[Expressions of support from scholars wanting to sign on are continuing to pour in. We will therefore be continuously adding the names as they come in and keep updating the statement. – AN]
VICIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST FEMINIST SCHOLAR
We, the undersigned, wish to express our shock and indignation at the vicious right wing media campaign conducted over the past few days against well-known feminist scholar and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Nivedita Menon. This media campaign mischievously decontextualizes her lecture at the public teach-in programme in JNU with the use of selective clips and inflammatory commentary. The television channel Zee has led the main campaign by branding Professor Menon as ‘anti-national’ and instigating viewers to take action. Such branding is tantamount to a television channel acting as both judge and jury, and directly placing an individual’s rights and safety under threat.
The use of television media to attack intellectuals and instigate vigilante action is a feature of authoritarian regimes worldwide. Similar tendencies are visible in recent months in India. Singling out individuals and creating a mass-frenzy against them by using the medium of TV is a dangerous trend that directly incites and encourages violence. This is a deep disregard for any process of law. We saw Zee TV do this earlier when doctored videos became the basis of arrest and harassment of JNU students. In this case, Twitter and social media campaigns have followed attacks on Professor Menon, demanding the framing of sedition charges against her and wielding open threats of rape. Most disturbingly, there are media reports of police complaints filed by interested parties demanding ‘action’ against Professor Menon.
Professor Menon is a renowned scholar and feminist thinker; her texts are used in university syllabi worldwide. As a prominent scholar and activist she has intervened in academic and public debates for decades. Professor Menon has also been known as an inspiring teacher for thirty years, guiding generations of students who now work in India and abroad. She has never shied away from intellectual debate in academic and public forums, passionately intervening in debates on feminism and social theory. This is the first time that her own freedom to articulate her ideas has been so viciously attacked in an orchestrated media campaign.
The freedom to articulate ideas is the basis of a university. When opinions voiced in a public lecture by an academic are made part of a selective media campaign that seeks not to debate but simply to malign, both democracy and the university are under threat. What is under question are not just Professor Menon’s ideas but also the very freedom for academics and citizens. We condemn this media campaign and associated threats, urging all academics and intellectuals to stand with Professor Menon at this time.
We call on the Vice Chancellor of JNU to swiftly defend Professor Menon from such attacks and protect the sanctity of university debate. We urge the JNU administration to stand by its faculty’s right to hold individual opinions and condemn all efforts to diminish this. We call on the university to immediately ensure that freedoms that form its very academic basis are not eroded in this moment. We call further for every censure and action against the unlawful actions of the television channels in question. Finally, we urge all well wishers of a democratic India to stand by Professor Menon for their own freedoms, and not just hers.
- Gananath Obeyesekere, Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Princeton University
- Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
- Mahmood Mamdani, Professor of Government and International Affairs, Columbia University
- Gopal Guru, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Sumit Sarkar, former Professor of History, University of Delhi
- Tanika Sarkar, Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Sudhir Chandra, historian based in Delhi
- Nayanjot Lahiri, Professor of History, Ashoka University.
