Why scholars around the world are growing increasingly wary of studying India

Across the world, scholars say they are thinking twice before choosing Indian subjects to study because they are unsure they will be allowed access to the country for field work.

A social science researcher at a university in the United Kingdom told Scroll that they had been trying to plan a visit to India for nearly two years. Starting in early 2024, they said, they applied for research clearance from the Indian government, formalised their affiliation with an Indian institution, and completed all other paperwork associated with their academic plans, but had still not received approval.

“I have contacted officials, but have either been unable to get through, or been told that my application is ‘still being processed',” the researcher said.

The delay in the process has caused the researcher immense stress, and forced them to consider completely changing their area of research.

Even established scholars say they are gripped with anxiety because procuring visas to visit India for their work has become increasingly difficult.

“We are on tenterhooks every time we apply for visas, and worry with each visit to India that it will be our last,” a professor based in the United Kingdom said, requesting anonymity because they feared repercussions from Indian authorities. “Some of us don't even try to go to India anymore because of fears as to what will happen, or because we know that applying for visas will be fruitless.”

This anxiety has been deepened by a series of deportations in recent years.

In March 2022, Filippo Osella, a professor of social anthropology at the London School of Economics, was deported from the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Osella has written widely on Kerala communities and culture.

In February 2024, Nitasha Kaul, a professor of politics, international relations and critical interdisciplinary studies at the University of Westminster, London, was deported after arriving at the Bengaluru airport.

Earlier this year, the government cancelled Kaul's Overseas Citizen of India status – in her CV, Kaul notes that she was given a “one paragraph reason” ahead of the move, “akin to troll assertions (i.e. my work is anti-national etc.)” She further notes that she submitted a “comprehensive 20,000 word reply” in which she provided “detailed verifiable evidence to the contrary”. Despite this, she notes, in May the government sent her a letter “that announced a cancellation of my OCI”.

More recently, in late October, Francesca Orsini, a scholar of South Asian literature, flew into Delhi after attending a conference in Hong Kong. Orsini is Professor Emerita at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and has researched and written widely on the Hindi language.

At the Delhi airport, immigration officials denied Orsini entry into the country, and deported her. Indian authorities allegedly said that she had been blacklisted because she had violated the conditions of her visa.

Audrey Truschke, professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said she was surprised when she heard about Orsini being deported. Until then, she had assumed that Indian authorities were predominantly creating obstructions for scholars who were publishing work that was critical of the government, or that in some way challenged the Hindutva ideology that the current regime espouses.

“I was surprised to hear of Orsini's deportation because she's in the field of Hindi literature,” Truschke said. “I guess now they have expanded their criteria and are objecting to all kinds of scholars.”

Christophe Jaffrelot, a French political scientist who chairs the British Association for South Asian Studies, said that arbitrarily being denied entry and forced back on flights leaves scholars extremely stressed and perplexed.

“It's an extremely brutal attitude by the government,” he said.

He noted that “these cases are just the tip of the story” and that he knew of other instances of deportation that had not been reported in the media. “Not all cases get reported because many people don't want their story to become public,” he said.

Some argued that restricting access to foreign scholars could lead to an immense loss for scholarship about India, and ultimately, for the country itself. The professor from the United Kingdom said it would mean “the loss of vital allies, who can both mobilise against neocoloniality and play an important role in the global dissemination of India's history and culture”.

The professor added, “It also threatens to quell research that India desperately needs, including to help its most vulnerable and marginal.”

In many instances, academics said they were losing precious time because Indian authorities had held up their visa applications indefinitely, without providing them with any information.

“Given the application was submitted in April 2024, this has been very stressful, and now I am in the position of reaching out to my funder in order to completely change my project,” the social science researcher in the United Kingdom said. “Not only has this wasted valuable project time, but is disappointing as I was looking forward to working with Indian colleagues with whom I had arranged the affiliation.”

They explained that such experiences had left them and other colleagues “very careful about research in India”.

