Suicides
This month witnessed a spate of suicides at institutions of higher learning: IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, NIT Kozhikode, and IIIT Idupulapaya, in addition to another attempted suicide at IIT Madras. This is part of a worsening trend: between 2014–2021, more than 120 suicides have taken place at the IITs, IIMs, and Central Universities, and more than half of these were committed by students belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. In response to the suicide of Darshan Solanki, a first-year undergraduate at IIT Bombay, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has released a statement emphasising the institutionalised nature of caste discrimination at the IITs. The suicide of Stephen Sunny, a postgraduate student at IIT Madras sparked protests that underscored the discrimination that scholars from disadvantaged communities face.
Declining Academic Freedom
A new report by the V-Dem Institute finds that India has less academic freedom today than it did ten years ago, echoing findings by Nandini Sundar and Gowhar Fazili a few years ago. We quote from their report:
“In India, academic freedom started to decline in 2009 with a drop in university autonomy followed by a sharp downturn in all indicators from 2013. Around 2013, all aspects of academic freedom began to decline strongly, reinforced with Narendra Modi’s election as prime minister in 2014. Campus integrity, institutional autonomy, and the freedom of academic and cultural expression declined more strongly over the following years than the freedom to reach and teach and the freedom of academic exchange and dissemination… Moreover, the attacks on academic freedom under Modi’s Hindu nationalist government were also possible due to the absence of a legal framework to protect academic freedom. What distinguishes India from other cases is notable pressure on the institutional dimensions of academic freedom – institutional autonomy and campus integrity – combined with constraints on academics’ freedom of expression.”
Ad Hoc Faculty Protests
Delhi University (DU) saw protests by faculty groups surrounding the issue of persistent delays in the formation of Governing Bodies in 28 colleges, as well as absorption of ad hoc faculty members. Approximately half (!) of the faculty at DU are ad hoc. Dr. Maya John, a historian at DU and trade union activist, emphasises that the recent appointment drives should be viewed critically, as the ad hoc faculty now face the problem of large-scale displacement:
“The present celebratory din regarding permanent appointments seeks to divert attention away from the surgical displacement of a vast majority of serving ad-hoc teachers, as well as the strategic administrative move to remove ad-hoc positions altogether through the appointment of even more vulnerable contractual guest teachers to fresh teaching positions that are emerging.”
Right To Protest
Although immediately rescinded, new regulations were proposed at JNU that would have penalised students engaged in “hunger strikes, dharnas, group bargaining and any other form of protest by blocking entrance or exit of any of the academic or administrative complexes or disrupting movements of any member of the university community.” Similarly, students at the South Asian University have been sitting in protests against the university administration’s heavy-handed response to demands for a raise in their stipends.
Other Protests
Differently-abled students at Banaras Hindu University are protesting the mishandling of a case of sexual harassment of a differently abled woman student, and are demanding an audience with the Vice Chancellor.
In the face of protests, a film festival at Ravenshaw University was allowed to proceed under the condition that the scheduled screening of two films be cancelled.
Coverage
Finally, the AcDR statement criticising the censorship of the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question received wide coverage: see The Wire, Scroll.in, The Hindu, Telegraph India, and GroundXero.