- Mrinalini Sinha, Professor, University of Michigan
- Timothy Mitchell, Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, Columbia University
- Dipesh Chakrabarty, Professor of History, University of Chicago, USA
- Gyan Prakash, Professor of History, Princeton University
- Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Professor of History, UCLA
- Homi Bhabha, Professor of English and Director, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University
- Rosalind C. Morris, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
- David Hardiman, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick
- Akeel Bilgrami, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
- Veena Das, Professor of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University
- Ania Loomba, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania
- Michael Taussig, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York
- Sundar Sarukkai, Professor of Philosophy, Manipal University
- Pradeep Jeganathan, Professor of Sociology, SNU
- Kavita Panjabi, Professor, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
- Isabel Hofmeyr, Professor of African Languages and Literature, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Shireen Hassim, Professor of Political Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Srila Roy, Professor of Sociology, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Kelly Gillespie, Professor of Anthropology, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Ivor Chipkin, Director Public Affairs Research Institute, Johannesburg
- Premesh Lalu, Professor, Director, DST/NRF Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities, University of the Western Cape
- Lila Abu-Lughod, Professor, Columbia University
- Sheldon Pollock, Professor of Sanskrit and South Asian Studies,Columbia University, New York
- Hamid Dabashi, Professor, Columbia University, New York
- Firdous Azim, Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Kama Maclean, Associate Professor, South Asian and World History, School of Humanities and Languages, UNSW Australia
- José Emilio Burucúa, Fellow member of the Institut d’Études Avancées, Nantes, France
- Danai Mupotsa, Lecturer, African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- Vashna Jagarnath, Senior Lecturer, History Department, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
- Thiven Reddy, Department of Political Studies, University of Cape Town
- Ruchi Chaturvedi, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Patrick Olivelle, Professor, University of Texas at Austin, USA
- Sambuddha Sen, Professor, Shiv Nadar University
- Hina Saiyada, Filmmaker, Mumbai
- Asanda Benya, University of Cape Town, Dept of Sociology, South Africa
- Ravindran Sriramachandran, Dept. of Anthropology/ Sociology, Ashoka University
- Koni Benson, University of Cape Town
- Vedita Cowaloosur, Postdoc Fellow at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Enocent Msindo, Associate Professor of History, Rhodes University Grahamstown, South Africa
- Naledi Nomalanga Mkhize, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
- Shari Daya, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Heidi Grunebaum, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
- Francis Cody, Associate Professor Anthropology and Asian Institute, University of Toronto
- Jinee Lokaneeta, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Drew University, United States of America
- Tamara Shefer, Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Richard Pithouse, Professor, Rhodes University, South Africa
- Ayesha Kidwai, Centre for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
- Mary John, Professor, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi
- Ravi S Vasudevan, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Rochelle Pinto, Academic based in Delhi
- Tarangini Sriraman, Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Vipin Kumar, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Parthasarathi Muthukaruppan, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad
- Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore
- Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Professor, Dept of Political Science, University of Delhi
- Awadhendra Sharan, Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Ravikant, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Udaya Kumar, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Rita Kothari, Professor, IIT Gandhinagar
- Rakesh Pandey, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Shilpa Phadke, Assistant Professor, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, Mumbai
- Sunalini Kumar, Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Priyadarshini Vijaisri, Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Shail Mayaram, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Satish Deshpande, Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
- Aarti Sethi, Doctoral Researcher, Columbia University, New York
- Abhay Kumar Dubey, Director, Indian Languages Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Manoranjan Mohanty, Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, Delhi
- Yengkhom Jilangamba, Academic based in Delhi
- Anupama Roy, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU, Delhi
- Janaki Nair, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, Delhi
- Rukun Advani, Publisher, Permanent Black, Ranikhet
- Anuradha Roy, Publisher, Permanent Black, Ranikhet
- Lyla Mehta, Professor, Institute of Development Studies, UK
- Michael Neocosmos, Professor and Director UHURU, Rhodes University, South Africa
- Dhammamegha Annie Leatt, Research Associate, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research Wits University, Johannesburg
- Tarun Bhartiya, Filmmaker, Member Thma U Rangli Juki(TUR), Meghalaya
