGC went a step further, directing institutions to organise meditation sessions for students and teachers using techniques developed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation—raising concerns that the UGC was promoting private spiritual organisations.

In December 2023, universities were ordered to set up selfie points with life-size cutouts of the Prime Minister, purportedly to highlight India’s achievements—especially those linked to NEP-2020. Earlier, in early 2023, institutions had also been instructed to organise programmes showcasing India’s presidency of the G-20 Summit.

In January 2024, the UGC directed universities and colleges to install the Union Government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) logo on their premises.

To instil ‘nationalism’ among students—the Modi Government probably feels that students lack this—universities have been ordered to set up ‘gallantry walls’ displaying portraits of decorated armed forces personnel and permanently display the national flag on the campus on 207-foot flagpoles, so that it can be seen from afar.

In a particularly blatant attempt to promote Hindutva ideology, the UGC instructed all higher educational institutions to organise seminars and lectures on “India: Mother of Democracy” on Constitution Day, 26 November 2022, using a concept note prepared by the ICHR. The ICHR’s guidelines portrayed India as the oldest democracy in the world, with supposedly democratic traditions rooted in khap panchayats, Vedic governance and rule by “ideal kings”. The concept note even asserted that Indian civilisation has existed “from time immemorial,” and claimed this antiquity as evidence of its democratic greatness. In addition to imposing the official historical interpretation on universities and undermining their academic autonomy, the narrative also mythologised ancient Indian history and aligned it with the Modi regime’s ideological goals.

The UGC suspects that teachers might not comply, since its orders are still framed as suggestions. Therefore, photographs or videos of all such programmes necessarily have to be sent to the Commission and the Ministry of Education. [121]

v) Saffronisation of Universities

The Modi Government is seeking to saffronise the entire academic and cultural atmosphere in our universities. In an article titled “How the UGC Creates Consensus for the Ruling Regime”, Delhi University (DU) professor Apoorvanand describes how even teacher orientation and refresher programmes—meant to familiarise educators with cutting-edge research—now feature lectures by RSS leaders. During these sessions, attendees are made to chant slogans like “Chinese goods, talaq, talaq, talaq” and pledge allegiance to the idea of Akhand Bharat. He further notes:

In the colleges of Delhi University, speeches by RSS leaders are organised and teachers are expected to attend them. Now Vice-Chancellors, Deans and Heads of Departments, without waiting for orders, themselves organise such programmes to ensure their presence is registered in the eyes of the RSS leadership. Scholars applying for teaching posts actively participate in or organise such programmes to prove their loyalty to the RSS. They enlist and mobilise students and teachers for RSS programmes.[122]

A striking example occurred on 16 January 2025, when DU hosted the launch of the book Modi vs. Khan Market Gang. The term ‘Khan Market Gang’ has been used by PM Modi to disparage his critics. The Vice-Chancellor and senior university officials shared the stage with BJP leaders, turning the event into a BJP campaign to malign critics of the Modi regime—many of whom are faculty members.[123]

While programmes promoting critical thought are forcibly cancelled, events celebrating superstitions, communal perspectives on Indian history and other elements of Hindutva ideology are being openly organised. At IIT-Bombay, the Gender Cell was pressured into cancelling a panel discussion featuring rape survivor Bhanwari Devi, author–activist Kavita Srivastava and lawyer Vrinda Grover—all renowned progressive voices. Remarkably, the same institute endorsed a lecture on Garbhavigyan—the so-called science of begetting a good progeny—delivered by Ayurveda proponent Acharya Mehul Shastri.[124] Yet another glaring example of how critical, socially engaged discourse is being suppressed while ideologically driven, pseudo-scientific content aligned with Hindutva narratives is promoted even in India’s most prestigious academic institutions.

