The usual suspects are incensed once again that yet another foreign (read white) academic, Francesca Orsini, who specialises in an aspect of India – in this case, the Hindi language – and is associated with the Left-dominated School of Oriental and African Studies in London was denied entry despite a valid visa. It is being cited as yet another example of authoritarianism and suppression of free speech by the “Hindu nationalist" current Government of India.

The other side sees Orsini as an India and Hindu baiter and rattles off instances of her activism against India on issues from Kashmir to the Citizenship Amendment Act. However, for those who are not in the same circuit – Hindi literature and language – it is hard to discern whether there is any bias in her scholarship even if she does fall in with the usual ‘liberal’ academic pastime of signing petitions and joining protests against right wing actions.

But a lay Indian can be forgiven for feeling rather bewildered by the sheer volume of praise that she has garnered after she was turned back from India. Judging by the seems there is no Indian academic or researcher in the field of Hindi who can hold a candle to her scholarship and thus her absence from India is thus nothing short of a tragedy for Indians. If indeed there is no one in India of comparable expertise, the logical question should really be, “Why on Earth not?"

The Orsini incident has led to predictable lists of other prominent and unparalleled foreign scholars who have been denied entry to India or criticised by those seen as being right wing. One stark fact stands out in this peroration: that Indology has been dominated by non-Indians,........

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