- Rasigan Maharajh, Chief Director, Institute for Economic Research on Innovation, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
- Polo Moji, Lecturer, French and Francophone Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- Mathe Ntsekhe, National University of Lesotho
- Shohini Ghosh, Professor, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia
- Sabeena Gadihoke, Associate Professor, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia
- Sabina Kidwai. Associate Professor,AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia
- Moinak Biswas, Professor, Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
- Pradip K Datta, Professor, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, SIS, JNU
- Kaushik Ghosh, Anthropologist, University of Texas at Austin, USA
- Sarada Balagopalan, Associate Professor, Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, USA
- Maurits van Bever Donker, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape
- Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU
- Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Professor, Dept of Political Science, University of Calcutta
- Sanjay Kak, Filmmaker, New Delhi
- Saroj Giri, Dept of Political Science, University of Delhi
- Sunita Thakur, Journalist, BBC
- Kelly Gillespie, Head, Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- Aparna Balachandran, Department of History, University of Delhi
- C.P.Geevan, Independent Researcher, Ahmedabad
- Ashish Kothari, Pune
- Sharad Chari, Professor of Anthropology, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg
- Abhinav Kumar, Researcher, Azim Premji Foundation
- Neema Pathak Broome, member Kalpavriksh, Pune
- Charu Gupta, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi
- Projit Bihari Mukharji, Assistant Professor, History & Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
- Camalita Naicker, PhD Candidate, UHURU, Rhodes University South Africa, Former Student at JNU
- Satadru Sen, Professor of History, Queens College & Graduate Center, City University of New York
- Noosim Naimasiah, Makerere Institute of Social Research, Kampala, Uganda
- Alexandra Muller, Gender Health and Justice Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Rohan D’ Souza, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
- Jonathan Gil Harris, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of English, Ashoka University
- Geeta Patel, Director, UVA in India Program, Associate Professor, University of Virginia
- Anjali Arondekar, Associate Professor, Dept. of Feminist Studies University of California, Santa Cruz
- Raka Ray Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
- Maya Krishna Rao, Artiste, Delhi
- Suvir Kaul, Professor, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania
- Nathaniel Roberts, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
- David Kazanjian, Professor of English, Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania
- Mukul Kesavan, Dept of History, Jamia Millia Islamia
- Lakshmi Subramanian, Professor of History, Centre for the Study of Social Sciences, Kolkata
- Rosinka Chaudhuri, Professor of Cultural Studies, CSSS, Kolkata
- Rimli Bhattacharya, Senior Fellow in Cultural Studies, CSSS, Kolkata
- Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Assistant Professor of Sociology, CSSS, Kolkata
- Kiran Kesavamurthy, Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies, CSSS, Kolkata
- Prachi Deshpande, Associate Professor of History, CSSS, Kolkata
- Suren Pillay, Associate Professor, Center for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Ranjani Mazumdar, Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU
- Ravi Sundaram, Professor, CSDS, Delhi
- Shirin M. Rai, Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
- Madhusree Mukherjee, Writer
- Aniket Alam, Executive Editor, Economic and Political Weekly
- Alice Morris, Director, PeopleCan Services, Ahmedabad
- Peter Ronald de Souza, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Gil Anidjar, Professor, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University
- Arindam Chakrabarti, Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawaii
- Rahul Govind, Assistant Professor, Dept of History, University of Delhi
- Josephine Park, Associate Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania
- James Caron, Lecturer in Islamicate South Asia, South Asian Languages and Cultures, SOAS, University of London
- Manjita Mukharji, Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies University of Pennsylvania, USA
- Tariq Thachil, Yale University
- Anne Norton, Professor and Chair, Dept of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, member editorial board of Political Theory
- Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor, Columbia University, New York
- Francesca Orsini, Professor of Hindi and South Asian Literature, School of Asian and African Studies, University of London
- Jairus Banaji, Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Prathama Banerjee, Associate Professor, CSDS, Delhi
- Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, former Professor, CSSS, Kolkata
- Amiya Dev, former Vice-Chancellor, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal
- Ashwin, Independent Researcher, based in Azim Premji University, Bangalore
- V. J. Varghese, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Hyderabad
- Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, UC Berkeley
- Wendy Brown, Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
- Inderpal Grewal, Yale University
- Rohit De, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Yale University
- Janaki Bakhle, Associate Professor, Dept of History, UC Berkeley
- Mrinalini Chakravorty, Associate Professor, University of Virginia
- Poulomi Saha, Assistant Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley
