A group of students at Hyderabad’s Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) on Friday condemned the varsity’s decision to sever ties with Turkey by cancelling its academic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Yunus Emre Institute.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi also took a similar stance recently, in protest against Turkey’s support for Pakistan in the backdrop of the conflict with India.
“Don’t turn universities into RSS shakhas,” a statement from Azad United Students’ Federation, a group of students at MANUU, said. “This alarming trend reflects a dangerous conflation of geopolitical tensions with academic collaboration. India’s proud civilizational ethos has always stood for dialogue, diversity, and the unfettered exchange of knowledge across borders. India has never closed its doors to intellectual engagement, even in times of political strife,” it added.
“To use allegations of terrorism or political disagreements as a pretext to curb academic cooperation undermines the very spirit of higher education and international understanding,” the statement further said.
Manu had earlier signed an MoU in January 2024 with Yunus Emre Institute, Turkey, for five years, under which a diploma in Turkish language was started at the varsity’s School of Languages, Linguistics and Indology.
According to the student group, the fight against terrorism must not become a fight against academic freedom. “Suspending scholarly ties in the name of nationalism not only damages our global academic standing but also risks transforming our universities into ideological outposts that echo the narrow vision of authoritarian forces,” they explained, while demanding the immediate reversal of these decisions.
They urged academic institutions to uphold the values of free inquiry and global academic cooperation. “Let our universities remain centres of knowledge, not echo chambers of political propaganda,” the students said in the statement.
