## Colophon tags:: [[&arc]] [[&article]] [[india]] url:: https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/06/21/the-unlikely-city-welcoming-delhis-intellectual-refugees date:: [[2026-06-24]] %% title:: The unlikely city welcoming Delhi’s intellectual refugees type:: [[clipped-note]] file:: published:: 2026-06-21T13:53:21.727Z [Click to Archive](https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/06/21/the-unlikely-city-welcoming-delhis-intellectual-refugees) %% archive:: ## Notes short:: > There is no one to talk to in Delhi any more, grumbles one recent transplant. Institutions that have not been broken have learnt to bend. Intellectuals who kept their jobs know not to broadcast their views. Researchers who want their policy ideas taken seriously choose their affiliations carefully. Some superannuated scholars set up new non-partisan bodies—with funding strictly domestic—in the hope of a clean slate. Established researchers with impressive CVs accepted positions at Western universities. Younger ones moved to different disciplines or sectors. And then there are those who went to Ahmedabad. > The very same. Ashoka recently dropped by the city to chat with refugees from Delhi. The intellectual environment they found upon landing, they say, was a pleasant surprise. There is “high freedom” within their institutions, though with the understanding that they will keep suitably low public profiles. The idea, as an administrator explained to a recent arrival, is to “facilitate” smart people to do their work. In other words, management has what passes for courage in today’s India, doing the basic job of shielding thinkers from political pressure.