- Divya Cherian, Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
- Arunabh Ghosh, Harvard University
- Arjun Appadurai, New York University, New York
- Kennan Ferguson, Director, Center for 21st Century Studies, Co-Editor, Theory & Event, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
- Bhavani Raman, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
- Prof. Josefina Saldaña, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis (SCA), Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), New York University
- Paul Apostolidis, Professor and T. Paul Endowed Chair of Political Science, Whitman College, Walla Walla,USA,
- Megan Gallagher, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics, Whitman College
- Anand Teltumbde, IIT Karagpur
- Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi Professor of English, University of Cape TownT/WiSER, Wits
- Tom Cowan, King’s College, London
- Bruce A. Magnusson, Chair, Division I (Social Sciences), Associate Professor of Politics, Whitman College
- Jonathan S. Walters, Professor of Religion, George Hudson Ball Chair of Humanities, Whitman College, Walla Walla
- Renny Thomas,,Assistant Professor, University of Delhi
- Eleanor Newbigin, school of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Nicky Rousseau, Department of History, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Anna Madapalil, Graduate Student, Makerere Institute of Social Research, Kampala
- Gaurav Majumdar, Associate Professor of English, Whitman College, Walla Walla
- Anneeth Kaur Hundle, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Merced
- Lawrence Cohen, University of California, Berkeley
- Gaiutra Bahadur, author of “Coolie Woman”
- Elizabeth Wingrove, Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Teena Purohit, Boston University
- Jed Esty, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania
- Timothy Corrigan, Professor of English, Cinema and Media Studies, and History of Art, Director of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- Sanjay Krishnan, Associate Professor , English Department, Boston University
- Saurabh Mishra, Lecturer, Department of History,, University of Sheffield
- Amy Kaplan, Edward W. Kane Professor of English, Department Chair, University of Pennsylvania
- Andrew Parker, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
- Paul Patton, Scientia Professor, FAHA, School of Humanities and Languages, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Debjani Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor, Drexel University, Department of History , Philadelphia
- Rochana Bajpai, Senior Lecturer , Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
- Shailaja Paik, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati
- Allison Weir, Research Professor, Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Social and Political Thought, Institute for Social Justice, Australian Catholic University
- Veena Hariharan, Assistant Professor, School of Art and Aesthetics, JNU
- Jane Bennett, Editor, Political Theory, Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, USA
- Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA
- Rainer Forst, Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy, Institute of Political Science and Institute of Philosophy, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Roxanne Euben, Ralph Emerson and Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College, USA
- David Owen, Professor of Social and Political Pholosophy, University of Southampton, UK
- Neil Roberts, Chair of Religion and Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Williams College, USA
- Aletta Norval, Pro-Vice Chancellor Education , Professor of Education, University of Essex, UK
- David Scott, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
- Joya Chatterji, Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
- Manas Ray, Professor of Cultural Studies, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
- Gyan Pandey, Professor of History, Emory University, Atlanta
- Abhijit V. Banerjee, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Christophe Jaffrelot, Director, CERI, Paris
- Ramachandra Guha, historian, Bangalore
- Talal Asad, Professor of Anthropology, City University of New York
- Anupama Rao, Associate Professor of History, Barnard College, New York
- Ritty Lukose, Associate Professor, New York University
- Amitav Ghosh, author
- Kuan-Hsing Chen, Professor of Cultural Studies, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
- Muzaffar Alam, Professor of South Asian Studies, University of Chicago
- Pranab Bardhan, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley
- Sunil Khilnani, Director, India Institute, King’s College, London
- Ruby Lal, Professor of South Asian Studies, Emory University
- Gauri Viswananthan, Professor of Comparative Literature, Columbia University
- Swati Chattopashyay, Professor of History of Architecture, University of California and Santa Barbara
- Thomas Blom Hansen, Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University
- Gitanjali Surendran, PhD and AM (Harvard), Mst (Oxon), MA (JNU), Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School, and Executive Director, Centre for Law and Humanities
- Elyse Semerdjian, Director of Global Studies, Associate Professor of Islamic World/Middle East History, Whitman College
- Nandita Narain, Delhi University Teachers’ Association
- Rajeev Bhargav, Professor, CSDS, Delhi
- Neeladri Bhattacharya, Professor, CHS, JNU
- Lisa Damon, PhD fellow, MISR, Kampala, Uganda
- J Devika, Associate Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, India
- Uma Chakravarty, feminist historian and democratic rights activist, Delhi.
- Mimi Choudhury, Publisher, Orient Blackswan
- Poornima Paidipaty Philomathia Research Fellow, History, University of Cambridge
- Rochona Majumdar, The University of Chicago.
