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For more than a decade, Indian public universities have been under intense attack and academic freedom has narrowed,

Recent policy changes and structural shifts are making it increasingly difficult for students from marginalised communities to access higher education. Decades of privatisation had already weakened the public university system, but now the Hindutvaisation of education has created an even more urgent crisis.

That is what academics Nandita Narain and Nivedita Menon discuss with author and peace worker Harsh Mander in this episode of Yeh Daag Daag Ujala.

They describe how appointments and promotions of faculty are now often contingent on ideological conformity, with open preference being given to those aligned with Hindutva. At the same time, students and teachers critical of the ruling dispensation face intimidation, disciplinary action and vilification.

Fear is being institutionalised through policies, surveillance, and the steady erosion of institutional autonomy, they note. They also reflect on how the university as a space of critical thought and democratic debate is under attack and what that means for India’s future.

Nandita Narain is a mathematics professor who taught at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University for over four decades. She was a two-time president of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association and is now the chairman of Joint Forum for Movement on Education.

Nivedita Menon is a professor at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at Jawaharlal Nehru University, a leading feminist theorist and author of several acclaimed books.

The name of Karwan e Mohabbat’s Yeh Daag Daag Ujala series is a tribute to the iconic poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.