Religious ceremonies have begun to pervade our university spaces. In January 2024, several institutions, including IIT-Delhi and DU colleges, conducted ceremonies celebrating the Ayodhya consecration—complete with havan, candle lighting, Ramayan recitals and processions. In January 2025, DU’s Daulat Ram College held a function to mark the first anniversary of the consecration, attended by the principal and representatives of the RSS and BJP.[125]

The saffron agenda has now gone beyond rituals and is being embedded into academic curricula. In universities across the country, including our famed Central Universities and IITs, courses in astrology, vastu shastra, rituals and “ancient sciences” have proliferated:

• UP Rajarshi Tandon Open University (Prayagraj) has introduced a program on religious texts and rituals.
• Nehru Gram Bharati University (Prayagraj) and Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi) have launched diplomas in Karmakand.
• Lucknow University added Karmakand as a vocational course in 2020–21.
• In 2023–24, Allahabad University announced new courses in Hindu astrology, vastu shastra and rituals.[126]
• IIT Kharagpur’s Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge System now offers undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Vastu Vidya, Paribesh Vidya and Arthashastra.
• In 2025, Delhi University launched Dharmashastra Studies, featuring Manusmriti as a primary text, with students being taught how the varna and caste system “organise society”.[127]

Hindutva-linked pseudo-science has also infiltrated the research labs of prestigious institutions. At IIT-Delhi’s Centre for Rural Development and Technology, the government-funded Scientific Validation and Research on Panchgavya project is attempting to ‘prove’ that cows absorb toxic metals into their flesh, cow urine can cure dengue and cow-dung bricks can absorb ultraviolet radiation.[128]

This assault is eroding the secular character of our campuses. In 2022, at Government New Law College, Indore, the ABVP launched a targeted campaign against four Muslim professors, accusing them of “promoting Islamic culture”, and even “love jihad”. It also objected to the “high number of Muslim” teachers in the college, even though only 4 of the 28 faculty members were Muslim. The ABVP also attacked the college principal, Prof. Inamur Rahman, a Muslim, for keeping an academic book critical of the RSS in the college library. With the State Home Minister supporting the ABVP agitation, the police filed a case against the principal, ultimately forcing him to resign. The Supreme Court later stayed his arrest and, in May 2024, quashed the FIR, calling it an “absurdity”.

Such incidents of bigotry against minority students and teachers are now alarmingly common across Indian campuses.[129]

vi) ‘Surgical Strike’ on Science Institutions

The Modi Government is not only undermining India’s premier social science institutions; its war on the intellect now extends to the natural sciences as well.

The lead has come from the very top, with the Prime Minister himself claiming that ancient Indians invented plastic surgery and in-vitro fertilisation. In 2014, he appointed as Minister for Science and Technology a man who believes the Vedas contain theories superior to Einstein’s E=mc²—a claim he made not in private, but publicly at the Indian Science Congress. This annual meeting is famed as the country’s most extensive gathering of premier scientific minds, and is regularly attended by Nobel laureates too. However, in recent years, this annual event has seen presentations by the S&T Minister’s ideological kinsmen asserting that ancient Indians had invented airplanes, guided missiles, radars and stem cell research. Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, after attending the 2015 Congress, described it as “a circus … where very little science was discussed,” and vowed never to return.[130] This hocus-pocus, championed by Union Ministers and encouraged by the Prime Minister, is inflicting grave—and perhaps lasting—damage on scientific thinking in India.

The contrast with India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, could not be starker. For Nehru, science was central to building a self-reliant and modern nation. While he wanted to salvage whatever was constructive in India’s tradition and culture, he firmly rejected religious dogma and orthodoxy that hindered progress. In an incisive article published in the Deccan Herald (7 February 2019), Prasenjit Chowdhury compares Narendra Modi with Nehru—whose legacy Modi loves to debunk as having caused the country great distress:

