Gaza protests: For Indian students in US, stakes are much higher

When news that Achinthya Sivalingam GS, an Indian-origin graduate student at Princeton University, had been arrested during a Gaza solidarity sit-in on campus made the headlines, visa and education consultants in India were deluged with calls from students and parents.

“They are worried about semesters getting delayed, degrees coming in later. They keep asking: ‘Will placements get delayed? Will visas be extended? What will happen when the study permit ends? How will we manage their fees?’” says Salil Bhatia, a visa consultant in Delhi-NCR.

As Gaza protests engulf Columbia and other campuses in the US, parents have their own set of anxieties — what if their son or daughter joins in the movement and is detained, jeopardising their hard-earned scholarships, visas and semester time?

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Sarthak Garg, a financial economics major at Columbia, says things are under control in his campus. “There is restricted movement, and the New York Police Department (NYPD) has wiped out all protests,” says Garg on a Zoom call over breakfast.

The first-year student from Jaipur is studying in the US on an F-1 visa and has maintained a neutral silence on the pro-Palestinian protests sweeping American campuses since April 17, its epicentre being Columbia University from where cops arrested over 100 student protestors alone.

For Garg, it’s the end of the spring semester and he must focus on his final exams — which have moved online — this week. “We put in a lot of money, years of hard work and effort — much more than many domestic students — to get to Columbia. The stakes are pretty high for us,” says Garg, still reeling from the shock of heavy police presence on campus.

Indians make up 25% of the international students in the US, according to an Open Doors Report last year. But like Garg, many desi students are wary of joining in for fear of detention and consequent loss of scholarships or revoking of their F-1 and J-1 visas, and even deportation.

Other pressing concerns include the F-2 visas of dependents of expelled students being cancelled, not to mention a blight on the academic record that might hinder chances of transfer to other universities or even future entry into the country. If arrested, legal rights are limited compared to domestic students.

Besides, doxing for taking political sides is also problematic. Right after the Hamas attack on Israel in October, some student groups from Harvard University had posted an open letter blaming Israel for the violence. Several co-signers of the controversial statement were later named and shamed online for being anti-Semitic, and their job offers taken away. International students are the hardest hit in such situations.

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But, involved or not, Indian students can hardly escape the consequences. In this election year, Bhatia doesn’t expect campus protests to die out any time soon.

“At least one semester will be badly hit, which will directly impact applications in the fall semester (August) which has the highest number of Indian students enrolling. Already, students are asking if they should defer admissions,” he adds.

Mumbaikar Unaiza Mulla, whose son is pursuing his MS in Information Science from the University of Arizona, was concerned by jarring images of campus crackdowns.

“But he reassured me that he and his friends were staying out of trouble. When things are politically motivated, they can be blown out of proportion,” says Mulla, who works at IDP Education

‘Dystopian yet familiar’

Shreyashi Sharma, an LLM candidate at the UCLA School of Law who is scheduled to graduate on May 10, has been attending protests in LA since last year and even in the main campus, but admits she cannot risk joining the encampments set up in college grounds where hundreds of students were arrested this week.

“To see all this is very dystopian yet very familiar, coming as I do from India. But I am also overwhelmed to see the support protesters are getting in terms of legal aid, medicine, food etc,” she said.

Garg remembers Hamilton Hall’s rich history of protest, against the Vietnam War in 1968 and apartheid in 1985. But says it’s different this time.

“Were the administrator’s actions appropriate or harsh? Was such a heavy NYPD presence required on campus? Is free speech gone in a university like Columbia or can students still protest in future? How much space for international advocacy will remain? These questions are hanging in the air for all of us here,” he says.