As another year begins, it is time to look back (in despair) at the state of higher educational institutions in our country: to recall how, during the last year, the process of converting these spaces of intense inquiry, debate, discussion and possible dissent into sites of conformity, obedience and discipline continued with no sign of any pause or reflection by the powers that be. Here are some glaring examples (alas, it is not an exhaustive list).
Jamia Milia Islamia: show-cause notices and protests
In February 2025, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, issued show-cause notices against four PhD students for organising a meeting in memory of the anti-CAA/NRC protests held in Delhi in December 2019, when the Delhi Police had lathi-charged students inside the institute’s library. (During that lathi charge, one student lost his eye, several others were injured and the library was vandalised by the police.) The students who received show-cause notices were further intimidated and threatened by the administration. This led to sit-in protests by students near the central canteen.
Tensions escalated when some students from the protest site were dragged by the police and detained at various police stations. Further, the administration cut off electricity, water and access to washrooms for protesting students.
JNU: students detained for slogans
In the early morning of February 4, four students associated with the student group Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch were detained by guards on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, for peacefully raising concerns by painting slogans on the walls relating to the ongoing military operation in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, encounter killings and the plunder of the country’s resources by big corporations. The students were later handed over to the Delhi Police. They were brutally beaten by the police during interrogation.
South Asia University: violence over food choices
In March, members of the ABVP, the student wing of the ruling BJP, viciously attacked students at South Asia University, Delhi, in the university mess for eating non-vegetarian food on the day of the Maha Shivratri festival, despite its diktat to the contrary. The ABVP members even grabbed the hair of women students and dragged them violently during the attack. They also attacked the mess staff for serving non-vegetarian food.
IISER Pune: events cancelled without reasons
In April, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, arbitrarily cancelled Muktiparv, a festival dedicated to the works of Dr B R Ambedkar, halfway through its events without assigning any reason and despite the organisers having received all necessary approvals. Earlier, in February 2025, the IISER authorities had similarly revoked permission for the Pride March organised by Satrangi, its queer collective, on the basis of unsubstantiated complaints by external bodies.
July detentions: activists abducted and tortured
In July, seven students and youth activists who spoke against state violence in Bastar or commemorated anti-CAA protests were abducted by plainclothes personnel of the Delhi Police Special Cell from various locations in and around Delhi. They were held incommunicado, stripped, beaten with leather whips, electrocuted, denied sleep, and forced to sign blank sheets of paper and dictated false confessions. Without any legal process, their phones and digital devices were seized, and none was charged with any offence. The police also summoned and threatened their families to ensure the activists did not return to Delhi or resume political activity, under warning of severe consequences.
Delhi University: academic forum cancelled
In October, just two days before the event, the Friday Research Colloquium of the Department of Sociology was abruptly cancelled by the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University for unspecified ‘administrative reasons’. The topic of the seminar was ‘Land, Property, and Democratic Rights’. The order further stated that permission must be sought every week from his office for this weekly academic seminar, previously held without fail for more than 60 years. In protest, the convener of the colloquium, Prof. Nandini Sundar, resigned from the post since, as she put it in her resignation letter, she “could no longer guarantee the intellectual integrity of the forum”.
Simultaneously, the Office of the Dean of Colleges of the University enthusiastically circulated an invitation for the ‘National Godhan Summit’, organised by the Rashtriya Godhan Mahasangh, to all college principals, staff and students. The summit focused on ‘Panchgavya’ products and the ‘Bio E3’ theme.
JNU protests and police action
Again in October, hundreds of students gathered at the Sabarmati T-Point inside the JNU campus, demanding that the Delhi Police register an FIR against ABVP activists who had unleashed violence in different schools of the university during their general body meetings. In response, the police came down heavily on the peacefully marching students and let loose goons to beat them up. The police then picked up 28 students and took them to the police station. Only after continued protest and another march were the police forced to release them, even as no action was taken against the ABVP members who violently attacked the protesting students.
Academic deportation
On October 21, Dr Francesca Orsini, an internationally well-known scholar of Hindi and Professor of Hindi at SOAS, London, was deported from Delhi airport, ostensibly because she violated her visa conditions, even though she had a valid visa for five years. No official reasons were assigned for her deportation.
Jamia faculty suspension
In December, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, suspended a faculty member from its Department of Social Work, Professor Virendra Balaji Shahare, after the university received complaints about a question on atrocities against Muslims in India in a semester-end question paper in the subject ‘Social Problems in India’.
Postscript
In December, the Department of English, Maharaja Sayajirao University, introduced writings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar in a new BA (English) course.
Vrijendra taught in a Mumbai college for more than 30 years and has been associated with democratic rights groups in the city.
