This progress is evidenced by India’s status as one of the largest producers of fruits, vegetables, and dairy, aided by the veterinary sciences and animal husbandry. In 1974, India conducted its first nuclear test (Operation Smiling Buddha) in Pokhran, moved towards enhancing its energy production, and by 1975, it had developed its own satellite, Aryabhata. Initially dependent on imports such as US wheat and tinned milk from the Netherlands, India quickly achieved food self-sufficiency by invoking “Green Revolution” which was followed by “White Revolution” through Amul Cooperative Society, and “Poultry Revolution”. From the 1980s, various Technology Missions helped achieve such goals. The flagship programmes of the Indian government to improve the nutritional status of children and reduce incidence of malnutrition through the Integrated Child Development Scheme and Mid-Day Meal Scheme are exemplary, not to say of other pro-poor welfare schemes and rural development. Even, the first wave of Indian professionals to work abroad included graduates from the world-class technical institutions established in the post-independence era.

However, despite these noteworthy foundational accomplishments, the quality of research and innovation in India has stagnated over the past two to three decades. This is alarming, particularly because other nations—including the countries that lagged far behind India just 40–50 years ago—have rapidly advanced. With a population of 1.4 billion, a growing focus on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and a shortage of job opportunities, India is today at a crucial juncture. Addressing these challenges requires a unified effort from the government, the academia-intelligentsia, and industry. Through appropriate policies, resources, and a shift in research culture, India will acquire the potential to regain its place as a global leader in research and innovation.

Nonetheless, for action after introspection, the relevant data pertaining to our research performance are quite troubling. Some of these may be elaborated below: 

1. Citation Impact: According to the “Scimago Journal & Country Rank” (SJR), which assesses academic impact globally, India ranks outside the top 100 countries for citations per document across all subject areas (https://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php), including Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences. Indian research averages only 12.7 citations per document, significantly trailing countries like the United States, Canada, and scores of countries in Europe, which exceed 25-30 citations per paper. Researchers from several Asian countries, including Saudi Arabia (17.6), Nepal (15.2), Oman (15.1), and Bangladesh (14.5), also surpass India in citation impact. While India performs slightly better in Engineering and Sciences, its ranking is notably lower in Arts and Humanities.

2. H-Index Ranking: India is not among the top 20 nations in terms of the h-index across all subject areas, which measures scientific productivity and citation impact. Although India has largest population, the number of citable documents produced (2.7 million) is significantly lower than that of countries like the USA (14 million) and China (10 million). Particularly the emphasis is quite less in publishing in high ranked journals in the fields of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities.

3. Top-tier [Q1] Journal Publications: High-ranking institutions are often evaluated by their contributions to Q1 (top quartile) journals, representing the top 25% in each field. India’s highest-ranking institutions—the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, New Delhi)—are positioned only at 1346 and 1360 globally.

(https://www.scimagoir.com/rankings.php?sector=Higher+educ.&country=IND).

For example, if one looks(Fig.1) at the declining publications in the journals of repute by the researchers at a highest funded, historic and a largest residential public university, the Aligarh Muslim University(AMU), then the scenario gets quite depressing, hence, a matter of great concern.

Fig.1: The research ranking of the Aligarh Muslim University refers to the volume, impact and quality of the institution’s research output. On the X-axis is year and Y-axis is global ranking.
Source: https://www.scimagoir.com/institution.php?idp=3231#google_vignette

4. Global Innovation Index (GII): In the 2024 Global Innovation Index, India ranked 39th out of 160 economies (https://www.wipo.int/gii-ranking/en/india), indicating room for improvement in innovation capacity.

5. Patent Generation: India granted only 0.03 million patents compared to 0.8 million in China and 0.3 million in the United States, illustrating a significant lag in protecting and commercializing intellectual property.

For instance, if one looks (Fig.2) at the declining number of innovation ranking of AMU, the issue is again quite alarming.

Fig.2: The innovation ranking of the Aligarh Muslim University, which is calculated on the number of patent applications of the institution and the citations that its research output receives from patents. On the X-axis is year and on Y-axis is innovation ranking.
Source: https://www.scimagoir.com/institution.php?idp=3231#google_vignette

Root causes of this decline in our academia:

In our estimation, several factors contribute to India’s declining research quality and innovation output, such as:

1. Evaluation standards focused on quantity: Academic institutions often emphasise the quantity of publications rather than quality. Shifting focus to high-impact research would reward rigorous, ethical research practices and enhance India’s international credibility. Prioritising quality over quantity attracts international collaborations and investment, creating an environment that promotes scientific integrity. Strict standards for recruitment, based purely on merit and publication in reputable journals and books, are sometimes compromised. Promotions to higher-level positions are not stringently monitored by institutions. People who publish in journals or magazines that are not even indexed by the h-index are often promoted readily. Publications with publishers that lack rigorous standards and anonymous peer review are accepted without scrutiny. Furthermore, student feedback in both letter and spirit is frequently ignored in universities and colleges.

The primary focus of faculty members in academic institutions therefore should remain on their core responsibilities of research and teaching. These activities not only contribute to personal academic growth but also significantly enhance the institution’s reputation and academic excellence. Engaging in meaningful research furthers the frontiers of knowledge, while effective teaching shapes the next generation of scholars and professionals.

2. Insufficient R&D investment: India’s research and development expenditure is less than 0.7% of GDP, placing it outside the top 150 countries for R&D investment.

