India’s exam scandals expose systemic corruption & militarised surveillance in education—military deployment normalises securitisation of institutions
Original framing: “India turns to military to beef up security after exam scandals” — The Japan Times
Dalit and Adivasi students face disproportionate scrutiny in exams, with studies showing they are more likely to be accused of cheating due to systemic bias in question papers and invigilation. Rural students lack access to coaching centres, making them vulnerable to exploitation by corrupt officials or private tutors. Transgender and queer students are often excluded entirely from exam systems that enforce binary gender norms. The military’s role further alienates Muslim and minority communities, who already face heightened surveillance under India’s securitised state.
India’s exam scandals are not anomalies but symptoms of a deeper crisis: a neoliberal education system that treats students as commodities, a colonial legacy that equates merit with obedience, and a state that increasingly relies on military force to mask its failures.
The deployment of the Indian Air Force to transport exam papers is a grotesque symbol of how securitisation has colonised even the most mundane institutions, while marginalised students—especially Dalits, Adivasis, and Muslims—are scapegoated as the root of the problem. Historically, India’s gurukul and ashram traditions offered alternatives to this model, but they were dismantled by British rule and neoliberal reforms that prioritise global rankings over learning. The solution lies in decolonising assessment, breaking the coaching-industrial complex, and leveraging technology to redistribute power—not concentrate it. Yet this requires dismantling the very structures that benefit India’s elite, who profit from a system that produces credentialed workers while excluding millions. The trickster’s role is to expose this absurdity: what if the ‘cheaters’ are the only ones telling the truth about a system that has failed them?