India, April 16 -- The former US secretary of State and national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, is said to have remarked that "the reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small". As the gloves come off in a monumental face-off between the administration of US President Donald Trump and American universities over sensitive political issues such as anti-Semitism, racism, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights and identity, the stakes are actually high and the ramifications go beyond academic squabbles within the ivory tower. This tussle is a marker of an ideological war in a polarised era and a litmus test of balance in knowledge production....