University of Michigan experts analyse India’s NEET examination crisis, student protests, paper-leak allegations, social media activism and youth unemployment.
ANN ARBOR—Faculty at the USA’s University of Michigan’s Center for South Asian Studies are available to discuss the youth-led protests in India amid back-to-back scandals related to the NEET examination paper leaks, technical glitches and canceled tests that impacted more than 2 million students who took the exam.
Joyojeet Pal is a professor of information at the School of Information. His research examines the relationship between social media, political participation and civic activism, with a particular focus on India. His work explores how activists, political leaders, influencers and ordinary citizens use digital platforms to shape public opinion, mobilize collective action and document political events.
“The protests in Delhi have erupted in large part because of a perceived distance of the administration, which rarely ever shows answerability or takes serious questions from the media, from the issues impacting young people including a broken higher education system and unemployment,” Pal said. “The government, while increasingly stronger electorally, is seen as one that does not listen and shuts down most forms of dissent that were acceptable and common in the past, thus brute force is used against even a small event of students asking for nonthreatening changes simply because the political leadership has become used to not having to roll back or apologize for anything.
“Younger generations in India have grown up without the experience of street protest in the same way as older generations, and without the idea of an answerable political leadership since the key leadership never talks directly to the mainstream media. The younger generation has seen the street has become a site for recording performances. So as a result, while older generations saw value in being seen by the state, younger generations see value in seeing themselves and each other, bearing witness to ‘I was there’. The reel is consequently both evidentiary and celebratory.
“The pattern of social media use increasingly suggests that major FOMO events are consciously sought out by younger people as points of convergence. As opposed to previous generations which saw protest as a collective action in which the individual is invisible, this generation integrates their own stories into the collective.”
University of Michigan experts discuss India’s NEET examination crisis and student protests
Contact: joyojeet@umich.edu
Yusuf Neggers is an assistant professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. His research examines questions at the intersection of political economy and economic development, with a focus on political accountability, state capacity and the delivery of public services.
“What began as a satirical online movement two months ago has grown into one of India’s largest student protests in years, much like the farmers’ sit-ins outside Delhi in 2020-2021 grew from local grievances into a sustained national reckoning,” Neggers said. “Together, these movements show that when the public is willing to organize and sustain pressure between elections, protest becomes a vital mechanism for holding leaders accountable to citizens’ needs, and one that repression efforts alone rarely succeed in extinguishing.”
Contact: yneggers@umich.edu
Emmerich Davies, a research fellow at the School for Environment and Sustainability, works on education politics with a regional focus on South Asia, and in the politics of private education, labor market transitions and the education bureaucracy.
“What started as an internet troll has revealed some more fundamental fault lines in the Indian economy. The intense pressure students in India feel regarding examinations and their high-stakes nature have come together at this particular moment,” Davies said. “But this has been an issue for a while—debates about caste reservations, the exceedingly competitive nature of the NEET and other college entrance exams, and the large numbers of older students that would rather stay in college than enter the labor force all point to the lack of opportunities for the young. The nature of the economy, driven by a service sector that employs few people, is simply insufficient for their larger demands. The protests are only the most recent manifestation of this.
“India is also not unique within South Asia. The protests led by young adults that toppled governments in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka over the last four years were, at their core, about the same fundamental issues at the heart of the protests in India today: insufficient jobs to absorb the large number of people entering the labor force. Although the protestors from the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ might have their particular demands met, it will merely be a salve on the underlying problem.”
Contact: eeemda@umich.edu
Drishadwati Bargi is a collegiate fellow in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. She works on the Hindu Right, new social movements, media, literature and democracy.
“The powerful protests in the wake of the suicide of 11 students in India is a culmination of long years of frustration and discontent with the overall degradation of education system in India,” Bargi said. “Higher education, especially competitive exams like NEET, has always been the time-tested objective assessment through which students from all socioeconomic backgrounds have secured places in the premier institutions of medical science, technology or management. For many, it’s the only way toward a stable career, a move toward respect, dignity and independence through a process that remains overwhelmingly competitive and unforgivingly expensive.
“And yet, students, along with teachers, parents, researchers have borne the brunt of neglect, defunding and overall politicization of important institutions and public services in post-liberalized India. The remark by the Chief Justice of India that compared the youth and unemployed with ‘cockroaches’ was probably the last thing an already overstretched population could bear. Therefore, with its existing body of student organizations and activists from all over India, it was natural that New Delhi would implode in rage and assert the possibility of solidarity amidst apathy and hatred.”
Contact: dbargi@umich.edu
