In the contemporary political landscape of Indian higher education, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi has stood as a bastion of critical thought, social justice, and political engagement despite relentless pushback from various institutional forces. The recent Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections have once again underscored the indomitable spirit of resistance that the university community has embodied for decades. Left Unity’s Aditi Mishra was elected JNUSU President with 1,937 votes, defeating Vikas Patel of ABVP, the student wing of the ruling BJP,  by 449 votes. Left Unity also won the posts of Vice President, General Secretary, and Joint Secretary, solidifying a decisive victory over the ABVP in the recent JNU Students' Union elections. In an environment marked by persistent attempts to undermine its autonomy, academic freedom, and progressive character, JNU has continued to stand firm against all odds.

Perpetual Institutional Attacks

The university has, for years, been subjected to a range of institutional assaults disguised under various bureaucratic and ideological guises. Recent years have witnessed significant reductions in budgets allocated for academic programs, library acquisitions, and research initiatives. Spend on academic activities, including student welfare, teaching aids, exams and convocations, dropped from Rs 37.34 crore in 2014–15 to Rs 20.30 crore in 2023–24. These cuts are not incidental but are symptomatic of the larger deliberative attempt to dilute dissent intellectual rigour and critical perspectives on myriad socio-political issues for decades.

The irregularities in the appointments of faculty members have been an open secret for years now. The imposition of administrative personnel aligned with ruling dispensation ideologies is curated to erode the democratic ethos that JNU has long nurtured and cherished. Political influence over academic appointments has further complicated the institutional landscape. Such appointments create a governance climate that prioritises conformity over critical engagement. Ironically, everyone across the political spectrum intends to be part of the JNU community in different capacities. It implies an implicit recognition of JNU as a critical thinking space where academic rigour is upheld.

Dilution of Postgraduate Character and Academic Freedom

Another contentious, subtle strategy employed against JNU is the gradual erosion of its postgraduate social sciences and humanities character, which has been facilitated by the Establishment of the School of Engineering in 2018, followed by the commencement of its MBA program in 2019. In a country with a plethora of institutions and universities offering engineering and management courses from premier multiple IITs and IIMs, as well as hundreds of public and private institutes, this move by the JNU administration was not incidental. In a neoliberal space where humanities and social sciences struggle to survive, JNU stood its ground firm, producing one of the finest research on SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy). There is this popular belief on and off campus amongst the ruling elite that it is predominantly the Social Sciences and arts that are the harbinger of radical ‘left’ and so-called ‘anti-national’ ideology, and the step of introducing engineering and management was thought to be an antithesis to bring structural changes in JNU’s political demography leading to political disenfranchisement of students in general.

The varsity announced in 2024 that it will accept the National Eligibility Test (NET) score instead of the entrance test conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as the selection parameter for admission to its Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs. For its UG and PG admissions, the university now uses the CUET for admissions, replacing the previous JNUEE (Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Examination). The changes in the entrance examination pattern, by switching to an objective assessment pattern for social science and humanities, disguised as reforms, function as mechanisms to standardise, depoliticise, and domesticate academic inquiry. These structural changes often resort to rote learning, standardised answers, robbing off nuanced, critical engagement with complex ideas.

Academic Propaganda and the Hijacking of Discourse

Perhaps most insidious is the increasing use of propaganda masquerading as academic curriculum. This strategy aims to infuse ideological conformity into academic spaces under the guise of ‘national development’ or ‘cultural nationalism.’ Recently, in 2024, seminars featuring ambassadors from West Asian countries, including Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon, scheduled at JNU were controversially postponed or cancelled. The university administration cited logistical and protocol reasons, denying external pressure, while a former seminar coordinator alleged she was forced to cancel the events under pressure from the Centre’s chairperson. There are myriad such instances that do not make it to the headlines in the public arena. The academic events are now organised that explicitly tow with the dominant political narrative devoid of critical enquiry. Such events alienate students from freely and critically engaging with the societal structures.

JNU’s Role as a Space of Resistance

JNU stands as a formidable contested space within the larger spatiality of the power centre, as Delhi, being the country’s capital. This positioning of otherisation of JNU as ‘anti-national’within the broader ‘nationalist’ framework works in two ways: first as a politics of deflection and as a distraction.

Historically too, Prabir Purkayastha's recent book recounts the harsh crackdowns during the 1975 Emergency, focusing notably on the midnight police raid at Jawaharlal Nehru University, where students were unjustly arrested and terrorised.

Students at JNU have historically mobilised against policies that threaten affordable and equitable access to education, such as the controversial fee hikes that sparked the FeeMustFall movement. The university’s affirmative action policies, which ensure access for marginalised groups, have become a target in the broader contest over India’s social and political future. Yet, JNU continues to defend these principles vigorously.

To say that individuals from the so-called ‘right wing’ are deplatformed to voice their opinions or beliefs on campus is a misnomer. A visit to a typical university hostel mess would exemplify how students across ‘wings’ and the political spectrum sit, dine and engage in discussions. The resistance as exhibited in social media is not limited to marches, blockades and sit-ins but these acts and spaces also brim with organising discussions, publishing critical material, and maintaining a culture of dialogue that counters attempts at ideological homogenization. The “Guerrilla Dhabas,” late-night conversations, academic forums, and social media campaigns form an ecosystem of dissent.

Importance of Autonomous Academic Space

JNU has stood against authoritarianism, market-driven education policies, and ideological conformity for decades, serving as a defiant emblem of resistance. The JNUSU election results last week by virtue of scale and impact on student and larger national politics may be deemed as extraneous. However, in spatial understanding of power dynamics, it metaphorically stands as a symbol of resistance at the heart of the nation’s capital. 

It reaffirms the campus community’s refusal to succumb to perpetual institutional assaults and ideological subversion. It is not easy in a world that is increasingly becoming a ‘culture industry’, according to Adorno and Horkheimer, to understand how mass culture under capitalism is produced as a standardised, profit-driven industry, creating formulaic products that pacify the public and discourage critical thought. As a JNU alumnus, it makes me hopeful.

(The author is Assistant Professor of Political Science at GITAM-Hyderabad. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at mayank-mishra@live.com)