After app bans and economic crackdowns, India goes after educational tie-ups with China

India has decided to scrutinise university tie-ups with China

India China flags Representational image | AP

Even as China decried India's decision to scrutinise university tie-ups with China, the ministry of external affairs (MEA), on Thursday, pointed out that according to the guidelines issued by India in 2009, the approval of the MEA was required for any MoU/agreement that a foreign cultural centre might wish to enter into with an Indian organisation, “Naturally, if any Indian institution were to enter into or has entered into an arrangement which would come under the purview of these guidelines, then it would require the approval of the government. As a corollary, if the approval was mot taken when establishing such centres, then it was not in conformity with the guidelines,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

The ministry of human resources development (HRD) had, a few days ago, sent letters to several institutions in the country, saying, “The ministry of human resource development and University Grants Commission (UGC) are in the process of reviewing the work being done by higher education institutions as part of agreements/educational arrangements with foreign institutions. As part of this process we would like to review the activities undertaken by the Confucius Centre in your university/institution affiliated to your university.”

While the Confucius centres have come to the limelight, there are only two institutes in India actually running such centres–Mumbai University and Vellore Institute of Technology. However, there are certain private colleges which have tie-ups with Chinese institutes.

Confucius Centres are run by China's education ministry through an agency called Hanban.

Though they could be considered as an equivalent of Alliance Francaise or Goethe Institute, Confucius Centres do not function as independent centres, but work though an established institute. They started out well, with China footing the expense of training teachers, taking students to China on excursions, and initially, say observers, did some good research. “They were meant originally to take forward China's soft power–language and culture. However, slowly, they began giving a sanitised version of political situations, for instance about Tibet and Taiwan,'' explains Alka Acharya, from the Chinese department of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Confucius Centres began coming under the scanner across the world as they not only indulged in Chinese propaganda, but also began asserting influence over institutes and their associations with people who were critical of Chinese policies. Many universities across the world are either reviewing these tie-ups or terminating them altogether.

An Observer Research Foundation paper, done some years ago, had even warned that these centres in countries like Nepal were dangerous for India, too.

While the MHRD makes the review seem like a regular assessment of foreign tie-ups, the mention of Confucius Centres makes it clear that this is one of the measures India is taking against China in the aftermath of the Galwan Valley face-off. Mandarin as a language of choice has also been dropped under the new National Education Policy.

However, even as India take a review of such tie-ups, observers in India rue the lack of experts in Mandarin in India. There are a few universities which have reputed departments of Chinese studies – Delhi University, JNU, Banaras Hindu University, Vishwa Bharati and Sikkim University. However, these are not enough, says Acharya. “We scramble around every time we need interpreters and translators. We need a good pool of experts in India who understand how the Chinese think. Experts who know the laguage and the culture.''

Meanwhile, the MEA added that it expected China to work with India sincerely for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas.'