- Tejaswini Ganti, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, New York University
- Shayoni Mitra, Barnard College, Columbia University
- M. V. Ramana, Princeton University
- Samira Sheikh, Associate Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
- Debashree Mukherjee, Columbia University
- Joel Lee, Williams College, Massachusetts, United States
- Ulrike Stark, Professor, University of Chicago
- Dilip Simeon, Independent Scholar based in Delhi
- Benjamin Zachariah, University of Trier, Germany
- Nilita Vachani, Filmmaker, Writer and Teacher at New York University
- Arvind Elangovan, History Department, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio
- Aditya Sarkar, University of Warwick
- Talia Meer, Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town
- Alessandra Mezzadri, Lecturer, Department of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London
- Alpa Shah, London School of Economics
- Jens Lerche, Reader, Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
- Sumi Madhok, Gender Institute, London School of Economics
- Rochisha Narayan, Yale-NUS College
- John Harriss, Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
- Dipti Khera, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History and Institute of Fine Arts,
New York University - Rada Ivekovic, Professor, based in France;
- Goran Fejic, political and human rights analyst, France.
- Ajay Skaria, Department of History/Institute of Global Studies, University of Minnesota
- Debraj Ray, Julius Silver Professor, Faculty of Arts and Science, and Professor of Economics, New York University
- John Mathew, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune,
- Sandra Swart, Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Toorjo Ghose, Associate Professor, Chair, Racism & Social Change Sequence School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania
- Sheba Tejani, Assistant Proefesor, NYU, New York
- Geetanjalishree, Writer, Delhi
- Jayeeta Sharma, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
- Daniel Eric Bender, Canada Research Chair, University of Toronto, Canada
- Babacar Fall, FASTEF – University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar – Senegal
- Anshu Malhotra, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi
- Satyajit Singh, Professor, Dept. of POlitical Science, Universitty of Delhi
- James F. English, John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania
- Akshaya Tankha, Doctoral Candidate, University of Toronto
- Jayadev Athreya, Associate Professor, Director, Washington Experimental Mathematics Lab, University of Washington
- Svati P. Shah, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Bakirathi Mani, Associate Professor, Department of English Literature, Swarthmore College
- Sunil Kumar, Professor in the History of Medieval India,, Department of History, Delhi University
- Lepa Mladjenovic, Belgrade
- Tyler Williams, Assistant Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
- Ahona Panda, graduate student, University of Chicago
- Sharika Thiranagama, Stanford University
- Suroopa Mukherjee, Dept of English, Hindu College
- Pingla Udit, independent researcher on peace and conflict issues on African continent
- Ranabir Samaddar, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata
- Carolyn J. Eichner, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeto
- Madhulika Banerjee, Professor Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.
- Achin Vanaik, Retired Professor of International Relations, University of Delhi
- Althea R. Sircar, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science, UCLA
- Rachel Sturman, Associate Professor, Department of History & Asian Studies Program, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, US
- Sanjay Palshikar, Professor, Dept of Political Science, University of Hyderabad
- Women in Black, Zene u crnom Jug Bogdanova 18, Beograd
- Mark Griffiths, University of Oulu
- Ramani Muttettuwegama, Attorney at Law
- Navdeep Mathur, Public Systems Group, IIM Ahmedabad
- Pooja Satyogi, Assistant Professor, University of Delhi
- Hilal Ahmed, Assistant Professor, CSDS, Delhi
- Uditi Sen, Assistant Professor of History and South Asian Studies
- Natalie Zemon Davis, Professor, University of Toronto
- Anand Vivek Taneja, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies and Anthropology, Vanderbilt University
- Debjani Ganguly, Professor of English and Director, Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures, University of Virginia
- James Manor, School of Advanced Study, London
- Haydee Bangerezako, Makerere Institute of Social Research
- Naresh Dadhich, Jamia/IUCAA
- Chris Vance, York University, Toronto, Canada, PhD Candidate
- Chimney Banerjee PhD, Simon Fraser University (Retired); President, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD)
- Sukhy Dhillon, B.G.S, B.Ed., M.Ed., Diploma Counseling — University of BC, Canada
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Proefessor, Dept of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Having read Prof. Menon’s eye-opening book “Seeing Like a Feminist”,and having admired the intellectual rigour and honesty she brings to her research and her teaching, I too support her wholeheartedly and condemn Zee News, its petty-minded, lying anchor Sudhir Choudhary, and the political forces that prop up such bigoted media houses.
