: Ramachandra Guha: How political meddling is hurting academic freedom in Indian universities #IndiaNEWS At a conference last month, I met the director of one of our prestigious Indian Institutes of

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Ramachandra Guha: How political meddling is hurting academic freedom in Indian universities #IndiaNEWS
At a conference last month, I met the director of one of our prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology. Himself a fine scientist and excellent administrator, he told me that no fewer than eight IITs were currently without directors. In each case, the term of the previous incumbent had ended, and though a search committee had been constituted, in no case had the recommended candidate’s name been approved by the government of India. This was because the personal and intellectual trajectories of the eight chosen candidates were apparently being vetted by “Nagpur� before they could be cleared.That darkly meaningful word, “Nagpur�, was used by this IIT director in a spirit of sarcasm. However, underlying all that he said was a sense of sadness. The scientist knew, from his vast experience in the public university system, that political meddling with higher education had not begun with the Narendra Modi government. Past regimes had also played favourites, with ministers of education often subtly (or not so subtly) directing search committees to pick this or that person as the vice-chancellor of one of the Central universities or as a senior official of the University Grants Commission. However, for the first time, such interference had now reached...Read more

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