Nehru left India with the world’s second-largest pool of trained scientists and engineers. Men like Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai built the platform under Nehru’s tutelage for Indian accomplishments in the fields of atomic energy and space research…. Modi, in his attempt to negate Nehru who was noted for his vision to inspire a scientific temper, has chosen instead to mainstream pseudo-scientific orthodoxies.[131]

vii) Silencing Dissent

Indian civilisation, from ancient times, has been an unending celebration of plurality—the notion that there are many ways of looking at and living in the world. The Rigvedic verse, “Aano Bhadrah Kratvo Yantu Vishwatah” (Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions), expresses the perspective that there are many different ideas and truths spread all over the world and they are all welcome. The famed saying found in several ancient Hindu texts from the Maha Upanishad to the Bhagavad Gita, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The world is one family), embraces all of humanity—and therefore every idea, emotion and lifestyle that exists. In medieval India, the Bhakti and Sufi movements were directed against monopolies of truth and powerfully challenged religious dogma. Indian knowledge systems have thus always considered truth to be many-sided and believed that multiple ways lead to it. Dissenters were not only tolerated but also accorded an equal status, as Romila Thapar documents in her acclaimed essay, Voices of Dissent.

Today, this spirit of pluralism is under attack. Hindutva ideologues are mutilating this philosophical approach to life that is so fundamental to Indian civilisation as well as Hindu religion, and seeking to stifle debate and dissent on our campuses. This crackdown began soon after the Modi Government came to power in 2014.

In May 2015, under pressure from the HRD Ministry, IIT Madras banned a student group, Ambedkar–Periyar Study Circle (APSC), accusing it of sowing disaffection against the Prime Minister and “Hindus”.[132] In January 2016, Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide after months of harassment and intimidation by the ABVP in alliance with the campus authorities. Rohith and four other Dalit students had been evicted from their hostel in August 2015, had their monthly research stipends suspended and faced escalating institutional pressure. All four belonged to the Ambedkar Students Association and were active on the campus across a range of issues.[133]

In February 2016, the ABVP orchestrated a campaign against progressive student groups in JNU—targeting the university’s long-standing legacy as a space for free thought and dissent. JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and charged with sedition, based on a doctored video that falsely showed him shouting anti-India slogans. (Forensic experts later confirmed the video had been manipulated.) Right-wing media immediately launched a relentless campaign to malign the university as a “hotbed of anti-nationals”.[134]

Since then, the ABVP and other right-wing student outfits have mounted a systematic attack on dissenting student groups in universities across the country, often with police complicity—to stifle critical thought and silence all opposition to right-wing political ideology.

On 15 December 2019, during the nationwide anti-CAA–NRC protests in which students from Jamia Millia Islamia University (Delhi) participated in huge numbers, the police and paramilitary forces stormed the Jamia Millia campus and beat up students, even those who were quietly studying in the library. Hundreds of students were injured.[135]

In 2020, masked assailants armed with sticks and rods rampaged through the JNU campus, assaulting students and teachers for nearly three hours, while the police watched passively.[136] In February 2025, ABVP members attacked students and mess staff at the SAU for serving non-vegetarian food during Maha Shivratri.[137]

University administrations are also imposing restrictions on student activism. In December 2023, the JNU administration barred wall posters and staging of dharnas within 100 metres of academic buildings, imposing steep fines and threatening expulsion. The SAU is now asking all new students to give a written pledge that they will not participate in any protests during their time at the university. From August 2024, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, has asked students to sign an undertaking promising not to indulge in any “political, anti-establishment, unpatriotic” activities, with the threat of disciplinary action.[138]

Teachers are also being attacked if they participate in any protest or speak at an event that questions government policies or its functioning. The Times Higher Education Supplement (London) in 2022 reported several instances of academics being reprimanded by university officials for publicly criticising government policies.[139] In July 2018, JNU issued show cause notices to 48 faculty members for participating in a protest against the Vice-Chancellor’s policies. Many of them, after retirement, had their pensions and retirement benefits arbitrarily withheld. Forced to seek legal recourse to claim what was rightfully theirs, many are still awaiting justice.[140] This growing criminalisation of dissent has led to deep fear and alienation among academics. Professors are now ‘self-censoring’ themselves even in classrooms, unsure if they are being recorded or surveilled.