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A very impressive list of supporters of the freedom of speech of Ms Nivedia Menon. Some of them I have known personally. I earnestly support her freedom, but also that of others who do not conquer with her opinions and methods. Democracy must not be limited to a few self styled intellectuals, scholars and privileged individuals, but to all citizens. Having said that, the list is drawn very heavily from non-Indian Universities, including the US. I myself have been on the faculty of a prestigious private University in the US. The kind of student activity that has surfaced recently at JNU, and the active involvement of a section of faculty, has been unimaginable in my own or any other US University during my four decades of service. I wonder if any of the US Professors in your list, or their students, can exercise their freedom of speech as happening in JNU. Should we then assume that they have no democratic freedom of speech or they wish to define that term very differently in Indian context. Kafila is good example where dissenting voices are suppressed, even when are made in a polite and respectful manner.
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That is not true. Kafila never turns down a comment that uses reasonably polite language and makes a relevant point, dissenting or otherwise. But we do discourage right wing abuse, personal attacks, and repetitive or completely irrelevant comments. Of course, we exercise or judgment when we decide. Also, there are members who allow all sorts of comments on their respective posts too, so even this is not a strictly enforced general policy.
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RamDarshanSharma
1. In what way has the freedom of speech of those who do not agree with Nivedita Menon been curbed by her, by JNU, in cyberspace or by the state?
2. This particular statement is from academics both based in India and from outside India (including Bangladesh, South Africa and Uganda apart from the US) – 70 of 154 signatories are based in India – roughly half. Yet you see it as “heavily” drawn from outside India, implying some lack of legitimacy? In addition, there are several other statements from people based in India, in support of democratic freedoms and of Nivedita Menon, on several other portals, including on Facebook, we suggest you do a simple search. Those are all from people based here, in India, who are opposed to these fascist incursions into our democracy.
3. What exactly is “the kind of student activity” that has “surfaced” in JNU that you find so “unimaginable”? Allegations of particular slogans raised and so on have been proved to have been based on doctored tapes. There is even an indication that the entire clampdown was planned and orchestrated from Nagpur, RSS Headquarters, with IB involvement. There have been articles on this in Kafila as well as elsewhere. Be that as it may, are you claiming that it is unimaginable to oppose capital punishment or to criticize the Indian state or judiciary? That was what the event was doing.
Or is it unimaginable to discuss openly the histories of nation-states, showing how different parts of what looks like a natural formation (“India”, or “USA” or “France”) came to be incorporated, either willingly or unwillingly, into particular nation-states?
Is it “unimaginable” to do archival research that would show how Manipur was incorporated, or Kashmir, or Nagaland?
4. You wonder “if any of the US Professors in your list, or their students, can exercise their freedom of speech as happening in JNU”.
The “US Professors” on this list (and indeed every person on this list), has opposed sectarian politics, imperialism and racism in their own contexts, some at great risk to themselves. so please dont make facile and ignorant assumptions.
5. As for Kafila, we do moderate comments, we say so explicitly. We are one of the few forums on-line where opinions and views contrary to the massive right-wing presence in cyberspace and other mainstream media, are expressed. We see no reason why those views should take over our little part of cyberspace, with their insinuations, accusations and allegations, however “politely expressed”.
We do not call out state machinery on those whose views are majoritarian and right-wing, we do not abuse them or threaten them with violence, we do not try to silence them, we simply don’t give them space on our website.
On Kafila we want to give space to the wide spectrum of voices and debates within what is termed “dissent”, not to reproduce the polarized “right-left” high decibel shouting that passes for debate in mainstream media.
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Your comment, am sorry sir, is a clear pointer of the fact that, education alone will not help one to look at things around in a rational way. The backgrounds in which one has been brought up would keep on appearing in various ways irrespective of the education. What a pity.
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From The Indian Express
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@ Sunalini Kumar, I thought the #JNU intellectuals do not believe in conspiracy theories. Is this planned and orchestrated from Nagpur, RSS Headquarters, with IB involvement: >>> : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWmhhvJjQ1Y who is heckling Prof Makarand Paranjape?
I taught in half a dozon of universities and lectured more than 100 univs spread over three continents. I never saw a place where students occupying administrative premises and sloganeering. What culture and education is this? No wonder they want desh ki barbadi – Gobardhan Das, Professor at JNU on Twitter
Reprehensible sloganeering, calling for India’s destruction, effigy-burning, vandalising the buildings, has NO place in a centre of learning – Anand Ranganathan @ARangarajan1972 on Twitter
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@Avinashk1975, Jai ho! Let the disagreements continue…
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@Avinashk1975 , I do not even know where to begin.
