What the Galgotias University fiasco says about the fashioning of a new Indianness

The fiasco earlier in February involving a Chinese robot-dog, a private university that seeks “global” recognition and one of its employees with the ability to talk through drying cement is much more than just about the apparent decline in higher education.

It is also about the emergence of a new kind of Indian personality, one that has been in the making over the past two-three decades. While Galgotias University itself may or may not be aligned with certain ideological positions, the new Indianness is a much more general affair.

It is the result of an educational system beyond formal systems of schooling and university instruction: a vast ecosystem that is spread across large and small towns, air-conditioned and well-equipped campuses as well as hole-in-the-wall outfits. This is the ecosystem of “soft-skills” and “personality development” education that emerged, in its current form, around the mid-1990s.

The Galgotias University professor, who was her employer’s chief media representative through the episode, represents an aspect of the personality development refashioning of Indianness over the past three decades.

Clarification by Neha Singh of Galgotias University. pic.twitter.com/uGgkengah0 https://t.co/dGyOPA21O0— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) February 18, 2026

It is a decisive shift in how a “global” Indianness has come to be imagined. While many young people might undertake formal school and...

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