Though earlier regimes did interfere in the functioning of universities, this is the first time (with the exception of the Emergency) that the Central government has unleashed such a widespread and coordinated campaign to crush the freedoms enjoyed by universities—using both State machinery and violent vigilante groups to silence dissenting voices.

Steep Fall in Academic Freedom Index

India’s sharp decline in academic freedom is reflected in its plummeting rank on the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), a global study by researchers at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (Germany) and the V-Dem Institute (Sweden). It is a collaborative study drawing on the expertise of 2,363 scholars worldwide and tracks academic freedom in 179 countries. The report measures countries on the following factors: freedom to research and teach; freedom of academic exchange and dissemination; institutional autonomy; campus integrity; and freedom of academic and cultural expression.

India’s score dropped from 0.58 in 2015 (placing it in the top 50 percent) to just 0.16 in 2024—ranking it 156^th out of 179 countries, in the bottom 15 percent globally. The 2025 report categorises India as a country where academic freedom is “completely restricted”.[141]

We Need to Save Our Universities

Universities are not just buildings where teaching takes place—they are crucibles for shaping young minds into thoughtful, socially conscious citizens. Their role is to encourage students to question received wisdoms, challenge entrenched orthodoxies, interrogate all forms of dominant ideology and hold power to account. Such fearless inquiry is the lifeblood of democratic life, a vital check on the abuse of power. As the Kothari Commission so memorably put it, “Universities are pre-eminently the forum for a critical assessment of society” (emphasis added). The government, in turn, has a responsibility to nurture and protect these spaces of free thought.

But today, the Modi Government is destroying university freedom—curbing academic freedom, suppressing criticism of government policies, stifling dissent—and seeking to turn our universities into echo chambers of official ideology.

The Kothari Commission had emphasised the important role of education in promoting a scientific outlook towards life and culture. “Science,” it wrote, “strengthens the commitment of man to free enquiry and to the quest for truth as his highest duty and obligation. It loosens the bonds of dogmatism and acts as a powerful dispeller of fear and superstition” (Section 1.24).[142] Unfortunately, today, the government is promoting pseudoscience and pressurising universities to suppress any questioning of the dogmas and superstitions at the heart of the Hindutva worldview.

The Commission had envisioned education as a vehicle to instil democratic values—tolerance, mutual respect, and cultural diversity (Section 1.68).[143] Instead, today, our campuses are witnessing the imposition of a narrow, majoritarian ideology and a steady erosion of their secular, democratic character.

The Commission had emphasised that the character of a university is fundamentally different from that of a profit-driven enterprise. Tragically, today, our universities are increasingly becoming just that. Teachers have been reduced to casual wage workers in an education factory that discourages critical thinking and trains students to become obedient cogs in a machine that endlessly spins them around in circles of alienation and conformity.

The Kothari Commission had envisioned universities as institutions that promote equality and social justice. But the privatisation of higher education has betrayed this promise. As fees soar, education is becoming inaccessible to students from marginalised communities. Universities are becoming the preserve of dominant castes and classes, deepening the very inequalities they were meant to challenge.

This commodification of higher education fundamentally transforms the relationship between the educated and the rest of society. Our nation’s founders had visualised the university as an institution that would provide society with competent men and women trained in various professions, who would also be citizens imbued with a commitment to societal well-being. But profit-driven private institutions cannot instil such a spirit of social concern in their students. Students, having paid exorbitant fees, view higher education as an investment that is expected to yield maximum returns. Society, for them, is nothing more than a marketplace where they must extract the highest possible returns, not a community to which they owe any responsibility. And so, today, intellectuals chase promotions, awards and corporate favours, even if it means betraying the interests of the very people they are meant to serve.

