Overview

• The Gyan Sabha national education conference, organised by RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas with the Association of Indian Universities and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, concluded in Kochi on July 28 featuring RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
• General Education Minister V. Sivankutty condemned the participation of four Kerala vice-chancellors and urged citizens to resist efforts to saffronise the secular education system.
• Higher Education Minister R. Bindu described the VCs’ attendance as a regressive threat to academic autonomy and warned of administrative measures against those who shared the dais with Bhagwat.
• At the conclave, Bhagwat called for replacing “Indianisation” with “Bharatiyaness” and promoted using NEP 2020 to integrate indigenous knowledge and cultural nationalism into curricula.
• This dispute follows earlier Student Federation of India protests and ministerial walkouts over RSS-linked symbols, underscoring an ongoing clash between secularism and cultural nationalism in Kerala’s universities.