Selective outrage of the Ivy League desi: Holding a mirror to western academia's bias

'Deracination' occurs when a student's rich heritage is reduced solely to negative analytic lenses like caste and patriarchy, severing emotional bonds to tradition and ancestors.

- Brijesh Singh

The images have been hard to ignore: tent encampments on prestigious American university lawns, fiery speeches echoing through historic quads, and among the diverse crowd of protesters, a noticeable presence of students of Indian origin.

Their impassioned advocacy for the Palestinian cause, culminating in arrests, suspensions, and even visa revocations, has garnered headlines globally.

On the surface, this might appear as a commendable display of universal conscience - young minds standing up against perceived injustice.

However, a closer examination, particularly through the lens of how Western academia treats Indic civilizational narratives, reveals a troubling double standard, a form of selective idealism that exposes not just the students' priorities, but the pervasive biases of the very institutions shaping their worldview.

Let's be clear: the issue is not the act of protest itself, nor is it about denying the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The issue is the striking contrast between the fervent, often self-sacrificial, commitment shown towards one cause, and the deafening silence, or even complicity, regarding the systemic marginalization and distortion of their own civilizational heritage within the same academic environment.

This isn't sympathy for these students; it's an analysis of their performative idealism, which appears deeply influenced by academic frameworks that elevate certain narratives while actively suppressing others, particularly those pertaining to Indic experiences and concerns.

As a framework for understanding this phenomenon suggests, Western academia often operates under an "Epistemic Hegemony."

This isn't just about what is taught, but "how" it is taught.

Theoretical monocultures, such as rigid applications of Critical Race Theory or postcolonial frameworks, often reduce complex Indic realities to simplistic "oppressor/oppressed" binaries.