{"id":39954,"date":"2025-07-19T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=39954"},"modified":"2025-07-20T07:29:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T07:29:49","slug":"leaders-in-india-hungary-and-the-us-are-using-appeals-to-nostalgia-and-nationalism-to-attack-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/leaders-in-india-hungary-and-the-us-are-using-appeals-to-nostalgia-and-nationalism-to-attack-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders in India, Hungary and the US are using appeals to nostalgia and nationalism to attack higher education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Riyad A. Shahjahan<\/a>, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em> and Michalinos Zembylas<\/a>, Open University of Cyprus<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvard University is under siege by the Trump administration<\/a> \u2013 and the world is watching. But this case isn\u2019t just an American issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s part of a global trend: universities cast as enemies and institutions in need of reform. Populist, right-wing governments<\/a> are blaming universities for tearing at the fabric of nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These attacks are part of a broader strategy known as affective nationalism<\/a>. It occurs when leaders use emotions, not just ideas, to build national identity. Feelings such as fear, pride, nostalgia and resentment are deployed to create a story about who belongs, who doesn\u2019t and who\u2019s to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As scholars who study nationalism<\/a>, emotion and higher education<\/a>, we explore the emotional politics behind these attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prime
Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n of Hungary has been hostile to academic freedom. Pierre Crom\/Getty Images News<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Global backlash<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much of President Donald Trump\u2019s vision and rhetoric is inspired by Hungary<\/a>, where Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n has waged a culture war on higher education for over a decade<\/a>, banning gender studies and reshaping university governance<\/a>. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s attacks on Central European University<\/a> expose his hostility to academic freedom, critical thinking and diversity. All are viewed as threats to his nationalist \u201cilliberal democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump followed Orb\u00e1n\u2019s playbook. On May 22, 2025, his administration declared that Harvard could no longer enroll foreign students. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement claimed that university leaders \u201ccreated an unsafe campus environment<\/a> by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators.\u201d The statement suggested that many of the so-called agitators were foreign students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, in India, students at Jawaharlal Nehru University were labeled \u201canti-national<\/a>\u201d for protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act, which provides fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees<\/a>. The students argued that it marginalizes Muslims. Since 2016, the Modi government has increasingly used \u201canti-national\u201d and sedition charges to silence student and academic dissent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These labels \u2013 \u201celite,\u201d \u201cforeign\u201d or \u201canti-national\u201d \u2013 are not neutral. They fuel fear, resentment and powerful narratives that frame universities as threats. Harvard, Central European University and Jawaharlal Nehru University have become symbols of broader national anxieties around identity and belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British-Australian feminist scholar Sara Ahmed\u2019s work on the sticky nature of emotions<\/a> helps reveal the two emotions that often appear in attacks on universities: nostalgia and resentment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.
The Trump administration has used nostalgia as a tool in its attacks on Harvard University. Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images News<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Glorifying the nation\u2019s past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia is a longing for a better past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider Trump\u2019s \u201cMake American Great Again\u201d slogan. It implies the nation was once great, has declined and must reclaim its former glory. That\u2019s a powerful emotional story. Nationalism often works this way \u2013 by telling a tale of a lost golden age and a future that must be saved<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, nostalgia is central to populist attacks on universities and institutional reform. U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, for example, evoked Harvard\u2019s symbolic past as part of the American Dream<\/a>, arguing it has lost its way and \u201cput its reputation in serious jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In India, Modi\u2019s government rejects Western influence, while using nostalgia to revive a Hindu past<\/a> in higher education. The Modi government promotes national pride on campuses by glorifying military heroes and installing symbolic figures \u2013 such as the statue of Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk and philosopher, at Jawaharlal Nehru University \u2013 to shape student identity and loyalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hungary, Orb\u00e1n mobilizes a glorified Christian past to challenge discourses on diversity, inclusion, critical inquiry and academic freedom in higher education. A 2021 bill tasks universities with defending the nation and preserving its intellectual and cultural heritage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prime
In India, the Modi government has increasingly framed public universities as institutions corrupted by Western ideas. Tomas Cuesta\/Getty Images News<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Enemies of the nation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Resentment is a powerful emotion often used by states that see themselves as defenders of national unity and values. When Harvard resisted Trump\u2019s reforms, the president framed the university\u2019s stance<\/a> in a Truth Social post as a betrayal to the nation, denouncing it as \u201cterrorist inspired\/supporting \u2018sickness.\u2019\u201d Meanwhile, the Department of Education issued a statement that accused the university of a \u201ctroubling entitlement mindset<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, in India, the Modi government has increasingly framed public universities \u2013 especially those with critical voices \u2013 as \u201canti-national\u201d spaces. By casting critical voices as enemies within, the state turns resentment into a political weapon<\/a> to justify the erosion of academic freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hungary, the Orb\u00e1n government mobilized resentment to portray universities and academics as disloyal elites working against the nation. One example of Hungary\u2019s war on universities is the 2018 ban on gender studies<\/a>, justified by the Orb\u00e1n government as rejecting \u201csocially constructed genders\u201d in favor of \u201cbiological sexes.\u201d This move reflects how the government uses resentment to assert ideological control over academic institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jawaharlal
Universities are under attack for what they represent. Hindustan Times<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Emotional battlegrounds?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Universities, especially elite ones such as Harvard and Jawaharlal Nehru University, carry deep symbolic weight. People care because of what the institutions represent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvard, with its elite status<\/a>, has long been a symbol of academic authority. But more recently, it has been cast as a defender of liberal higher education \u2013 making it a Trump administration target<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jawaharlal Nehru University in India holds similar symbolic weight. It\u2019s historically associated with producing the country\u2019s social elites and is seen, especially in mainstream media, as left-leaning<\/a>, making it a lightning rod in India\u2019s polarized political landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hungary, the Orb\u00e1n government viewed Central European University<\/a> as a danger because it threatened the government\u2019s Christian-nationalist vision of the nation-state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universities are under attack not just for what they teach and research, but for what \u2013 and who \u2013 they represent. These are not just ideological disputes; they are emotional struggles over identity, belonging and public trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riyad A. Shahjahan<\/a>, Professor of Higher, Adult and Life Long Education, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em> and Michalinos Zembylas<\/a>, Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies, Open University of Cyprus<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riyad A. Shahjahan, Michigan State University and Michalinos Zembylas, Open University of Cyprus Harvard University is under siege by the Trump administration \u2013 and the world is watching. But this case isn\u2019t just an American issue. It\u2019s part of a global trend: universities cast as enemies and institutions in need of reform. Populist, right-wing governments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":39955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,8025,115,292,46,295,10,25,296,4],"tags":[1660,16669,473,2661,687,9447,2501,885,891,886,860,16670,9264,2502,2495,13403,15971,11865],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39956,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39954\/revisions\/39956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}