In contrast, the developed nations such as the USA (3.5%), Germany (3.1%), and Israel (5.5%) allocate much more for R&D. Even some developing countries, such as Cuba (11.5%) and Oman (6.8%), outspend India in this area. Thus, adequate funding is essential for basic research, which forms the foundation for applied sciences and technology development. This is why it is paramount to strengthen basic research laboratories. 

3. Inadequate focus on basic sciences: Without robust fundamental research in the basic sciences, the applied researches cannot progress. Industries often hesitate to fund basic research due to its indirect, long-term returns. However, government’s substantial financial support is essential here. Breakthroughs in medical technologies, like X-rays, MRI, PET scans, and radiotherapy were made possible by early investments in basic sciences. To foster innovation, India must prioritize basic research alongside applied sciences.

4. Urgent need for financial support in colleges and public universities: To ensure the quality of education in colleges and public universities, it is imperative to prioritise financial support for critical infrastructure. Laboratory courses, which are central to hands-on learning, have been significantly affected by the lack of equipment. Decades ago, these institutions boasted better-equipped laboratories, allowing students to explore and innovate. However, over the past four to five decades, there has been a marked deterioration in these facilities, leaving many students unable to gain practical skills in key areas. Equally concerning is the condition of libraries, which are fundamental to fostering independent learning and research. Many institutions struggle to maintain updated collections of books, journals, and other resources due to insufficient funding. Addressing this issue is vital to bridging the gap between students’ learning potential and the resources available to them.  Moreover, the shortage of faculty members poses a significant challenge. In many colleges, the faculty strength is considerably below the required levels, compromising the quality of instruction and mentorship.  This situation directly impacts the ability of institutions to maintain academic rigor and to support students effectively.  

5. Limited Institutional Autonomy: Granting universities and research institutions more academic and administrative autonomy would enable them to respond quickly to emerging research needs. Accountability frameworks should be in place to uphold ethical standards, ensuring that institutions remain credible and internationally competitive.

A Curious Case of the AMU: Nepotism and Inbreeding Corroding Meritocracy

Let the foregoing discussion be illustrated with the instance of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), a significantly funded, large residential university. There appears to be an increasing trend where around 20% to 25% of the AMU teachers perennially prioritise grabbing administrative positions including those positions traditionally designated only for the non-teaching staff. Extracting this undue benefit has gone up to the extent that even the positions of the statutory officers are filled in on ad hoc basis, in flagrant violation of the UGC rules, and even on illegal basis, as revealed in a recent information obtained through the RTI Act 2005. Some of these “Non-Teaching Professors” have delayed obtaining their PhD degree and have been happily continuing in the administrative positions.

This sorry state of affairs is owing to the fact that, this is often to gain associated “material” benefits over and above salary, including, institutional vehicles with drivers and security personnel serving as domestic servants of the teacher-officers, at the expense of the University exchequer. Many of these teachers have been holding such positions for an outrageously long time, for the last many years, uninterruptedly. Their poor CVs, with no significant/respectable research output, adversely affect the ranking of the University.

AMU, unlike all other central universities (CUs), has got an overwhelming hegemony of the internal teachers inside its Executive Council which also empanels its Vice Chancellors. In the last two empanelment (2017 and 2023), only internal teachers have succeeded in becoming AMU-VCs. This aggravates the practice of nepotism and inbreeding in recruitments and promotions, at the expense of meritocracy. This has had an additional corrosive effect on research output of AMU.

Having developed deeply entrenched, strong clout, they incapacitate successive VCs and create layers of red-tapism just in order to harass and humiliate academically accomplished teachers. The overall atmosphere and ecosystem of the University is made anti-academic. The academically productive ones are harassed by delaying/denying promotions to them, as the VCs are perennially under the pressure of this internal hegemony. Internal teachers becoming as VCs of AMU do not have the independence (or guts) to act against these interests with whom they have been living, working and will continue to live with them even after completing their tenures as VC!

Non-teaching positions are typically designed to support administrative and operational functions, ensuring the smooth running of the University, and are best suited for personnel with expertise in these areas. Unfortunately, these roles are increasingly being used for personal advantage, benefiting the teachers themselves, their family members, and their friends. At some places, the prolonged (rather than a brief tenure) occupation of such positions has led to the formation of regional and sub-regional layers of hegemony and therefore unbridled nepotism in enrolments, recruitments and promotions. These maladies are actively destroying the academic ethos of teaching and research.

Needless to say, this shift in focus dilutes the academic mission and also undermines the intended division of responsibilities within the universities.

By prioritising research and teaching over such non-academic roles, faculty members can better align with the university’s objectives of fostering an environment of intellectual rigour and student development. Clear policies and guidelines can further help delineate responsibilities, ensuring that non-teaching roles are fulfilled efficiently by the appropriate staff while enabling faculty members to concentrate on their academic and scholarly pursuits. This alignment benefits not only the institution but also the broader academic community.

Just as in AMU, other universities too must have got their own general as well as more specific problems. Insiders of those universities also need to expose their endemic problems on these counts.

By tackling the abovementioned critical challenges head-on, India can revitalise its research ecosystem and emerge as a dominant force in the global knowledge economy. Is the government really prepared to listen?

