1. Introduction: When Classrooms Become Corridors of Power
Education is supposed to be the great equalizer. A sanctuary of learning.
But in many institutions across India, from universities to design schools, politics often creeps in through the backdoor—distorting values, manipulating merit, and weaponizing ideology.
As someone who has navigated this system—as a teacher, a student, and now a scholar—I write not only from data or news but from lived experience, mirrored by countless others whose voices go unheard in staff rooms and committee meetings.
2. The Unspoken Curriculum: Obedience Over Originality
In many institutions:
- Teachers are punished for non-conformity, not incompetence
- Students learn who to please, not what to question
- Innovation is stifled by hierarchical appeasement and internal politics
During my own journey:
- I witnessed colleagues penalized for spiritual expression, while pseudo-secular ideologues were celebrated
- Contributions like creating Sanatan Dharma-inspired learning material were dismissed as “mythological” or “irrelevant”
- A simple gesture—bringing Ganga Jal as prasad—was twisted into a symbol of divisiveness by self-declared “liberals”
This isn’t just anecdotal—it’s systemic silencing of anything that doesn’t serve the dominant narrative.
3. Real Voices, Real Damage
Thousands of educators across India share similar experiences. A few testimonials:
🧑🏫 Professor from a Central University:
“I was denied a promotion for questioning syllabus changes pushed by politically-backed NGOs. My feedback was erased.”
🎓 Student from Delhi University:
“We were told to avoid quoting Indian philosophers in term papers. Western references were seen as ‘modern’—our own culture was labelled ‘regressive’.”
👩🎓 Design School Faculty (Anonymous):
“I was warned for suggesting that we teach Vaastu principles alongside Bauhaus. Apparently, indigenous knowledge isn’t ‘design thinking’ enough.”
These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a larger ideological colonization, cloaked in the language of inclusivity.
4. How Politics Penetrates Education
🎭 Institutional Hierarchies:
Appointments, appraisals, and conference invites are often decided by group allegiance, not academic value.
🪙 Funding and Affiliations:
Grants go to those who align with institutional ideologies, especially NGOs or “social justice” aligned projects, while traditional or dharmic research is overlooked.
📕 Syllabus Framing:
Curriculum boards are often staffed by activist-academics who replace Indian thought with imported theories—resulting in generations that know Marx but not Manusmriti, Freud but not Patanjali.
🤐 Cancel Culture and Fear:
Educators and students alike self-censor in staffrooms and seminar halls—afraid to offend the dominant “progressive” bloc.
5. Who Suffers the Most?
- Bright young faculty who want to innovate but are boxed in
- Students, who lose out on holistic education grounded in their roots
- Parents, who unknowingly pay for an education that alienates their children from culture
- Nation-building, because truth is replaced by tailored narratives
6. What Must Be Done?
✅ Reclaim Narrative Control
Create and promote syllabi rooted in Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). Let Mayamatam sit beside Le Corbusier. Let Chanakya stand beside Plato.
🛡 Protect Independent Voices
Create support groups for faculty facing ideological pressure. Bring them into national conversations. Let testimonials become data.
🧭 Revise Appraisal Systems
Push for performance-based metrics—student outcomes, design thinking innovation, research originality—not ideological conformity.
🗣 Encourage Public Discourse
Faculty must write, post, speak. Let stories from inside the system become the fuel for reform.
7. Conclusion: From Political Silence to Pedagogical Sovereignty
Education should challenge, not conform. It should empower, not manipulate.
What we’re witnessing isn’t just a crisis of pedagogy—but of civilizational continuity.
Until classrooms are free from silent coercion and open to indigenous truths, we’ll keep graduating students with skills, but no roots. And nations with degrees, but no direction.