In a striking intervention in the ongoing row over the deportation of the renowned Hindi scholar Professor Francesca Orsini, Congress figure Shashi Tharoor launched a stinging critique on Sunday. Tharoor asserted that India must cultivate a thicker skin, a broader mind, and a bigger heart in its dealings with foreign academics.
He argued passionately that the act of ejecting foreign scholars over ostensibly minor visa infractions inflicts significantly greater damage upon the country's global standing than any critical academic writings could ever manage. Professor Orsini, a highly respected UK-based Professor of Hindi and South Asian Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, was recently turned away and deported from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, despite being in possession of a valid five-year e-visa. The decision has provoked considerable backlash from scholarly and literary circles.
Tharoor, famed for his international diplomatic background, stated that "Rolling out an ‘unwelcome mat’ at our airport immigration counters to deport foreign scholars and academics because of trivial visa violations is doing us far more damage — as a country, a culture and an internationally-credible nation — than any number of negative articles in foreign academic journals could ever accomplish.” He concluded with a sharp admonition: "Official India needs to grow a thicker skin, a broader mind, and a bigger heart."
His remarks were made while sharing an article penned by political commentator and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta. Dasgupta’s piece noted that while the state is within its rights to enforce visa regulations, it has no business whatsoever in passing judgement on a scholar's academic work. Dasgupta warned that India must be careful to avoid giving the impression that it is shutting its doors to overseas academics.
Conversely, government sources indicated that Orsini, who has made seminal contributions to Hindi and Urdu studies, had been placed on a “blacklist” since March 2025 for purported breaches of visa conditions. Officials allege that she entered the country on a tourist visa but had previously been involved in research activities, which constitutes a violation of the terms of that specific visa category.
The Congress party had previously maintained that the move to bar Orsini was not merely a matter of immigration paperwork but was symptomatic of the Modi government's “hostility towards independent, serious-thinking, professional scholarship.” Leading historian Ramachandra Guha also condemned the action, branding it “the mark of a government that is insecure, paranoid, and even stupid.” He hailed Orsini as “a great scholar of Indian literature whose work has richly illuminated our understanding of our own cultural heritage.”
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