It must horrify those of us who belong to the teaching community of India to learn that a professor has been penalised for doing his duty. I am writing about the suspension of Virendra Balaji Sahare of the Department of Social Work at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University. According to reports, he has been suspended “over a question in the BA (Hons) Social Work first-semester examination held earlier this week, in a paper titled ‘Social Problems in India’. The question read: ‘Discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India, giving suitable examples.’”This question paper was shared on social media by handles that follow and propagate the ideology of Hindutva. They took offence at the question and mounted a campaign demanding action against the person responsible for setting it.It did not take even a day for the JMI authorities to swing into action, identify the teacher who had set the question paper, and put him under suspension. They claim that the question under discussion was the result of his negligence and carelessness. Therefore, they state: “…on the instruction of the competent authority, the paper setter, Prof. Virendra Balaji Sahare, Department of Social Work, JMI, is placed under suspension till further orders, and a police FIR will be filed as per rules…”It is not just suspension that Sahare faces; there is also the threat of an FIR. The university authorities have formed a committee to investigate the matter. One wonders what exactly there is to investigate. This is a question paper meant to test students of social work. They are expected to observe their society and develop their own understanding of it. Ideally, we want them to express their own opinions, to support them with data and evidence, and to demonstrate clarity about the theoretical frameworks they are using.Question papers follow the syllabus and classroom teaching, which involves lectures and discussions. No teacher in India has the liberty to go beyond this. Sahare was setting a question paper for students who had studied a course titled ‘Social Problems in India’. Read again the question that is part of the paper he set. It asks students to “discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India, giving suitable examples.”Even lay persons like me, who are not students of social work, can respond to this question. No sane person would find anything offensive in it. Moreover, it was open to students to argue – if they so believed – that the very premise of the question was flawed, that there was neither discrimination nor atrocity against Muslims in India.But it was not the students taking the examination who were outraged; it was Hindutvavadi social media warriors. Their question was: how could a university funded by taxpayers’ money allow discussion of atrocities against Muslims in India?The JMI authorities rushed to respond to this manufactured outrage and sought to appease it by suspending the question-setter, Sahare. In doing so, they committed two serious wrongs. First, they violated the principle of secrecy. Examination work is strictly confidential. From setting question papers to evaluating answer scripts, the identities of teachers involved are kept secret for obvious reasons. We all know how teachers are threatened for not awarding the grades or marks that students believe they deserve. Second, the university short-circuited due process by already declaring that there had been negligence and carelessness on the part of Sahare. Can we reasonably expect the committee now constituted to go against this authoritative verdict?The penalisation of a teacher for doing his duty is not an isolated incident. Not long ago, we read about punitive action against a professor at Meerut University, Seema Pawar, for setting a question paper that offended Hindutvavadis. In a Political Science examination, students were asked: “Which of the following were considered anomic groups – that is, groups alienated from society?” The options included Dal Khalsa, Naxalite groups, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Another question was a match-the-following exercise, in which the correct answers linked the Bahujan Samaj Party with Dalit politics, the Mandal Commission with OBC politics, the Shiv Sena with regional identity politics, and the RSS with religious and caste-based identity politics.Hindutvavadis declared these questions anti-national, and the university authorities appeased them by barring Pawar from all examination-related work. As we all know, being relieved of examination duties is often a relief, but it becomes humiliating when it is imposed as punishment.There is yet another instance of a teacher being penalised for setting a question paper. A teacher at Sharda University was removed from his job for setting a Political Science question paper that offended Hindutvavadi organisations. One of the questions asked students to explain political ideologies, define conservatism briefly, outline its core themes, describe the basic tenets of Fascism/Nazism, explain why the state is considered a necessary evil in liberal thought, and discuss the core themes of liberalism.The question that enraged the right-wing, however, was: “Do you find any similarities between Fascism/Nazism and the Hindu right wing (Hindutva)? Elaborate with arguments.”As is evident, the question did not require students to affirm similarities between fascism and Hindutva. They were free to answer in the negative and justify their position. Indeed, even within leftist circles there has been disagreement on this comparison; many have argued that Hindutva does not fit neatly into the category of fascism. But such nuance is difficult for Hindutvavadis to appreciate.This is because they do not regard students as capable of independent thought. Nor do they believe that education should cultivate critical reasoning. For them, education is a tool for conditioning minds. It is propaganda of an ideology. This, however, is a larger argument. In the case of Sahare, the university has violated a fundamental procedural principle: confidentiality. This violation is part of a broader assault on the academic freedom of the teacher concerned and of the department as a whole. External policing of examination and classroom processes will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on teaching and learning. No teacher would wish to risk losing their job over a question or to invite violent confrontation from students or outsiders.As teachers, we have already observed that we are not free to design syllabi and curricula according to the intellectual demands of our disciplines. It is the nationalism of the moment that frames syllabus-making. Needless to say, this does a grave disservice to both the discipline and the students. Teachers are expected to be bound by their commitment to their field and by their students’ right to a comprehensive understanding of it.This incident reveals the state of the academic world in which we function today. We do not know which sentence or word in our lectures may lead to violence against us, or to suspension or dismissal. We have seen colleagues across universities facing criminal cases, and some even being sent to jail.It remains to be seen whether the teaching community of JMI will stand with Sahare. But teachers at other universities must also speak up. If we allow this to pass without protest, if we do not push back now, we will soon find that there is no ground left for us to stand on.Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.