This paper reads The Longest Journey to glean the instructive and to discuss the relevance of E. M. Forster for contemporary India, especially his impact on the university. As it explicates the implications of Forster’s writing for the Indian university, many of these instructive foresights from Forster are applicable to the state of the university globally, too, as funding cuts and hiked fees affect universities in the USA, Britain, Japan, and else where. Forster is prescient with his views on the university, and we can learn from his writings to assess the damage being done to academia by conservative policies