Why India Is Failing Its Minority Scholars The Maulana Azad Fellowship Crisis Reveals A Bigger Issue

By all accounts, India claims to be building a knowledge economy. We are told that we are the Vishwaguru, the rising star of the Global South, the next superpower. And yet, over 1,400 PhD students—many of them first-generation learners from minority communities—have not been paid their rightful stipends under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) since January 2025. That’s half a year of research disrupted, lives upended, and dreams stalled.

Let's be crystal clear: this is not an administrative lag. It's a systemic betrayal.

The fellowship, introduced in 2009 to encourage inclusive higher education, assists scholars who belong to economically weaker sections of Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi communities. These are NET-qualified candidates with a monthly income of ₹37,000–₹42,000—modest but vital sums that enable them to eke out a living while expanding knowledge frontiers.

But since the Union government chose to transfer nodal duties from the UGC to the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC), there has been chaos. Researchers are trapped in the macabre dance of Aadhaar checks, document re-submissions, and ministry visits—with no direction, no transparency, and definitely no accountability.

Students such as Nazia Israr of Kashmir University are facing eviction notices, shattered research schedules, and shaky futures. She has yet to see a rupee since January. "My rent is outstanding. My research is in arrears. I just got married—how long can my husband shoulder this burden?" she says. But maybe the most heartbreaking sentence from her interview? "This fellowship wasn't money—it was hope."

Is that what the government is axing these days? Hope?

In December 2022, the government assured that current MANF fellows would not be impacted despite stopping fresh admissions. A year down the line, it reduced the budget by 4.9%—from ₹45.08 crore to ₹42.84 crore—and hasn't released the outstanding dues yet. Where is accountability?

Worse still, scholars under UGC fellowships got revised House Rent Allowance (HRA) from January 2024. But MANF fellows—doing the same work, occupying the same departments—are still being denied parity. Isn't this discrimination disguised as monitoring?

The NMDFC says it has the money but lacks sanction to disburse them. Who is stalling that sanction? And above all, why?

Opposition leaders—Rahul Gandhi, Mohammad Jawed, T Sumathy, Zia Ur Rehman Barq—have pressed the matter in Parliament. But no reason, no timeline, no compassion has been offered by the government. Do we have to assume that a country capable of sending lunar missions can't release scholarships to 1,400 PhD students?

In a nation where academic freedom is already under attack, this silence is sabotage.

Let us not feign that this is a one-off glitch. It is a trend—a gradual elimination of mechanisms intended to balance the playing field for minorities. Today it is the MANF. Tomorrow, it might be the Post-Matric Scholarship, the Begum Hazrat Mahal Scheme, or some other scheme. 

If India truly believes in inclusive education, the government needs to respond: Why are minority scholars always forced to beg for what's already theirs?