Achieving this vision calls for a concerted effort: substantial government funding, a robust fellowship system based purely on merit, and strong collaboration between academia and industry. With strategic investments, a transformative approach to academic assessment, and greater institutional autonomy, India is poised not only to advance ground-breaking research and innovation but also to become a global beacon of knowledge and progress.

Sajjad Athar is a Professor of Physics at AMU, Aligarh, a renowned name in nuclear physics, a co-author with the Nobel Laureate Prof. Takaki Kajita who tweets @Mohamma84063425;  Mohammad Sajjad is a Professor of History at AMU who tweets @sajjadhist.

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Before we understand this scheme and its implications, it is important to understand the contextual dynamics in which this scheme is being announced.

The global academic publishing industry had a worldwide sales amounting to more than $19 Billion USD in 2020. The industry is profitable for the large players so much so that the biggest companies in the sector—Elsevier and Springer-Nature had better profit margins than tech giants like Google, IBM etc in the year 2023.  This lucrative business is possible due to the inherent flaws in the system that exploit the contributions of researchers, institutions, and governments while maintaining tight control over the dissemination of knowledge. These flaws include the monopolization of journals, exorbitant subscription fees, and the prevalence of paywalls that restrict access to publicly funded research.

Academic publishers capitalize on the unpaid labour of researchers, who conduct studies, write papers, and even peer-review submissions without compensation. Once accepted, the publishers charge institutions hefty subscription fees to access the very work those institutions helped produce, creating a closed-loop system that disproportionately benefits the publishers at the expense of academic accessibility.

Moreover, the “publish or perish” culture forces researchers to prioritize high-impact journals owned by major publishers, further strengthening their market dominance. This cycle is exacerbated by the high costs of open-access publishing fees, which often shift the financial burden onto researchers or their institutions, making equitable access to knowledge even harder to achieve.

Despite the growing calls for reforms, such as mandating open-access policies and promoting alternative publishing models, these systemic issues persist, driven by entrenched interests and the lack of unified resistance from the academic community. As an alternative, there are two types of access protocols/frameworks that are followed across the word:

2025. Gold Open Access provides unrestricted online access to scholarly research, typically free of charge to readers. It includes articles, books, and other academic outputs available immediately or after an embargo period, often published in open-access journals or repositories. Japan has issued a mandate that all articles resulting from nationally funded research must be made Open Access immediately upon publication as of 2025. The United States also has made a similar mandate.
2026. Green Open Access, a subset of Open Access, refers to the self-archiving of research by authors. Authors deposit their work in institutional or subject-specific repositories, allowing free access, even if the original publication is behind a paywall. Green Access may involve compliance with publisher policies, including embargo periods before the work becomes freely accessible.

Now what does this have to with India and it launching One Nation-One Subscription?

India has largely followed the Green Open Access model but as already stated above, this system is plagued by not only a restriction on accessing the final version of the paper but also the embargo period by the publishers. This is for the people who are publishing out of India. For those who want to see the international journals or access the articles published by journals who have restricted access—they either have to be a part of the institution which has subscribed to those journals, or they would have to be able to afford the exorbitant subscription/article price. This exclusionary system obviously keeps researchers away from accessing knowledge from across the world. Thus, through the ONOS scheme, the government pays for the subscriptions, enabling students, researchers, and faculty from publicly funded institutions to access these journals.

Understanding the current system for accessing journal articles

Before ONOS, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in India accessed journals through a fragmented system of different library consortia, each under the administrative control of various ministries. A library consortium is a group of libraries collaborating to fulfil common needs like resource sharing. For instance, the UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium, managed by the INFLIBNET Centre (Information and Library Network Centre) under the Ministry of Education, provides access to selected scholarly electronic journals and databases. Besides these consortia, HEIs also subscribe to journals individually. Other than these, the science and astrophysics related FORSA with participation from premier institutes such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research also exist. This disaggregated approach has resulted in limited access for many institutions and overlapping subscriptions leading to unnecessary expenditures. It was estimated that India’s institutions spend more than Rs.1500 Crore for the subscriptions.

Details of the ONOS scheme

ONOS seeks to address these issues by centralising journal subscriptions for nearly 6,300 government-run HEIs, including universities, colleges, and institutions of national importance. The scheme will provide equitable access to 13,000 scholarly journals under a single platform, which is set to become operational on January 1, 2025. This common platform will host journals published by 30 renowned international publishers, including Elsevier Science Direct, Springer Nature, Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Taylor & Francis, and many others. All participating institutions will only need to register on the platform to access these journals.

INFLIBNET has been designated as the implementing agency for ONOS, responsible for coordinating the national subscription and making central payments to the publishers. The central government has already negotiated a single subscription price for each of the 30 publishers. Notably, if institutions require access to journals beyond the 13,000 provided on the platform, they can still subscribe to them individually.

The ONOS scheme has been allocated a substantial budget of ₹6,000 crore (approximately US$715 million) for three calendar years – 2025, 2026, and 2027. This investment aims to benefit a vast population of 55 lakh to nearly 1.8 crore students, faculty, and researchers across the 6,300 participating institutions. It will especially benefit institutions in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities that previously struggled to afford expensive journal subscriptions.

Is there a catch?

There is no catch; not immediately. While ONOS has been widely lauded for its potential to democratise knowledge access, there is a concern.

