Anumeha Mishra | 22 October 2026 | The Leaflet
ACADEMIA IS UNDER SIEGE. The knowledge ecosystem of public universities in India, which fostered critical and free thought, is being dismantled and converted into a breeding ground for neoliberal authoritarianism.
As an academician teaching at a public university in India, I struggle to locate myself in this new structure, threatened by the idea of knowledge as a public good. Policymakers, which unfortunately include academics who were themselves beneficiaries of an education system that resisted market interventions, are spearheading the march to integrate public universities into a neoliberal knowledge economy that wants to exploit the intellectual labour of teachers and students to generate capital. This integration is being driven by the commodification of knowledge through rules and regulations that impacts all aspects of academic conduct. It influences what and how academics teach and research, what form of scholarship is valued, and how they are positioned in their institutes.
The commodification of research
The neoliberal economy views intellectual labour as a product that can be owned and monetized. This world view is in stark contrast to the idea of knowledge as collective good, as something that is shared.
Hence, it’s not surprising that today, the market dictates how academia engages with research. Publications have become a defining feature of academic life. Academicians are supposed to continuously publish so that they may fulfill the job eligibility and be promoted. Publish or perish has become the motto of this profession. The market not only decides how much to publish, but also insists on where to publish. Academicians write, so that their research can be quantified appropriately and help their institutes climb the rankings ladder, as if research were an account ledger.