Overview

• Kerala University issued a revised circular advising colleges to refrain from organizing events on August 14 after initial compliance with the Raj Bhavan directive
• Higher Education Minister R. Bindu confirmed that formal directives from the Collegiate and Technical Education Directorates declare the observance voluntary
• Several vice-chancellors initially instructed affiliated colleges to plan seminars, street plays and dramas highlighting Partition trauma under the June Raj Bhavan circular
• Students’ Federation of India, Kerala Students Union and teachers’ groups staged protests, burning effigies of the Governor and vice-chancellors and vowing to block campus events
• The dispute highlights a constitutional confrontation over the Governor’s powers as university chancellor and broader center–state tensions over historical narratives ahead of Independence Day