To conclude, universities are not mere centres of learning. They engage vigorously and fearlessly in the pursuit of truth, interpret old knowledge and beliefs in the light of new discoveries, and preserve and promote cherished values. They are foundational to nation-building. They are centres where a society moulds its next generation to imagine and build a more humane, democratic and harmonious society.

Today, this vision is in peril. Hindutva neoliberalism has launched a multi-pronged assault on our universities—substandard RSS loyalists are being appointed to top academic positions, independent research is being curbed, academic freedom is being restricted, dissent is being crushed and ideological conformity is being imposed, making research not just in the social sciences but also in the natural sciences impossible. This is not only destroying the vibrant democratic ethos that prevailed in our universities earlier, it has also lowered their academic standards. Consequently, our best universities—like the University of Delhi which arguably had one of the best undergraduate teaching programmes in the world, the Jawaharlal Nehru University which pioneered an academic discourse in the social sciences in India that challenged the hegemony of the metropolis and Viswa Bharati which was infused with the vision of Rabindranath Tagore—are now reduced to mere shadows of their former selves.

India’s post-independence leaders, led by Nehru, built some of the finest universities and other higher education institutions in the developing world. In just a decade, the BJP–RSS led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has destroyed them. This is probably one of the worst damages caused by the Modi regime to Indian society and polity.

Teachers, students and citizens who believe in the values of our Constitution must come together to save our universities from this multi-pronged assault. The battle for our universities is, ultimately, a battle for the future of our democracy.