The most prominent concern revolves around the scheme’s focus on a subscription-based model at a time when the global research ecosystem is increasingly shifting towards Open Access (OA) publishing. OA publishing models, particularly gold OA, charge authors an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication, making the research freely accessible. Critics argue that investing in traditional subscriptions could be a short-sighted approach given the growing popularity of OA. This criticism is especially valid in 2024 when more than 50% of papers published in the last four years worldwide are open access.

Another issue is the lack of clarity on whether the portal will be accessible to only students or also to the general public, including independent researchers. While this can be incorporated as the plan rolls out, it is important for India to use its leverage to make it easier for its own research ecosystem to thrive by striking a deal for lesser APCs.

Conclusion

The scheme’s substantial budget and wide reach provide an opportunity to incorporate OA principles within this deal. The government could explore negotiating with publishers for reduced APCs for Indian researchers or invest in developing institutional repositories to promote green OA, where authors self-archive their work, making it freely accessible. This could preserve the contributions of academic worldwide to make Open Access a reality.

ONOS is undoubtedly a significant step towards democratizing knowledge access in India. While acknowledging the criticisms and potential challenges, it is crucial to recognize the scheme’s potential to transform India’s research landscape. It will have to be clubbed with much needed higher research funding and better infrastructure to realise India’s scientific potential.

(The author is a legal researcher with the organisation)

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The HRD Ministry recently directed the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) to collate data on the research output of each teacher, The Telegraph reported.

The move from the HRD reportedly came in after only 3 IITs featured in the recently releasedQuacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education rankings of global universities. These three IITs featured in the top 200 and none in the top 100.

The human resource development ministry had written to the 23 tech schools seeking the details for discussion at the September 27 meeting of the IIT Council, headed by the HRD minister.

If 50% of existing teachers at IITs, which face a faculty shortage of 15-35%, are not doing good work, the institutes are barely surviving with just 30% credible teaching staff, said a senior professor of an older IIT told LiveMint, requesting anonymity.        

Another IIT professor said that the discussions at the council meeting had led to the introduction of a ‘tenure track system’. Under the tenure track system, they would be safe for five-and-a-half years before facing a sterner test by external reviewers, with a presumably higher likelihood of the sack.

In 2011, the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh had kicked up a storm when he publicly said that the IITs were “excellent because of the quality of students, and not because of the quality of research or faculty.”

DheerajSanghi, a professor at IIT Kanpur, said: “The scrutiny of research should be left to the individual institution. The government should focus on incentivising performance.”

IIT-Kanpur got a research score of 24.5 and citation score of 35.2. Compare this with China’s Peking University, which has a research score of 90 and citation score of 73.2. Citation score is based on the number of times a research work has been referred to by fellow researchers, globally.

He further argued: “Faculty members in the humanities streams write books, so scrutinising their published papers cannot be a good tool to assess their performance.”

An IIT Delhi teacher said that the current policy of paying a uniform salary to teachers, irrespective of their current research output, left them with no incentive to pursue research.

Expressing disdain over this demand of the HRD ministry, an IIT Bombay teacher said that this microscopic scrutiny of individual teachers’ research output showed the lack of confidence the government had in the institutes.

Are the IITs Doing Enough?
To generate more funds for their operations, the IITs had recently hiked their fees for Master of Technology courses tenfold. However, increasing funding alone is not the only way to create a prominent university. Issues of politicization, bureaucratic control and nepotism that currently plague the university system need to be tackled.

In IIT Delhi, the HRD ministry under the current government has sought to force the institution to accept a student’s admission despite being initially rejected, and R K Shevgaonkar and Anil Kakodkar, former governors and chairpersons of IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay respectively, have in the recent past resigned from their posts citing an increase in government interference—Shevgaonkar was pressured to release funds to pay BharatiyaJanata Party member Subramanian Swamy “salary dues,” while Kakodkar quit over alleged disagreements with then HRD Minister SmritiIrani over appointments to the IIT board. 

Also, it is to be noted that the IITs that were modeled on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) must stop emulating it and carve their own path in research and development. Scientific research also needs to be ‘de-bureaucratised’ and placed in the hands of the private industry.

Experts say that the IITs must innovate after understanding the social processes that produce certain demands and how goods are to be distributed in an unequal society. They need to better engage with the social realities in the country.

Higher education secretary R. Subrahmanyam defended the government’s letter and tried to ally the teachers’ fears, saying the data would be placed before the individual institutes’ boards of governors “for review and action”.

“The IITs are public-funded institutions. We are saying, how many faculty members have not published anything? There is nothing wrong (in it),” he said.

“They (the institutes) will place the data before their boards of governors for review and action.”

This situation where the HRD has asked IITs to report with professors’ report outputs feels like a teacher taking a kid to task for not doing well in the exams. Will this punitive move pay off?

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Abuse & Discrimination Blacken India’s Institutes of ‘Higher Learning’
 

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Image courtesy Amazon

Back in 2012, when the cartoon controversy erupted, I attended a meeting at the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), headed by Sukhdev Thorat at the time. The Thorat Committee had been set up to review all cartoons featured in NCERT textbooks. S Anand, the publisher of Navayana, took me to the meeting as a subject expert on colonial Indian cartoons. 

The debate at the time was around a single cartoon of Bhimrao Ambedkar. Why not first look at other cartoons on him, I thought, and then came to a conclusion about his representation. I had already researched on colonial Indian cartoons and had naturally decided to archive the “Ambedkar cartoons”. When it started off, I was the only researcher working on this topic.

