Karuna Morarji, a 32-year-old Fulbright scholar, does not have a visa problem. She is already in India but has been waiting for clearance for her research— and funds— for over eight months now.

Morarji, a US resident and a scholar in development sociology from Cornell University, wants to research on “A Political Economy of Aspirations: Education, Development and Social Reproduction in Rural India” at the Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas in Mussourie.

She submitted her application for research clearance on June 5, 2006. She has been waiting ever since.

“I submitted my research clearance application to USEFI in early June, 2006, soon after I was informed that I had received a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) fellowship to conduct my PhD research in India,” Morarji writes in an email response to a questionnaire from this newspaper.

“I am an Indian passport-holder and a US resident, so my situation is a little bit different than for most Fulbright scholars (Fulbright scholarships are only open to US citizens, while Fulbright-Hays is open to residents as well). I do not need a research visa to conduct my research in India, but the granting agency (US Dept of Education) requires a research clearance from the Government of India in order to release the funds. As I am still waiting for my research clearance, I have not received my grant,” she says.

Morarji intends to do a year of field research to examine government, private and NGO efforts to make education more relevant in Jaunpur, a marginal, rural, mountainous block in Tehri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand. She has been preparing for the research for four years. “Since I am not a native speaker of Hindi, (I) have studied the language for one year in India and three years at Cornell in order to reach a level of fluency necessary to conduct my research,” Morarji writes.

Morarji says she came to India in August 2006 as she expected that she would receive her clearance soon and would be able to begin her research in the new academic year. “I have remained in India since then, conducting language studies, visiting family, doing volunteer work and making contacts for my research in Uttarakhand,” she says.

“For me, the biggest hardship of this significant delay has been financial. I have had to take out a student loan to cover my travel, health insurance (which is required by my university in the US) and living expenses,” she writes. Morarji says she hopes to pay this loan back “if/when I eventually get my grant.” “But this may not be possible since the grant terms require me to conduct my fieldwork for one year from the time I get the clearance and funding. So this has been a big, unexpected, financial burden that I am likely to feel the effects of for several years to come,” she says.

“I know of people who have been so demoralised by this process that they have almost given up on their PhDs. It is not an easy thing to change your topic after three to four years of research and preparation (including learning a new language) for a given project,” she said.

“They (USEFI) told me that my application still had to go to External Affairs for clearance since my husband is to accompany me, and he is a US citizen. But he is not doing any research in India and would not be coming on a research visa, but rather an entry visa-so this does not really make sense. Every foreigner who comes to India does not need clearance from External Affairs after all,” says Morarji who was one of the signatories to the letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“Why does every project have to go to External Affairs? There must be a streamlining of this process. These seem like Cold War-era rules,” she writes. Morarji finds the whole idea anachronistic. “It is truly sad, but indicative of the times that we live in, that it seems to be easier to clear FDI proposals than academic research proposals by scholars who are genuinely committed to knowledge about and for India, and who have dedicated a significant part of their lives to this pursuit,” she says.