The Quiet Coup in Kashmir's Academia

Jammu and Kashmir's plan to extend professors' retirement age on merit risks turning into another tale of privilege dressed as performance.

- Dr. Ashraf Zainabi

The word "merit" used to mean something in the academic world. It stood for rigour, honesty, impact. But in Jammu and Kashmir today, it has become a slogan stretched too thin, especially with the latest move to selectively extend the retirement age of university professors from 62 to 65. The government says the extension will be based on merit. But what does that even mean anymore?

In universities across the region, the reaction has been a mix of cautious hope and quiet disbelief. Everyone knows how things usually work. When rules are vague, it is the well-connected who benefit. In this case, the absence of any clear definition or public criteria for "merit" makes the entire proposal suspect. Without transparency, this promise begins to look less like reform and more like another opportunity to reward friends in high places.

There is a deeper unease here, one rooted in decades of academic decay. Nepotism is no stranger to our institutions. Promotions have often been decided not in classrooms or research labs but in corridors of power. The professor who knows someone in the secretariat is more likely to rise than the one publishing serious research or mentoring students through sleepless nights.