My journey began with a Navajivan Trust publication from the 1970s, featuring cartoons about Gandhi, after which I came across Don’t Spare me Shankar, a book dedicated to the cartoons of Jawaharlal Nehru. This is when I strongly felt that academic research had conveniently ignored Ambedkar all these years. Therefore, at the Gandhi Museum in Delhi, I started reading about Ambedkar and began chronicling the major events of his life and career – turning myself into an archivist of Ambedkar cartoons.

Ambedkar in the Public Domain

Initially, I was interested to examine how the colonial press represented Ambedkar on their publications. For this, I carefully went through colonial newspapers page by page, often widening my lens from just Ambedkar.

Those days, every time I came across a cartoon on Ambedkar, I would share it on social media for people to get a taste of these primary sources. My intention was also to expose the injustice done to Ambedkar, in colonial publications. All major Indian newspapers, periodicals and cartoons were studied and archived, over a period of about ten months.

After ten months, my friends advised against posting the images on social media, suggesting that I use the valuable data for research instead. I wanted to submit the cartoons as a report to the NCERT and Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), however, the cartoon controversy ended before that, when the Thorat Committee removed Ambedkar’s cartoons from NCERT textbooks. 

Usually when one visits the Archives, the staff enquires about the topic of research. I’ve realised that if one replies “Ambedkar”, it’s simply assumed that one belongs to the Dalit community, but if one says “Gandhi”, they attitude is always different. I’ve also noticed that archival material on Ambedkar would often be slightly ruined, with either the pages torn off or something scribbled on them. This is due to the sheer grudge that ‘upper’ caste Hindu scholars hold against him. The grudge seems to be due to reservations, for they haven’t even read him. [No Laughing Matter touches upon the issue of archiving subjects related to Dalit identity.]

Archiving took me to several places and libraries. Most of the cartoons featured in No Laughing Matter are from the microfilm archive at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in New Delhi. I was still not satisfied. I visited the National Library in Kolkata, the Andhra Pradesh Archives and Research Institute in Hyderabad, Pune’s Film Institute Library and the Madras Archives in Chennai.

The visits were possible only because I had saved some of the money I received as part of the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship. Even though in the final year of my PhD at the time, I felt archiving these cartoons was more important. 

Not a Mere Cartoon-Collection

A mere compilation of cartoons was not enough. Cartoons need the support of strong annotations. I thoroughly went through the writings on Ambedkar, especially biographies. Thereafter, my quest was to discover how each of them represented Ambedkar. I also read his own writings and speeches, published by the Maharashtra Government Press. Juxtaposing all of this with newspaper reports and cartoons was the next step.
Towards the end, the process took on a Roshomon effect, as I searched for ‘truth’ in every possible source – for which I even studied the characters featured in the background of the Ambedkar cartoons. In other words, a compilation of Ambedkar cartoons is not just about Ambedkar. It also tells one about the colonial times in general – the Congress, the Viceroys and their Executive Council members, the drafting of the Constitution, the Hindu Code Bill etc. While working on my book, No Laughing Matter, I had compiled cartoons on the draft Constitution – specifically, to see how cartoonists of the time viewed the drafting process.

Cartoonists and their Priorities

During the later stages of my research, I felt that a biography of cartoonists was as important as their cartoons. As a result, I began to collect information about cartoonists from newspaper sources: their educational background, how they were trained as cartoonists and joined popular newspapers etc. Interestingly, only if they crossed a line were cartoonists removed from their field. Cartoonists such as Shankar (K. Shankar Pillai, founder of Shankar’s Weekly, whose 1949 Ambedkar sketches stoked the NCERT cartoon controversy in 2012) and Enver Ahmed are the best examples of this.

I compared how they depicted Ambedkar and other leaders, to understand the pulse of the times. Yes, during Partition, there were controversial sketches of Gandhi & Jinnah. Sukeshi Kamra, a post-colonial studies expert, in her book Bearing Witness, discusses the cartoons of this era. There was a cartoon on Gandhi sleeping with women, as part of the political rivalry between the Muslim League and the Congress party. Yet, the topics that cartoonists had chosen at the time surprised me to no end. 

As is well known, Indian cartoonists had adopted the style of the legendary British cartoonist David Low, but they did not adopt his subtlety. They injected their casteism, misogyny and other perversions into these cartoons and they actively ridiculed caste, religious and gender identities.
Above all else, the cartoonist’s reverence for the British Raj and their loyalty for the Viceroys remained unchanged. They took extra care while drawing cartoons featuring British viceroys and were less careful—more careless—while drawing leaders who opposed the Congress and Gandhi. Indian cartoonist’s sketches on the draft Constitution and the Hindu Code Bill are the best instances of this and of their lack of sharp political ideas. 

By the time my research ended, I realised that Ambedkar had always been ahead of his times. I also saw that the cartoonists in the popular press had no clue about his ideology. What illustrates this best is the fact that there is not a single cartoon depicting Ambedkar’s famous work, Annihilation of Caste, even though Gandhi had debated annihilation and even wrote counter arguments to it in his own paper, Harijan. 

No other Dalit leader had the charisma Ambedkar at the time. Yet, the mindset of cartoonists remains the same as during Ambedkar’s time, and the best example of this was when cartoonists defended the controversial cartoon in 2012, in the name of “freedom of expression”.

