A woman worships a cow as Indian Hindus offer prayers to the River Ganges, holy to them during the Ganga Dussehra festival in Allahabad, India, on June 8, 2014. Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP New Delhi —

One of India’s most prestigious universities has been accused of compromising its academic freedom by cancelling a seminar on democracy the same day it issued a directive to staff to promote a summit on cow welfare.

Cows are revered as sacred by many Hindus, but critics say Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using India’s devotion to the bovine as a political tool to elevate its Hindu nationalist agenda.

Professors and students at Delhi University , long seen as bulwark of free speech in the country, say the directive is another example of the pressu

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