Azim Premji University: The Latest Campus To Buckle Under Hindu Nationalist Intimidation
Anand Teltumbde | 05 March 2026 | Outlook
On February 24, 2025, Azim Premji University (APU) in Bengaluru joined the growing list of Indian campuses where academic freedom has been violently attacked and administratively betrayed. What was planned as a reading and discussion on the Kunan-Poshpora mass rape case which is alleged to have occurred in Kashmir 35 years ago, became a scene of violence and institutional capitulation. The incident reveals a coordinated national pattern: right-wing groups attack, administrators buckle, and spaces for critical inquiry are eliminated. APU, founded with explicit commitment to liberal values, has demonstrated that even institutions created specifically to resist ideological capture cannot withstand the sustained assault on academic freedom under the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s rule.
Established in 2010 with funding from Wipro founder Azim Premji, APU aimed to create space for rigorous liberal arts education and engagement with social justice issues that mainstream Indian universities increasingly avoided. APU distinguished itself through substantial scholarships ensuring economic diversity, interdisciplinary programs focused on inequality, faculty committed to critical inquiry, and institutional structures designed to resist political interference that had compromised other universities…