US revoked her student visa on March 5, citing security concerns and alleged ties to Hamas
Senior Associate Editor
4 MIN READ
Her choice was swift and heartbreaking. She packed a small bag, left her beloved cat with a friend, and boarded a flight to Canada from LaGuardia Airport, stepping into an unknown future.
Her choice was swift and heartbreaking. She packed a small bag, left her beloved cat with a friend, and boarded a flight to Canada from LaGuardia Airport, stepping into an unknown future.
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Dubai: On a seemingly ordinary morning on Friday, 37-year-old Fulbright scholar Ranjani Srinivasan’s world changed forever.
The Indian academic had come to Columbia University in the U.S. to pursue a doctorate in urban planning, but her journey took an unexpected turn.
Her days had been spent researching land-labour relations in India’s peri-urban areas, her mind preoccupied with the complexities of political economy and social structures.
But on that morning, the sound of federal immigration agents knocking on her apartment door signalled an abrupt shift in her reality.
She was not home when they arrived. Perhaps it was fate, or perhaps it was sheer coincidence. Either way, it gave her time to reflect, to weigh her choices in the face of an uncertain and terrifying future.
A scholar in the crosshairs
The US Department of State had revoked her student visa on March 5, citing security concerns and alleged ties to Hamas. The accusations were stark, painting her as a “terrorist sympathizer” despite no public evidence being presented.
Committed to upholding law
In a note to the school community following the searches Thursday night, interim university president Katrina Armstrong said Columbia was “committed to upholding the law.” She described herself as “heartbroken” that federal agents had been on campus searching student rooms.
“I understand the immense stress our community is under,” Armstrong wrote. “Despite the unprecedented challenges, Columbia University will remain a place where the pursuit of knowledge is cherished and fiercely protected, where the rule of law and due process is respected and never taken for granted, and where all members of our community are valued and able to thrive.”
Columbia has come under immense pressure from the Trump administration in recent weeks, with the U.S. government canceling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the school, much of it for medical research, as punishment for not cracking down harder on students and faculty who criticized Israel’s military action in Gaza during large protests last spring.
Her legal team categorically denied the claims, but the crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia had already escalated, and Srinivasan found herself ensnared in its grip.
“The atmosphere seemed so volatile and dangerous,” she told The New York Times in her first interview after fleeing. “I had no choice but to leave.”
The crackdown
Srinivasan’s story is just one in a series of incidents that have left the Columbia community shaken.
Her classmate, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested in his campus housing. Another student, a Palestinian woman, was detained in Newark, accused of overstaying her visa.
The US Justice Department announced an investigation into whether Columbia had concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus. The university, once a sanctuary of free speech and intellectual pursuit, had become a battleground.
A future unwritten
For now, Canada is her refuge. She is alone, uncertain, and grieving the life she was forced to abandon. Her friends in New York are left with questions and sorrow, their voices echoing in the halls of Columbia, where a once-vibrant academic community is now shrouded in fear.
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