US Congressional briefing on Hindutva and academic freedom
Recent years have witnessed an alarming increase in interventions in academic activities in India and abroad in the name of defending Hinduism and nationalism. Under the aegis of the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the state has directly interfered interfered in the higher education sector, attacking academic freedom and academics via making university appointments on the basis of political affiliations, censorship, increasing surveillance, physical attacks, arbitrary arrest and detention of faculty members and students, denial of visas and restrictions on academic exchanges. School textbooks and university syllabi are scrutinised for their adherence to a uniform nationalist narrative and a view of a certain upper-caste version of Hinduism as representative of India. Faculty members and students have been regularly suspended for their views and social media posts. On a structural level there has been a massive push towards the privatisation of education in the New Education Policy 2020, which effectively restricts access to education and especially higher education for millions, especially those from minority and oppressed caste backgrounds.
The Hindutva-motivated attacks on academic freedom abroad tend to focus on a victim narrative based on an wildly imaginary experience of “Hinduphobia”, which has become a convenient term to mark any criticism of Hindutva. Indian student groups at universities abroad have targeted Indian-origin faculty members for their public criticism of the present Indian dispensation, labelling these scholars “Hinduphobic”, at times subjecting them to online trolling and casteist, sexist and homophobic slurs. Lectures by scholars of India are cancelled or attacked on grounds of being considered offensive to Hindu sentiment. Scholars critical of the government face difficulties in getting travel and research permits to visit India.
On 8 September 2021, the bi-monthly US congressional briefing co-hosted by the Indian American Muslim Council and 15 other organisations focused Hindutva assaults on academic freedom. InSAF India co-organised this briefing, featuring Prof. Apoorvanand (Delhi University), Prof. Deepa Kumar (Rutgers University), Prof. Audrey Truschke (Rutgers University) and Prof. Thomas Blom Hansen (Stanford University). The event was moderated by Annapurna Menon (Westminster University) from InSAF India.
US Congressional Briefing co-organised with Indian American Muslim Council (Sep 2021)