Fading Alma Mater

“Any country that neglects

education undermines not only

its economic future but the very

foundations of its democracy.”

— Amartya Sen

There is one space where India’s glory can now be found only in the ancient. Long before colonialism reshaped the subcontinent, India’s intellectual horizons were among the brightest on Earth. In those times, Takshashila and Nalanda were not quaint relics but bustling hubs where medicine, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy were taught with zeal and depth, drawing thousands from around the world. These were not narrow corridors of rote learning but crucibles of inquiry, debate and cultural exchange; the earliest embodiments of what the modern world would call “universities”.

Education in India began as a civilizational instinct – open, contested, rigorous – long before today’s modern nations learnt to manufacture universities. Such an inheritance should have anchored the republic. Instead, it serves only as a jarring reminder of how India has slipped. The regression is not just abstract. Across India, government schools (the first rung of learning for millions) are being shut down or merged out of existence, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. Classrooms are disappearing even as political speeches invoke demographic dividends and knowledge economies. A nation that closes its schools while celebrating its youth is not confused; it is in complete denial.

Yielding to Prejudice

More disturbingly, education is not only being neglected, it is increasingly being distorted. Recently, the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Medical College lost recognition for reasons that had little to do with academics and everything to do with ideology. When institutions become collateral damage in cultural or political battles, the signal is unmistakable. Reason is yielding ground to prejudice and merit subordinated to impulse. This is not an isolated lapse, but part of a broader unravelling. Quite sadly, education is being stripped of autonomy, seriousness and moral authority. What is eroding is not just institutional quality, but the very idea of learning as a neutral and rational pillar of nation-building.

The consequences of this erosion are visible. According to the QS World University Rankings 2026, India does not have a single varsity in the Global Top 100. Not one. Even though it is the world’s most populous nation, among the largest economies and home to one of the largest higher-education systems on the planet.

The highest-ranked Indian institution, IIT Delhi, stands at 123, followed by IIT Bombay and IIT Madras outside the top 150. More than 50 Indian universities appear in the rankings, giving India one of the largest national representations globally. Yet, none cross the threshold that signals genuine academic power. Numbers have grown. Standing has not. This absence is not symbolic. It is structural. It tells a story of universities that teach but do not research, that expand but do not deepen, that produce degrees without imparting knowledge. Rankings may be dismissed as ‘West-centric’, but they expose what students, employers and academics know. That India’s education system has lost its edge.

We Used to Know Better

The decline is particularly galling because India once recognized education as ‘strategic’. Post-1947, the establishment of IITs, IIMs and institutions like the Indian Institute of Science was not accidental. It reflected a realization that a young and poor nation could not afford intellectual mediocrity. For decades, these institutions of learning delivered. Indian engineers, scientists and managers became global-bests. Until the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a doctor or an engineer was not merely a personal ambition, it was a national aspiration. Studying abroad was a choice of privilege, not a default escape.

Today, that confidence has evaporated. Middle-class families, once proud of Indian universities, now exhaust savings to send children overseas. This is no longer for prestige, but for ‘degree credibility’. This exodus is the most damning referendum on India’s education system. Nations do not lose faith in their universities overnight; they lose it when decline becomes habitual.

A reason for this slide is simple yet brutal: chronic underinvestment. India spends under 1 per cent of its GDP on R&D, a fraction of what top knowledge economies commit. The result is predictable. We have primary schools with no teachers, under-funded labs, skeletal doctoral programmes, toothless post-doctoral ecosystems and scant research impact. No education system can aspire to be world-class on aspiration alone. Research needs time, money, freedom of learning and institutional patience. Today, these are in short supply. Or no supply. Faculty shortage is endemic. Scores of colleges function with temporary or underqualified teachers, leaving little room for scholarship or innovation.

In India, display has replaced depth. Institutions of learning may be growing, enrolments rising and degrees multiplying, but the academic core is hollowing out. We may have built one of the world’s largest higher-education systems, but we have allowed it to become the weakest in research intensity.

A Veritable (Fish)Market

As the state retreats, the private sector has surged. But these are hardly custodians of excellence, made up mostly of hard-nosed profiteers. Private colleges have proliferated in professional education, selling the promise of world-class learning at premium prices. In reality, many operate as credentials factories, optimised for margins rather than minds. Standards are diluted to keep passing rates high. Research is minimal or cosmetic, faculty overworked and underpaid. Regulation oscillates between neglect and arbitrary intervention, raising no bars and protecting no standards.

If you think of me as anti-private education, think again. In a country of India’s scale, private colleges are inevitable and necessary. But when profit eclipses pedagogy and oversight is weak, education degenerates into a transaction, not a transformative process. This is being exacerbated by public institutions, especially schools and colleges serving poorer regions, being allowed (systematically forced?) to shut down. The result... The state withdraws. Market advances. Inequality deepens.

There is enough spiel on reform, but it only makes for guttural rhetoric. The National Education Policy 2020 promised renewal. Multidisciplinary learning, research focus, institutional autonomy and global integration were articulated. It was a thoughtful blueprint… on paper. In practice, execution has been hesitant and stuttering. Funding commitments have not matched ambition. Structural reforms remain delayed. Autonomy is promised but rarely trusted. Varsities remain entangled in bureaucratic and political oversight, undermining independence. Policy sans resolve leads to impotence. And neither education nor procreation can be managed on announcements alone.

What makes things perilous is the creeping intrusion of ideology into education. When schools are closed with a casual shrug, when universities are penalised for perceived identities rather than proven failures, and when intellectual spaces are coloured by political leanings, education stops being a national unifier. It becomes just another battleground.

No Mystery. No Option

No nation serious about its future can afford to undermine its education system and expect to rise. Universities are not ornamental or figurines. They are engines of thought. Schools are not expendable assets. They are foundations of citizenship. When these pillars weaken, the tremors are felt beyond classrooms. The path forward is not a mystery, and it leaves India with no option. Public investment in education and research must rise decisively, not incrementally or in bits and spurts. Education requires autonomy paired with accountability. Faculty recruitment must prioritise excellence over expedience. Research funding must reward originality and long-term inquiry.

End of day, the ultra-critical aspect. Education needs to be insulated from ideological caprice. Merit, inquiry and reason must be restored as non-negotiable and the only acceptable principles.

From Nalanda to IITs, India has known intellectual ambition. That tells us that the crisis we face today is not of capacity but of will, because the fall from grace is complete. Whether India chooses to climb back or continue its slide into educational irrelevance will determine not just its rankings, but its future as a nation. The choice is an easy one. Provided that we want the next generation to speak knowledge.

The writer can be reached on [email protected]. Views expressed are personal. The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist