Higher education in India has always been influenced by politics, but the current Bharatiya Janata Party government has greatly increased politicization. Political interference in the hiring of vice-chancellors and professors, restrictions on academic freedom, and other problems have become commonplace. This interference threatens a free and open intellectual environment, as seen in recent censorship cases and punitive actions against faculty and students in many institutions.

In June 2024, shortly after securing his third term as prime minister, Narendra Modi inaugurated the new campus of Nalanda University in Bihar in the eastern part of India. During the function, Modi underscored the importance of creating and maintaining an academic environment where knowledge can be freely pursued by stating that “Nalanda is the proclamation of the truth that knowledge cannot be destroyed even though books would burn in a fire.” However, the post-2010 evolution of Nalanda University, an East Asian joint effort, contradicts this statement as it reflects the challenges of maintaining academic independence, as well as the complex relationship between universities and political forces in India.

Indian higher education has always been political. In the years following independence, politicians (and others) started colleges and universities to advance their careers and build support. In recent decades, there has been a resurgence of politicians founding large-scale private educational enterprises, encompassing schools, colleges, and universities. Because higher education is such an important lever for social advancement and economic success, it is always of great interest to society.

Numerous instances can be found where state and central government authorities strategically placed new postsecondary institutions in politically advantageous locations. Many of them were established to cater to the demands of the electorate based on various sociocultural factors as well. The naming and renaming of universities is often influenced by politics and regional identities. For example, Pune University was renamed Savitribai Phule Pune University to recognize the contributions of the social reformer Savitribai Phule. The University of Bombay became the University of Mumbai to reflect the city’s name change from Bombay to Mumbai. There have also been demands to establish central universities named after spiritual leaders Guru Gobind Singh in Bihar and Sree Narayana Guru in Kerala.

Academic appointments or promotions were sometimes made for reasons other than the quality of the professor, vice-chancellor, or principal, but rather based on personal or political factors. The norms of academic freedom were not always firmly followed, especially in many undergraduate colleges, and teachers were careful in what they taught or wrote.

Yet, overall, Indian higher education, particularly the universities, adhered to international norms of academic freedom. Generally, professors were free to teach without fear of being disciplined or fired for their views. They were able to do research and to publish their work freely, and to speak and write in public forums and the media. The universities, often mired in bureaucracy, occasionally faced allegations of political interference in the recruitment of faculty members. However, they enjoyed relative autonomy when it came to the promotion of existing faculty.

Fundamental Political Change

It is fair to say that Indian higher education has become fundamentally politicized in the Modi era. This is a grave danger to academic institutions, the academic profession, and intellectual life on the whole. These trends can, of course, be seen as part of the “illiberal” trends in society generally—and of course India is not alone in these developments. At some point the rest of the world, including India’s potential academic partners, will notice this deterioration in academe, and it may affect their decisions at a time when India seeks to join the top levels of global higher education.

There is no doubt that the political elites responsible for this politicization are well aware of the importance of higher education in Indian intellectual life; silencing and intimidating critical voices is a hallmark of “illiberal” societies everywhere.

Examples of Change

Not long ago, Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi made some comments about politically appointed vice-chancellors and received much criticism. But the fact is that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities throughout the country have been replacing university vice-chancellors with politically pliable appointees, many of whom have little higher education experience. These appointees have been reshaping the universities with politically allied faculty and through other changes. This is the first time in India’s postindependence history that such direct interference in academe has become common. It is so egregious that the non-BJP governments in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Punjab are trying to remove the centrally appointed state governors as the largely honorific chancellors of the state universities, which gives them power to control the vice-chancellor appointment process.

Academic freedom is also under attack. Perhaps the most sinister aspect is that self-censorship has become common, especially in the social sciences and humanities. Even senior academics are afraid to publish work that they think might create problems for them from state authorities or pro-BJP media. There have been several widely reported cases where well-known professors have published controversial material and their universities have not protected them. It was reported that in his resignation letter to Ashoka University in 2021, prominent political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta wrote that his public writing in support of constitutional values of freedom and equal respect for all citizens was perceived as carrying risks for the university.

Even respected journals known for their independence have become off-limits. The fact that these pressures are being felt even at the top of India’s academic system says a lot about the situation throughout Indian higher education. Professor Sameena Dalwai, a faculty member at the O.P. Jindal Global University, recently encountered an online smear campaign orchestrated by right-wing groups alongside the lodging of a police complaint against her. Other incidents, such as the suspension of Professor K.S. James from his role as director of the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai, and the deportation of the United Kingdom–based anthropologist Filippo Osella from Thiruvananthapuram Airport in Kerala, also paint a grim picture.

Even students have become embroiled in campus politicization. Recently, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences suspended a PhD student over alleged “antinational activities.” The Progressive Students Forum, however, formerly led by the student, claimed that his suspension was due to participating in a protest march against the central government’s “antistudent policies.” Of course, traditional campus politics continue, although rightist student organizations such as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad are more active than in the past, even at traditionally leftist universities such as Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. But what is new is that students are reporting their professors to campus administrators if they disagree with the content of their classes. This sometimes leads to faculty members being disciplined.

Implications

These trends are extraordinarily dangerous for Indian higher education and civic life generally. An independent and free academic sector is important for any society. The academic profession must be free to engage in unfettered research, and have the ability to publish and to speak out in areas of their academic expertise. This is as true for the “soft sciences” as it is for STEM fields. This may be especially the case in India, where many top intellectuals and analysts are in the universities. Further, as India seeks to build world-class universities and to engage with the best universities worldwide, academic freedom and autonomy are necessary prerequisites.

Philip G. Altbach is professor emeritus and distinguished fellow at the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, United States. E-mail: [email protected].

Eldho Mathews is program officer (Internationalization of Higher Education) at the Kerala State Higher Education Council, India. E-mail: [email protected].