India Needs to Value Academic Freedom, Research in Humanities to Emerge as Power Centre
Karthick Ram Manoharan | 22 April 2024 | The Telegraph
As of 2023, India fares poorly on the Academic Freedom Index. This graph, prepared by the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute, considers factors like freedom to research and teach, academic and cultural expression, institutional autonomy etc. It places us along with Rwanda at a score of 0.18. We fare worse than Mauritania, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Palestine. Pakistan stands at 0.52. But if it is any consolation, we score better than socialist Cuba, which ranks at 0.10 or China at 0.07.
Why should academic freedom be of any concern to the public? There are other grave issues that affect millions in India. Farmers’ crisis, water crisis, poverty, unemployment and underemployment, primary education, human rights, federalism, problems facing minorities and underprivileged castes and so on. Amid all this, it might appear that talking about academic freedom is a conceited self-serving exercise, given that the academic community is a miniscule minority in India and is relatively better placed than several others in precarious jobs. Yet, academics alone can provide the expertise that is needed to look at these problems from a broad, interconnected perspective….