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08/10/24 10:31 AM IST

India slipped on academic freedom index over the past decade: report

In News
  • Annual report published by the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Academic Freedom Monitoring Project says the most pressing threats to the academic freedom of students and scholars include measures to exert political control and impose a Hindu nationalist agenda on universities.
Major findings
  • The report notes that India’s academic freedom slipped from 0.6 points to 0.2 points from 2013 to 2023.
  • In India, the most pressing threats to the academic freedom of students and scholars included the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s efforts to exert political control and impose a Hindu nationalist agenda on universities and university policies limiting student protest.
  • India now ranks as “completely restricted”, its lowest score since the mid-1940s. The report highlights some instances of the Indian government putting in stringent measures in campuses. 
  • The report also flags some other restrictions on academic activity: U.K.-based Professor Natasha Kaul was denied entry to India for remarks critical of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
  • Over 200 students from JNU, Jamia Millia University, and Delhi University protesting outside the Israeli Embassy in solidarity with Palestinians were detained.
  • The report makes a mention of Nivedita Menon — a professor in political theory at JNU, who was heckled on March 12, 2024, by students affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
  • It also refers to a talk by Achin Vanaik at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, that was cancelled. He is a critically acclaimed writer and former head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Delhi.
About SAR
  • SAR is a network of 665 universities across the globe, including Columbia University, Duke University, and New York University.
  • The report has looked extensively at India, Afghanistan, China, Colombia, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Russia, Turkiye, Sudan, Ukraine, the U.K. and the U.S., while documenting 391 attacks on higher education communities in 51 countries between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. 
Source- The Hindu

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