We have a poor sense of history. We lag behind in historical research. Our archival sources are not well-protected. We need a separate cartoon library or museum. If there was such spaces, the Ambedkar cartoon controversy would have never erupted.

 Unnamati Syama Sundar is a scholar and cartoonist. His study of the ‘Ambedkar cartoons’ led to a book, No Laughing Matter: The Ambedkar Cartoons, 1932-1956, published by Navayana in April 2019. 
 

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Inflammatory words can prime a mind. Elijah O’Donnell/Unsplash, CC BY

Current research shows that humans understand language by activating sensory, motor and emotional systems in the brain. According to this new simulation theory, just reading words on a screen or listening to a podcast activates areas of the brain in ways similar to the activity generated by literally being in the situation the language describes. This process makes it all the more easy to turn words into actions.

As a cognitive psychologist, my own research has focused on developing simulation theory, testing it, and using it to create reading comprehension interventions for young children.
 

Simulations are step one

Traditionally, linguists have analyzed language as a set of words and rules that convey ideas. But how do ideas become actions?

Simulation theory tries to answer that question. In contrast, many traditional theories about language processing give action short shrift.

Simulation theory proposes that processing words depends on activity in people’s neural and behavioral systems of action, perception and emotion. The idea is that perceiving words drives your brain systems into states that are nearly identical to what would be evoked by directly experiencing what the words describe.

When you read the sentence, your mind simulates what it would be like to actually live through the experience. Joyce Vincent/Shutterstock.com

Consider the sentence “The lovers held hands while they walked along the moonlit tropical beach.” According to simulation theory, when you read these words, your brain’s motor system simulates the actions of walking; that is, the neural activity elicited by comprehending the words is similar to the neural activity generated by literal walking. Similarly, your brain’s perceptual systems simulate the sight, sounds and feel of the beach. And your emotional system simulates the feelings implied by the sentence.

So words themselves are enough to trigger simulations in motor, perceptual and emotional neural systems. Your brain creates a sense of being there: The motor system is primed for action and the emotional system motivates those actions.

Then, one can act on the simulation much as he’d act in the real situation. For example, language associating an ethnic group with “bad hombres” could invoke an emotional simulation upon seeing members of the group. If that emotional reaction is strong enough, it may in turn motivate action – maybe making a derogatory remark or physically lashing out.

Although simulation theory is still under scientific scrutiny, there have been many successful tests of its predictions. For example, using neuroimaging techniques that track blood flow in the brain, researchers found that listening to action words such as “lick,” “pick” and “kick” produces activity in areas of the brain’s motor cortex that are used to control the mouth, the hand and the leg, respectively. Hearing a sentence such as “The ranger saw an eagle in the sky” generates a mental image using the visual cortex. And using Botox to block activity in the muscles that furrow the brow affects the emotional system and slows understanding of sentences conveying angry content. These examples demonstrate the connections between processing speech and motor, sensory and emotional systems.
Recently, my colleague psychologist Michael McBeath, our graduate student Christine S. P. Yu and I discovered yet another robust connection between language and the emotional system.

Consider pairs of single-syllable English words that differ only in whether the vowel sound is “eee” or “uh,” such as “gleam-glum” and “seek-suck.” Using all such pairs in English – there are about 90 of them – we asked people to judge which word in the pair was more positive. Participants selected the word with the “eee” sound two-thirds of the time. This is a remarkable percentage because if linguistic sounds and emotions were unrelated and people were picking at the rate of chance, only half of the “eee” words would have been judged as the more positive.

Just activating your smile muscles tilts your emotions toward the positive. AshTproductions/Shutterstock.com

We propose that this relation arose because saying “eee” activates the same muscles and neural systems as used when smiling – or saying “cheese!” In fact, mechanically inducing a smile – as by holding a pencil in your teeth without using your lips – lightens your mood. Our new research shows that saying words that use the smile muscles can have a similar effect.

We tested this idea by having people chew gum while judging the words. Chewing gum blocks the systematic activation of the smile muscles. Sure enough, while chewing gum, the judged difference between the “eee” and “uh” words was only half as strong. We also demonstrated the same effects in China using pairs of Mandarin words containing the “eee” and “uh” sounds.
 

Practice through simulation makes actions easier

Of course, motivating someone to commit a hate crime requires much more than uttering “glum” or “suck.”

But consider that simulations become quicker with repetition. When one first hears a new word or concept, creating its simulation can be a mentally laborious process. A good communicator can help by using hand gestures to convey the motor simulation, pointing to objects or pictures to help create the perceptual simulation and using facial expressions and voice modulation to induce the emotional simulation.

It makes sense that the echo chamber of social media provides the practice needed to both speed and shape the simulation. The mental simulation of “caravan” can change from an emotionally neutral string of camels to an emotionally charged horde of drug dealers and rapists. And, through the repeated simulation that comes from repeatedly reading similar posts, the message becomes all the more believable, as each repetition produces another instance of almost being there to see it with your own eyes.

Psycholinguist Dan Slobin suggested that habitual ways of speaking lead to habitual ways of thinking about the world. The language that you hear gives you a vocabulary for discussing the world, and that vocabulary, by producing simulations, gives you habits of mind. Just as reading a scary book can make you afraid to go in the ocean because you simulate (exceedingly rare) shark attacks, encountering language about other groups of people (and their exceedingly rare criminal behavior) can lead to a skewed view of reality.

