Gagged Campuses, Hollowed Classrooms: The Universities in India Today
Rishabh Kachroo | 04 January 2026 | The Wire
It is not uncommon to read a new media piece every few months where someone rediscovers the same supposed malady that ails the Indian universities: Indian universities are failing because they are too political. If only the campus could be disinfected of politics, the argument goes, “human knowledge” would finally flourish.
A recent column, offering this old beaten-to-death story, begins with global league tables (Times Higher Education rankings) and laments India’s absence from the top rungs, and then continues to propose a cure: revive greatness through either a strong state or a new class of philanthropists. Along the way, the piece treats reservations and democratic contestation as the primary reasons universities “lost their lead”….