April 13, 2018 - Kolkata, West Bengal, India - All India Students' Association (AISA) and All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)protest against the brutal rape at Kathua and Unnao. Saikat Paul/ Press Association. All rights reserved.At a time when Narendra Modi's Hindu supremacist leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India is moving towards full-fledged fascism with its rampant attacks on Muslims, Dalits, and critics of the regime, the question of what it means to be a citizen in India today is complex, and the answers frightening.
But on a recent visit to India, I had the opportunity to interview several student activists about the main issues currently facing students across the country as a result of the changes implemented in universities by the government. How are students challenging the regime?
The fundamental change they told me about was a nationwide move towards so-called ‘greater autonomy’ for universities, which has affected 60 institutions so far, and is set to continue. This essentially involves cuts to government funding of universities much like the austerity UK students have been experiencing on a wide scale since 2010. Under the pretext of 'autonomy' a host of measures are being imposed which are likely to transform, and even threaten, well-known universities with a progressive reputation like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi.
