Why an Email About Cows Is Intensifying Concerns About Academic Freedom in India
Esha Mitra | 16 November 2025 | CNN
New Delhi — One of India’s most prestigious universities has been accused of compromising its academic freedom by cancelling a seminar on democracy the same day it issued a directive to staff to promote a summit on cow welfare.
Cows are revered as sacred by many Hindus, but critics say Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using India’s devotion to the bovine as a political tool to elevate its Hindu nationalist agenda.
Professors and students at Delhi University, long seen as bulwark of free speech in the country, say the directive is another example of the pressures placed on educational institutions by the Modi government as it pushes Hinduism in a democracy founded on secular values….