Academic freedom in India

Abstract

Bangladesh became an independent country in 1971 following a bloody, ninemonth war of independence against Pakistan. In the immediate post-war years, against the backdrop of widespread poverty and underdevelopment, Bangladesh was perceived to be a hopeless 'basket case' (Tripathi, 10 April 2021), with few immediate prospects for development. However, in recent years, the country has been widely praised for its spectacular economic progress (Basu, 26 March 2021). At the same time, a worrying trend embedded into this story of progress is the country's slide towards autocracy under the government of the Awami League. It is no surprise that over the past 12 years, academic freedom in Bangladesh has continued to deteriorate, as reflected by the country's year-by-year position in the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) compiled by the V-Dem Institute (V-Dem, 2022).2 In 2009, when the party returned to power through a relatively fair election, the country's AFI scores rose to 0.58 from 0.43 a year earlier, reflecting the relief in academia following the end of the military-backed interim regime, which had a dismal record of dealing with academics. However, as the Awami League-led government took a gradual authoritarian turn, the AFI scores also took a downward turn. In 2019, Bangladesh only scored 0.22. Although the scores show a slight improvement in 2020 (0.26), which is within the data's margin of error, it is still significantly worse than the level of academic freedom maintained by the previous military-backed government. Repression of academics has not yet become widespread, but academia in general has witnessed rampant government intervention in universities and increased self-censorship among academics against the backdrop of a prevalent culture of fear in the country. Students and academics are divided. There are academics and students who exercise their democratic rights to protest, albeit in the face of threats. Academics and students who support the government are gaining in strength and influence. Superior academic and administrative positions are filled with party loyalists, who in turn remain indebted to their political benefactors, favour ruling-party - affiliated candidates in recruitment, and are timid when scholars and students are targeted.