Other scholars Scroll spoke to also said that procuring research visas had become an uphill challenge. They “are either unavailable to us or we're afraid applying for them will put our research on the Indian government's radar, and we'll be blacklisted”, said the UK-based professor.

Jaffrelot echoed this observation. “Researchers are supposed to apply for research visas, but authorities sit on the application for months or don't respond,” he said.

One scholar from Western Europe said that when she started to consider travelling to India, fellow academics warned her that it would be almost impossible to get a research visa. “A close colleague had their visa denied as well,” she said.

So, the scholar opted to get a tourist visa instead. “I was also visiting to reconnect with some old friends and acquaintances and figured I might as well apply for a tourist visa, which would be easier to get,” she said.

But, she explained, this meant she had to be cautious about her activities – Indian colleagues warned her that authorities might ask her to show her visa in some areas. She recounted that in one instance, she was making plans to visit a certain place, and her colleagues asked her what kind of visa she had. “When I said it was a tourist visa, they said it was fine for me to visit,” she said.

Academics said the increasing challenges they faced were pushing many to censor their work. “We're all self-censoring, avoiding carrying out certain types of research – to protect both ourselves and Indian colleagues,” the UK-based academic said.

She recounted an instance that was revealing of the level of scrutiny that scholars are under. “A colleague had two Indian immigration agents show up at her home in Canada and tell her she had two weeks to challenge the impending loss of her OCI status because of a rather benign article she published a long time ago,” she said.

She echoed Jaffrelot's assertion that many such instances remain hidden from the public eye. “The scale of the problem is unknown because of fears of sticking heads above parapets, and awareness that our academic institutions or governments can or will do little to protect us,” she said.

In such a situation, professors who are responsible for guiding students interested in research on India face a dilemma. “For the students I work with, this is something we negotiate from the time they start developing a concrete proposal,” she said. “For those who wish to pursue what in the current political climate is risky research, I have to make sure the student is aware of the risks, including that they will probably never be able to get an academic job in India.”

Truschke said that many young scholars had reached out to her, seeking advice on whether pursuing research in India was a good idea in light of the increasing restrictions that academics were facing. “Many scholars have had their visas denied, a person I know had their visa denied five times,” she said. “I've become a bit wary of encouraging people to pursue research in India. I let them know that it isn't going to be easy.”

The UK professor described this as “a problematic and unfair burden on all of us”.

She noted, “I shouldn't be in a position of being responsible for assessing such risks – but there are no other bodies that I'm aware of, in India or other countries, that do so.”

The UK-based professor was among those whose academic trajectories have been significantly affected by the political climate in India. “I wrestled for a few years about doing a book that I felt needed to be done but that would pose risks to me as a foreign scholar if I published it, in terms of being able to visit India again,” she said.

After much thought, the scholar decided to go through with the work, but gave up another project related to India that she anticipated would then become difficult to pursue. Further, she said, “I would need to diversify my research beyond India – which is what I am currently doing.”

She added, “It seems crazy to have to throw out decades of training and research to develop expertise in India only to have to cast it aside – but I have legitimate concerns about being able to get a visa to research in India the next time I apply.”

Kaul said the government's recent actions against academics make it appear insecure. “Such actions towards academics like myself and others who may be critical of the Modi regime's policies bear the hallmark of an insecure regime that resorts to intimidation, repression, and vindictiveness instead of engagement, dialogue, understanding, reflection or evidence,” she said.

Truschke warned that the increase in restrictions on scholarship could lead to Indian history being recorded chiefly through Hindu far right narratives in India.

“The ideas of nativism, ethno-nationalistic research, that only Indians can tell Indian history are actually Western-origin ideas, and these will essentially lead to history becoming disingenuous and being supplanted by far-right propaganda in India,” she said. “We may reach a point where Indian history will be researched properly only outside of India. The real losers here will be Indian nationals.”

Source: Scroll
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