Notes

102. The Report of the University Education Commission (December 1948 – August 1949), op. cit., p. 42.
103. Report of the Education Commission 1964–66, op. cit., pp. 274–76, 325–26.
104. Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta, “Corrosive Agenda at Work”, Frontline, 12 June 2015, http://www.frontline.in; A.G. Noorani,“India’s Sawdust Caesar”, Frontline, 25 December 2015, http://www.frontline.in; Adrija Bose, “Seen Pahlaj Nihalani’s Tribute to PM Modi? Here are 11 Things That are Not Indian in the Video”, HuffPost India, 15 November 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.in; Soumya Shankar, “The Takeover: How the Modi Govt has Filled Key Positions in 14 Institutions”, 8 July 2015, http://www.catchnews.com; Swetha Ramakrishnan, “FTII Chairman Gajendra Chauhan’s Epic Filmography: A Career in Forgettable Cameos”, 18 June 2015, http://www.firstpost.com; Ziya Us Salam, “It’s Just Not fashion”, 6 July 2016, http://www.frontline.in; Sruti M.D., “The Mediocrity of the ICSSR Under Modi”, 15 July 2017, https://sabrangindia.in.
105. See for example: Kritika Sharma, “Sackings, Inquiries, Forced Leave: Central University V-Cs Face the Force of Modi Govt”, 3 November 2018, https://theprint.in; “Amartya Sen Quits Nalanda Varsity, Says Government Doesn’t Want Me”, 20 February 2015, http://www.business-standard.com.
106. “Anil Kakodkar Rebuts HRD Minister Smriti Irani: I am Out of the Process”, 23 May 2015, http://indianexpress.com; “How Baba Ramdev, and a Proxy Hindutva Agenda, Have Entered IIT Delhi”, 19 July 2015, http://www.kractivist.org; Divya Trivedi, “Personnel Matters”, Frontline, 19 February 2016, http://www.frontline.in.
107. “Editorial: Our Varsity Wasteland”, 21 April 2025, https://www-dtnext-in.
108. Syed Areesh Ahmad, “Ramjas and the Purge of Dissent”, 9 March 2017, https://www.thehinducentre.com; “Ramjas College Seminar Cancelled After ABVP, DUSU Protest for Inviting JNU Student Umar Khalid”, 21 February 2017, https://www.scoopwhoop.com.
109. C.P. Rajendran, “The Fading Role of Universities as Conscience of Society”, 18 January 2024, https://www.thehindu.com.
110. Aarefa Johari, “Free Fall in India’s Academic Freedom Ranking is Reflected in Cancelled Lectures at IIT Bombay and Elsewhere”, 10 October 2024, https://article-14.com.
111. “IISER Pune Cancels Ambedkarite Talks After ABVP Complaint”, 15 April 2025, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
112. “Jodhpur: University Professor Suspended for Inviting JNU’s Nivedita Menon to a Conference”, 16 February 2017, https://scroll.in.
113. P. Goyal, “Kolhapur Lecturer ‘Forced’ to Go on Leave for Saying Rapists ‘can be from Any Religion”, Newslaundry, 30 June 2023, https://www.newslaundry.com; P. Tupe, “How Maharashtra’s Women Academics are Resisting the Hate Narrative”, 24 September 2024, https://behanbox.com.
114. Zoya Hasan, “Political Intolerance and Declining Academic Freedom in India”, 19 March 2025, https://www.thehinducentre.com.
115. Mir Umar, “Once Bastions of Dissent, Indian Universities Now Face a Suffocating Environment of Surveillance and Censorship”, 2 April 2024, https://frontline.thehindu.com.
116. “Amid Ashoka University Row, a Look at Professors Who Quit Their Posts in Protest”, 18 August 2023, https://indianexpress.com.
117. “Editorial: Our Varsity Wasteland”, op. cit.
118. “PhD Scholar Withdraws from South Asian University Amid Kashmir Research Proposal Row”, 6 March 2025, https://thewire.in.
119. Shreya Basak, “Revisiting Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s Resignation as Ashoka University Faces Heat Over Electoral Manipulation Paper”, 11 August 2023, https://www.outlookindia.com; “Amid Ashoka University Row, a Look at Professors Who Quit Their Posts in Protest”, op. cit.
120. Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu, “Ashoka University Faculty Members Threaten Exodus Over Research Paper Row”, 16 August 2023, https://www.indiatoday.in; “Ashoka University Accepts Resignation of Author of Paper on Possible ‘Manipulation’ in 2019 Polls”, 15 August 2023, https://thewire.in.
121. Apoorvanand, “How the UGC Creates Consensus for the Ruling Regime”, 14 December 2022, https://frontline.thehindu.com; C.P. Rajendran, “The Fading Role of Universities as Conscience of Society”, op. cit.; “Set Up Selfie Points with PM Image in Background: UGC”, 3 December 2023, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
122. Apoorvanand, ibid.
123. Apoorvanand, “A Controversial ‘Book Launch’ and Delhi University’s Descent Into Party Propaganda”, 21 January 2025, https://thewire.in.
124. Amey Tirodkar, “IIT Bombay’s ‘Garbhavigyan’ Lecture: A Reflection of ‘Saffronisation’ of Educational Campuses?”, 18 January 2025, https://frontline.thehindu.com.
