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Recent Developments in the Crisis of Academic Freedom in India

Updated: Nov 19


 Student protestors in New Delhi, India || Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images


The Free to Think 2024 report, published in October 2024 by Scholars at Risk, found that India’s ranking on the Academic Freedom Index has plummeted to its lowest point since the mid-1940s. The report noted that the most pressing threats to academic freedom in India were the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) efforts to exert political control on academic institutions and university policies limiting student protests. The Academic Freedom Index, released by V-Dem Institute, placed India in the ‘completely restricted’ category—countries where restrictions on academic freedom are consistently applied across all academic disciplines. From 2013 to 2023, India’s AFI rank slipped from 0.6 to 0.2 on a scale of 0 to 1. In the past, representatives of the BJP government have rejected or criticized reports published by V-Dem. 


This decline is being witnessed across premier universities in the country. In the past weeks Indian scholars have been suspended for expressing dissent, lectures have been canceled that were found to be political, syllabi have been changed to align with the views of the BJP-led government, and research has been stifled to protect commercial interests. 

  

Administrative Backlash Against Dissent


On October 4, Arjun Sengupta, an assistant professor at the esteemed Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad campus, participated in a student protest in solidarity with the student leader and PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanandan, who had been suspended by the TISS administration. In April, Sivanandan, who belongs to a Dalit community from Kerala, was suspended by the Institute for participating in a protest against the National Education Policy (NEP) organized at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. He is currently fighting his suspension order in court. Sengupta’s speech was widely circulated on social media, resulting in a show cause notice. The student protest focused on several issues and concerns regarding the current academic functioning at TISS. In recent years, TISS has become increasingly intolerant of students and teachers participating in public gatherings that it considers critical of the administration or the BJP-led government. 


Earlier this year, a PhD scholar at South Asian University in New Delhi received a show cause notice regarding a research proposal. A disciplinary inquiry was launched against the PhD student’s supervisor, Sasanka Perera, who subsequently resigned from his position at the university. You can read more about the incident here.


Restrictions on Campus Events 


At the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, the most prestigious engineering and technical education public institute in India, the administration has canceled guest lectures by prominent intellectuals and experts since November 2023. The Institute has issued guidelines prohibiting students and faculty from organizing any events or guest lectures that “may be viewed as political” without the permission of the administration. The guidelines came in response to two specific guest lectures on Palestinian issues hosted by the institute’s humanities and social sciences department in November 2023. Most recently, Ramchandra Guha, a noted environmentalist and historian, and a vocal critic of the BJP, was disinvited from IIT’s annual National Environment Conference (NEC), scheduled to take place in February 2024. 


Alignment of Syllabi with BJP Ideology 


At the University of Delhi, a panel has proposed changes to a course on Indian history. The proposal attempts to remove a text by Professor Irfan Habib, a prominent academic critical of the BJP-led government.


It also attempts to change the syllabus, increasingly focusing on Hindu mythology. For instance, the syllabus introduces archaeological findings related to Purana Qila, where excavations have taken place to locate Indraprastha, a city mentioned in the Mahabharata–a Sanskrit epic of ancient India revered in Hinduism. Historians have criticized this move, as there has been no archaeological evidence that supports the claim that the city was located at Purana Qila. Maya John, assistant professor of History at the University of Delhi’s Jesus and Mary College, stated that “the proposed revisions in the paper are not based on academic merit but are being made so that increasingly the syllabi gel with the agenda of the ruling dispensation.”


Commercial Interest Stifles Research 


Bharat Biotech, the pharmaceutical company that developed Covaxin—India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine—in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICRM), recently filed a defamation lawsuit against researchers from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The researchers published a paper in the journal Drug Safety, titled “Long-term safety analysis of the BBV152 Coronavirus vaccine [commonly known as Covaxin] in adolescents and adults: Findings from a 1-year prospective study in North India.” The lawsuit, against the 11 BHU researchers and the journal, claims that the paper created “shock, alarm, and hesitancy” among the public regarding the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and could undermine the public trust in the company and its products. Bharat Biotech is seeking a permanent injunction against the paper and is demanding INR 50 million (US $600,000) in damages. At the ICRM’s request, the journal retracted the paper stating that the data was presented in a manner that could result in “ambiguous or incorrect interpretations.” The authors of the paper stated that they had performed a safety study on the BBV152 vaccine over one year based on the WHO principles of cohort event monitoring. This was done as recommended by various scientific agencies as a valid form of post marketing vaccine surveillance for safety data.


Researchers, doctors, scientists, ethicists, and civil society members have warned the lawsuit could have a “chilling effect” on future research. An open letter signed by over 600 individuals, including medical professionals and representatives from civil society, condemned the company's decision to pursue legal action, emphasizing it could deter scientists from examining the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products. The open letter addressed to Bharat Biotech, ICMR, and the editor of Drug Safety said the company’s actions were “short-sighted and punitive” and urged Bharat Biotech and ICMR to withdraw the lawsuit and reinstate the paper.


The restrictions on academic freedom correspond to a broader decline in India’s freedom of the press, speech, and expression in recent years. Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) continues to monitor developments around academic freedom in India with immense concern. We at ESW urge the Indian government to stop restricting academic freedom for all university members and to create an environment that supports free academic activities.


You can read our country profile on India here.

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