Practice need not always lead down an emotional rabbit hole, though, because alternative simulations and understandings can be created. A caravan can be simulated as families in distress who have the grit, energy and skills to start a new life and enrich new communities.

Because simulation creates a sense of being in a situation, it motivates the same actions as the situation itself. Simulating fear and anger literally makes you fearful and angry and promotes aggression. Simulating compassion and empathy literally makes you act kindly. We all have the obligation to think critically and to speak words that become humane actions.
 

Arthur Glenberg, Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Does the Modi Government Want Mass Suicides of Students in Campuses Across the Country, angrily demand Research Scholars?

The Modi Government is squeezing fellowship amounts promised under several government schemes to research scholars all over the country. First the differently abled and religious minorities, now even SC and ST research scholars are being denied their fellowship amounts.

The Modi-led government, is pursuing capricious policies and budgetary cuts in higher education that has rendered thousands of Indian university students distraught and tense over the past few months, with a staggered and irrational release of their fellowship and scholarship amounts, leaving universities across the country in a state of angry ferment.
 
Over 20,000 research scholars all over the country have been affected by this tardy and insensitive functioning by the Central government. “Many of us have run into personal debts of Rs 50-60,000,” a research scholar told this writer. “We are helpless, we cannot ask our families and what is worse we are not being able to concentrate on the research,” he added.
 
Research scholars in higher education, who have obtained scholarships under different schemes, have been spending energies in getting scholarship amounts disbursed rather than concentrating on their studies since July last year (2015).

Scholars Among the Differently Abled Denied Fellowship Amounts for Eight Months

 
Among the worst sufferers for a grueling eight month period were research fellows who had obtained the Rajiv Gandhi National fellowship for the Disabled. They did not receive any fellowship amount since June July 2015 and only recently six months worth of money has been disbursed, after a staggering eight month gap. A quick look at the Forum of Scholars (UGC Fellowships Forum ) on the Facebook Page shows the deep anguish that students across the country are going through. Some of these students whom Sabrangindia has made inquiries about include M. D. Hasanujgaman, Ashok Jack and  Arul Selvam among several others. 

Presently, the worst sufferers are minority, Dalit and Adivasi students who get scholarships from the Social Welfare and Minority Ministries apart from the UGC.Minority Students across the country who have been awarded the MANA fellowship (Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minorities) have been denied their amounts for as many as five-to six months and on occasion extending to a year. Sabrangindia has spoken to several of them including Mir Qadri.

Here is what Mir Qadri wrote 55 minutes ago on the Facebook page of the Forum, “All MANF scholars I have planned to go to Minority Cell Department of the Government Telangana to meet the Chairman with our problem of Fellowship amounts not being released.” Sabrangindia spoke to Mir Qadri, “ I am a student of the Maulana Azad University Hyderabad and have not received my fellowship amount for five months. In my knowledge there are at least 1015 students of the same university who have not received their fellowship appoints some for over a year. How are research scholars supposed to even function?” Qadri demanded.
 
Abu Saleh, a research scholar from the University of Hyderabad and part of the Occupy UGC Campaign launched last year in October, says “For the last 18 months, fellowships for students has become a huge issue in the country. There have been clear-cut efforts to stop fellowships plans as like 'UGC Non Net'. Even though there was a hike in amount to some of the scholarships by the end of 2014, the total number has been cut down in many schemes.”
 
Sabrangindia’s investigations across the country have found that the disbursement of all scholarship and fellowship amounts in almost all the schemes of the government are extremely irregular and not functioning properly. Besides, there has been an almost ad hoc cutting and trimming of scholarship entitlements and amounts.
 
At least a dozen students from all over the country, including the Differently Abled, Dalit and Adivasi students were contacted by Sabrangindia. Students who are differently abled are being denied their legitimate fellowship amounts and moreover face a humiliation when they try and contact the authorities.

The last Central Education Budget already saw a jaw dropping budgetary cut of 17%! In the revised estimates for 2014-15, while school education allocation was cut by around Rs. 80,000 crore, that of higher education was slashed by Rs. 4,000 crore. In June 2014, out of 7 lakh candidates who appeared for the NET examinations, a total of around 25000 qualified.  An analysis prepared by the University of Hyderabad Teachers Association states that  clearly, this decision of the UGC is going to leave more than 96% of our students (who were anyway receiving only a meager amount of Rs. 5000 for MPhil and Rs. 8000 for PhD) with no scholarship support to pursue their education.

MPhil and PhD students are research workers, which also involves travel expenses to field sites, libraries etc, purchasing of books and other materials, arranging for accommodation and food where there are no free hostels and messes and so on. Even access to many online journals and articles are privileged and one has to pay if one is outside the privileged circles. Some central fellowship grants are, however, Rs 25,000 per month.

This was the plea made by a differently abled student to Sabrangindia, “Our concerns are being neglected. We have failed to contact the responsible authorities and to get the fellowship. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, UGC and Canara bank are telling us that there are no funds at all for our fellowship!
 
They are saying different things at different times. They always keep referring to others and give us different phone numbers and when we call them, they again keep refer to others. But still there is no proper reply. Some of them say we will get the fellowship in coming months. Some say there are no funds so they don’t know anything. Some say we (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) have already given fund to UGC, but contradictorily the UGC says the ministry has not sent any money!
 
