US campus protests: What’s keeping many Indian students away?

It started at Columbia University and has spread to campuses across the US and beyond. The anti-Israel student protests have been unlike any we have seen in recent decades.

These demonstrations, sparked by the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict, have seen students vociferously demanding that their institutions sever financial ties with companies supporting Israeli military actions in Gaza. The protests gained momentum following a significant event at Columbia University, where student activists, after meticulous planning, set up encampments on university grounds for a round-the-clock protest. In recent weeks, other top US institutions like Yale and the University of Southern California (USC) have joined in. Indian students, who represent the second-largest group of international scholars in the US after the Chinese, find themselves in a complex situation.

The experiences of these students are varied: while few have actively participated in the protests, a significant number have chosen to remain on the sidelines. Indian students’ reactions have been tempered by ideological stances, fear over the revoking of scholarships, and the threat of deportation.

We take a look.

Indians at protests in the US

The protests at US university campuses, especially news of encampments, started making headlines in India last month. It was in late April that a video of a woman protester sloganeering in Hindi started doing the rounds on social media.

She was chanting the “Azadi” song, heard in Indian higher education institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) during protests. That prompted speculation that the woman in the video was an Indian student studying abroad.

Around the same time that the video was going viral, Achinthya Sivalingan’s name popped up. Sivalingan, a student at Princeton University, was arrested moments after protesters set up the first tents for the pro-Palestine encampment. Sivalingan is an Indian-origin woman, not an Indian citizen. She was born in Tamil Nadu and raised in Columbus, US.

Being an Indian-origin person with US citizenship and being an Indian citizen in the US on a student visa means a world of difference when it comes to participation in protests

Deportation, scholarship cancellation are top concerns

Darpan*, an Indian student pursuing his Master’s degree at New York University (NYU), said that Indian students were staying away from the protests, given how sensitive a topic it is. He has also observed that it is largely the undergraduate students who are at the protests.

Anna*, an Indian student completing her Master’s at USC, said she was near the campus during the protest but stayed home. “I just didn’t participate. If I get caught, I’ll be deported,” she told Firstpost.

“As far as I know, none of the Indian students will be at the protest. But we did see some holding a silent protest,” she added.

The silent protest she is referring to saw several USC students wearing face masks to show that the university was silencing their voices. The demonstrations were prompted after USC cancelled the valedictorian speech of Asna Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim, out of security concerns.

USC Silent protest

In USC, protests intensified after valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student, was asked not to give her speech due to security concerns. AP

Wearing a mask in public, without being a part of a large protest gathering could serve as a contribution to the protest, without being so obvious as to invite disciplinary action

It’s not just deportation that students are concerned about.

Darpan pointed out that if a student on scholarship is involved in something controversial, like a protest, the financial aid they receive is the first to take a hit.

Media reports suggest that several students who wish to show their support are holding back on account of these concerns. Others have shown passive support, like helping fundraising initiatives.

Anna, too, said, “I honestly want to support these protests in a lawful way. In USC, students do it in a very unlawful way, like putting up tents inside the campus and creating a ruckus. But yeah, I feel even if I join protest in a proper way, as an international student, there is the fear of being deported, which results in a huge loss of money and everything.

Citing these reasons, she opined that international stay away from protests and all. However, she pointed out that they show their support in a different way, “like signing petitions and supporting them via social media.”

The fears of deportation and scholarships being revoked are not unfounded. Saurabh Arora, CEO & Founder, University Living, a global student housing marketplace, told Firstpost, “Engaging in protests while studying abroad, particularly in countries like the US, may have serious repercussions for students […] Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, consequences can range from fines and probation to deportation and being barred from re-entering the US.”

Back home, parents fret

Students aren’t the only ones concerned. Back home, parents have been quite worried about the demonstrations on campus. “I know my parents are quite concerned. My mom, especially. My parents are of the view that in the US, it is quite easy to get deported if you do the wrong thing. They believe rules here are much more extreme than in India. They are super scared that I might get arrested because I’m at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Satyarth*, a Master’s student at Columbia University, where the protests have arguably been the most intense.

“They keep telling me to not go to college if I don’t have to. I guess their concerns might be valid, but I don’t think that would happen– that I get arrested because I’m at the wrong place at the wrong time,” he added.

Anna had a similar tale to tell. “My mom was in Dubai. The first thing she did when she woke up and saw the news, was to give me a call. It was 5 am in Dubai then. She asked if I went out for the protest. She was relieved after I said no. She told me not to go to the area of the campus where the protests are happening, just out of precaution.

Peer pressure, exam stress, and frustration over online classes

Those not ideologically inclined towards the protest point to other frustrations.

There is peer pressure, lack of access to study spaces, and some dissatisfaction with classes shifting online.

NYU student protest

At NYU, as in other universities, students are demanding that their universities divest from companies that are profiting from the war in Gaza. Reuters

Satyarth said he knows people who are facing some pressure to join the protest. “There are people who are actively telling others to get involved and it’s difficult to express different views if you do want to do that.” He also pointed to discourse on Columbia’s unofficial subreddit around this.

Darpan and Anna did not report any such pressure. However, they spoke about classes being moved online.

On classes shifting online, Satyarth said, “There are international students paying $80,000. The least you can expect is that you get to go to college and attend classes there instead of doing it over Zoom.” He also pointed out how, during the time that protesters occupied Hamilton Hall, his classes, which mostly happen there, were disrupted.

Another issue at Columbia was that the access to the library was blocked out of security concerns amid the demonstrations. While some students do have space and an environment in their accommodation where they can study, others do not. For them, libraries are essential.

The campus protests come just days ahead of exams and are definitely a stressor. The uncertainty around the mode of the tests being online or offline, as well as how much professors would alter the difficulty level (since they might be worried about cheating in online exams) was also a concern. A fast-changing landscape

Several Indian students studying in the US, are now finding themselves in very dynamic and varied situations on campuses. In Columbia, NYU, and USC, the protestors have had confrontations with the police. Hundreds of students have been arrested throughout the country.

US university protests

Several protestors have been removed by riot police from encampments on university campuses. AP

The scene is different in places like Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers. Here, universities have struck deals with the protesters and protest leaders. Some of these institutions have also committed to reviewing their investments in Israel. Others have promised to listen to calls to stop doing business with Israel.

For now, the war, protests, and exams, are all grinding on, affecting all those on campus – even if they are not chanting, “Disclose, divest. We will not stop, we will not rest.”

*Some names have been changed to provide anonymity