Last week, Francesca Orsini, a British scholar of Hindi literature was denied entry into India. The reactions have been divided along the now-familiar lines. For one group, the event symbolised the shrinking space for academic freedom and a government increasingly hostile to critical thought. For another, it was an assertion of sovereignty—a small act of epistemic self-defence against decades of western dominance in the study of Indian culture. Each side saw the other’s outrage as proof of hypocrisy.