Canara bank says the ministry (of finance) has not sent us funds. Again some tell us either to wait indefinitely or to ask the Finance ministry ourselves to release the funds for our fellowship. When we mail and call, most of the respective offices and their staff refuse to even give us a coherent reply, some even come back and say why we are bothering them.
 
We are in a state of utter darkness. We don’t know when and why we are not getting the fellowship. We do not know what we should do to get the fellowship. Moreover, there is no proper accountability to submit our grievances and inquire about the indefinite delay and non-payment of the fellowship. We are facing huge hardships and severe economic problems due to the non-payment of the fellowship.”  

Researchers from the Minority similarly Strapped 

The condition of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) is another cause for serious concern. In the name of changing the system to a direct bank transfer, even this fellowship amount is being delayed over the last year. The last time the fellowship was given to some students was in October/November 2015.  A few days back after many mails, tweets, and phone calls, they have released one or two months worth of money for a few batches while several are still pending. Research students of MANF 2010-11 batch are still waiting for their June-July fellowship.
 
Last year after huge efforts by the students (RGNF) for SC/STs, scholarships are functioning slightly better but there are various other difficulties such as transferring fellowships from one institution to another. Activation of fellowships for new batches takes months while bad responses and insufficient communication is another problem. UGC, Ministries and Canara Bank always play a blame game and it is the students who suffer.
 
Prestigious institutions of higher education are also clearly indicating to students the complete cancellation of scholarships. This document that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has sent to the new students enrolling in the MPhil and PhD programme from this year is self-explanatory. More than 150 students join TISS for M.Phil and PhD every year and they have been clearly told, “no scholarships!” This will certainly impact the profile of the students who will get in.
 
The circular clearly says that “as per directives of the Central Government of India, Centrally Funded Universties are not entitled for the Non Net fellowships. In view of this there will be no Not Net Fellowship support provided to the scholars from this year.” Only UGC and RGNF scholarships will be available.
 
Over three dozen research fellows whom Sabrangindia spoke to have collectively made this plea. These include Rukmini Dutta, Sreekumar Bishwas, Chiranjib Sarkar, Abhijit Sarkar, Girish Dahiya. Their statement follows:

“The debates regarding UGC Non Net Fellowship and UGC’s messing this up is well known. After several protests throughout the country, the HRD Ministry did set up a committee. The report of the committee was supposed to come in December but researchers are still waiting for the same. The ‘unqualified’ humbug minister seems to be underperformer too. Further, many ongoing fellowship schemes are also in great danger since many of them are being mismanaged in the last two years. The late disbursement system and several months without any fellowships are plaguing the students.
 
Fellowship schemes like MANF, RGNF and so on are dysfunctional for a long time. Last year some students did visit to UGC and other concerned ministries and were promised that the schemes will run as per law thenceforth, but unfortunately it did not happen. As of now thousand scholars of the country have not received their fellowship for many months. For example the scholars under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme for minority students are without fellowship from last October – November. Other schemes like RGNF SC, RGNF ST, RGNF OBC and so on are also running late. Most unfortunately fellowship for disabled students has not been released since last July. In these circumstances these research scholars are in great distress.
 
This repeated late disbursement of fellowships affect thousands of research scholars of the country. Most of the scholars solely depend on fellowship for their needs. Thus, if the fellowship amount is not credited on time, it becomes very difficult to sustain. Researchers literally witness times when they do not have money to support ourselves. Students feel really dejected that they have been pushed down to the level of beggars who have to petition every month for what rightfully deserve as legal entitlements as research scholars. Energy and time are lost much in this process which can otherwise be utilized for fruitful research. Researchers are not even able to concentrate on research, as are constantly worried about the lack of money for basic needs.
Now, whom to blame for all this?
 
Is the assigned Canara Bank and the system or the bureaucracy of UGC responsible? Are the ministries responsible or the entire Govt. itself? Students call and beg to Canara Bank, UGC and Ministries almost every day for the pending money they deserve and when the power leaves them baffled with a mutual blame game, they do not know what to do to get the problem resolved. Researchers wait almost endlessly every month but the hostel authorities will not wait for the mess fees to be remitted; the university authorities will not wait for the tuition fees to be paid; the labs cannot wait for the essential chemicals, tools and instruments to be used from time to time.
 
This might sound little emotional but it’s the ground reality of the researchers in India. Sometime many wonder and regret of the choice of research over other promising careers which would have at least not left them in a situation like this. Please imagine when the employees don’t get salary during the first week of the month.Students appeal not punish them more for choosing to face the challenges of a career in research to contribute to the academic development of the country.Here, it is to be noted that one of the significant reasons mentioned by Rohith Vemula in the tract going around as his 'suicide note' for his fatal decision was monetary problems. His pending fellowship was finally disbursed after his death. We would like to ask whether the Ministries, the UGC and the other powers that be whether they want mass suicides to occur across educational campuses of the country.

Thus, we request the concerned authorities at UGC, at various ministries, and power holders at the Govt. to look into the pathetic situation and do the needful at the earliest to resolve the late disbursement of our fellowships. Please act immediately to solve our problem; please give us our monthly fellowship at least within the first week of every month; please let us do our work peacefully and properly.”
 
Sabrangindia has been since last November consistently following up the Modi government’s failures in the area of higher education. The almost deliberate nonpayment of fellowship amount to a few or several thousand research fellows all over the country appears to be a calculated fall out of policies followed at the highest level.
 

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