The Iran–Israel conflict and India’s Operation Sindhu evacuation of Indian students has reignited an ongoing question: Why do thousands of Indian students — particularly from Kashmir — go abroad, and to Iran in particular, to study medicine?
According to data from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), around 2,050 Indian students were studying in Iran as of 2022, primarily enrolled in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, and Islamic Azad University. A significant proportion of these students hail from Jammu & Kashmir.
This isn’t the first time a global crisis has highlighted the scale of Indian students studying medicine overseas. In 2022, India had to evacuate thousands of students from Ukraine under ‘Operation Ganga’ during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Iran remains attractive to Kashmiri students due to its affordable education, cultural and religious familiarity, and ease of admission compared to Indian medical colleges.