125. There are several articles available on the internet on these programs. See for instance: “On Campuses in Delhi, Student Groups Plan Havan, Deepotsav”, 23 January 2024, https://indianexpress.com; “In DU’s Daulat Ram College, Students Witness Saffronisation of a ‘Safe Place’”, 24 January 2025, https://thewire.in.
126. “UPRTOU to Launch Course on Hindu Rituals”, 5 October 2023, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com; “With Eye on Jobs as Purohits Ahead of Ram Temple Opening, UP Students Show Interest in Courses on Hindu Rituals”, 4 August 2023, https://indianexpress.com; “U.P.: Allahabad University Plans Dedicated Centre for Vedic Studies”, 1 August 2022, https://www.hindustantimes.com.
127. Santanu Chowdhury, “Launched Days Ago, IIT Centre in Calendar Row Offers Courses in Vastu Vidya, Arthashastra”, 30 December 2021, https://indianexpress.com; “DU’s New Course ‘Dharmashastra Studies’ Has Manusmriti, Other Hindu Religious Literature in Syllabus”, 12 June 2025, https://thewire.in.
128. Shreya Roy Chowdhury, “Urine Capsules, Dung Insect Repellent: Meet the People Behind IIT-Delhi’s Cow Research Project”, 21 February 2017, https://scroll.in.
129. “BJP-Led State Governments Resorting to Communal Cleansing of Educational Institutions”, 8 December 2022, https://www.nationalheraldindia.com; ‘Ex-Law College Principal Booked Over ‘Hinduphobic’ Book Gets SC Relief”, 17 May 2024, https://indianexpress.com.
130. Ramachandra Guha, “Surgical Strike Against Science and Scholarship”, 27 April 2019, https://www.telegraphindia.com; Niladry Sarkar, “Indian Science Congress Postponed Amid Tussle with Centre’s Science and Technology Department”, 17 February 2024, https://scroll.in; “Science Congress a Circus: Nobel Winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan”, 6 January 2016, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com; “Rishi has Given Guidelines to Make Planes”, 16 November 2021, https://www.thehindu.com.
131. Prasenjit Chowdhury, “Modi and Indian Science: A Legacy Best Forgotten”, 7 February 2019, https://www.deccanherald.com.
132. Arun Janardhanan, “IIT-Madras Reprimands Students’ Body That Criticised Narendra Modi and Saffronisation”, 29 May 2015, https://indianexpress.com.
133. “The Letter of ‘Intolerance’ from a Minister That Led to Rohith Vemula’s Death”, The Citizen Bureau, 19 January 2016, https://www.thecitizen.in.
134. “Govt. Acts Tough, JNU Student Leader Charged with Sedition”, 28 November 2021, https://www.thehindu.com; Shruti Kaushik, “How Police Use Unverified Videos to Allege Sedition”, 27 August 2021, https://article-14.com; “Debunking the Viral Video of ‘Sedition’ That has Captivated India”, 18 February 2016, https://www.bbc.com; Ishan Marvel, “How the ABVP Brought the State into JNU”, 3 March 2016, https://caravanmagazine.in.
135. Nehal Ahmed and Grace Raju, “‘We Heard Gunfire’: Jamia Students Detail Police Attack on Campus”, 18 December 2019, https://www.aljazeera.com.
136. “Masked Mob Attacks JNU; Around 24 Including Students, Teachers Injured”, 6 January 2020, https://www.ndtv.com.; “As It Happened: Masked Goons Strike Terror in JNU, None Arrested”, 6 January 2020, https://www.thehindu.com.
137. “Students ‘Attacked’, Ruckus at South Asian University as ABVP vs SFI Clash Over Food Menu”, 26 February 2025, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
138. “‘I’m Mentally Sound, Won’t Protest’; SAU Seeks Undertaking From Students”, 29 July 2023, https://www.freepressjournal.in; Mir Umar, “Once Bastions of Dissent, Indian Universities Now Face a Suffocating Environment of Surveillance and Censorship”, op. cit.; Pallavi Smart, “TISS Revises Honour Code: Bans Participation in ‘Anti-Establishment’, ‘Unpatriotic’ Discussions”, 4 September 2024, https://indianexpress.com.
139. Pola Lem, “Scholars ‘Reprimanded by Universities’ for Criticising Indian Government”, 20 July 2022, https://www.timeshighereducation.com.
140. Zoya Hasan, “Political Intolerance and Declining Academic Freedom in India”, op. cit.
141. Ibid.; Kavita Chowdhury, “Plummeting Academic Freedom and Autonomy in Modi’s India”, 24 April 2025, https://thediplomat.com.
142. Report of the Education Commission 1964–66, op. cit., p. 7.
143. Ibid., p. 17.

[Neeraj Jain is a social activist and writer. He is the convenor of Lokayat, an activist group based in Pune. He is also the editor of Janata Weekly, India’s oldest socialist magazine. He has authored several books, including Globalisation or Recolonisation?, Education Under Globalisation: Burial of the Constitutional Dream, Nuclear Energy: Technology from Hell, and most recently, Union Budgets 2014-24: An Analysis.]