1. As for Prof paranjape’s speech , if you had cared to actually see through it entirely, you would also have noticed him thanking the audience for the civility with which they heard his lecture. The little heckling that happened during Q and A in face of the outright povocation in his comments is part of any engagement that happens when you choose to take contrary stands . I am amazed that this is thought of as harassment when we see the everyday sheer hostility, open threats, violence, intimidation , witch hunting misuse of state machinery and partisan political interference that JNu students and teachers have faced over the ppast few weeks . And i can gaurantee you, if a left leaning person had dared to take on the right in any of the several right wing bastions of hooligan ABVP politics in so many universities we’ve been to, i wonder if he would still be in one piece. Shall i link you to the several incidents of outright hooliganism and obstruction and cancellations under pressure of anyone who does not agree with their politics have happened across the country ? Shall i mention the several people who’ve been beaten up, harassed , hounded, police complaints and administrative complaints filed against them?
2. I may have been to lesser number of universities than you but i cannot remember a single university with an active students’s movement where students do not occupy open spaces near centres of authority , especially administrative blocks, and if necessary gherao them ! Here in India, in US, in UK, in the middle east, in south africa, in latin america !! And sloganeering is an integral part of any protest anywhere – it distills and translates the essence and objectives of any protest in a manner which makes it possibel for them to be understood by a much wider audience in a simple and direct manner . Really, sloganeering is the most standard form of protest anywhere , unless we decide that protest and resistance itself is wrong irrespective of what the issues at stake are !
3″.Reprehensible sloganeering, calling for India’s destruction, effigy-burning, vandalising the buildings, has NO place in a centre of learning “. Really, Where exactly did you see JNU students doing any of this beyond doctored videos ? Where was the vandalising ? Has it it been proved that any jnu student was responsible for what could be reprehensible sloganeering or kangaroo cours and media trials are an order of teh day for everyone?
4. As for conspiracies , we needed to experience them to believe them, you need not despite all the evidence and questions that are coming up, but maybe then you can also not jump into teh bandwagon and believe what the other side is saying too unless things are proven ? I wonder why those doing the actual sloganeering you find reprehensible are still at large by the police’s own admission , while other students are in jail . Not to speak of goon lawyers , anti social elements , bjp mla’s and Mp’s who are making one outrageous statement after another threatening to kill, rape, murder openly being allowed to roam about freely and with impunity.
Nothing can be done about such blatant partisanship and one sidedness in face of all that has happened and continues to happen.
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Incredible Sir. You havent seen students protesting in admin spaces in University? I suspect you were teaching in Gurkuls or universities run under certain Godmen and ashrams then.
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Prof. Menon has our full support as far as her freedom of expression is concerned. However, what she is asserting needs to be dispassionately evaluated and critiqued. Her assertions on J&K are completely wrong and are bereft of any factual backing. One does expect to see same level of academic rigor behind her public pronouncements that hopefully she brings to her lectures at JNU.
Here is a point of view that I hope signatories of this letter take few minutes to read and reflect.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tic-Tac-Toe/occupation-academia/
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Avinash, do think clearly, please. How does someone “heckling” Prof Paranjpe at his lecture disprove the possibility that the attack on JNU was planned for a long time, as editorials in Organizer and Panchjanya attest? If you have the time and/or the inclination to read, take a look at Pramod Ranjan here, showing an uncanny similarity between the Panchjanya editorial of a few months before February 9th, and the Delhi Police report on the event after it happened.
This post details the reasons it seems plausible that the “slogan shouting students” were known to the Delhi Police and IB.
As for the tweets you post here, it seems they are talking about the ABVP and its tactics, No effigy burning or vanadalising of buildings has taken place except by the ABVP, and that too, not on JNU campus which has a remarkable record of no physical violence on campus.
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Rajesh Razdan,
Yes, Aarti Tikoo Singh’s blog post has had a lot of traction in this whole business. A substantive response from me to the debate on Kashmir will have to wait, but for the moment, let me state that:
a) Singh’s account that goes over the well known Indian statist account of Kashmir, which is comfortable for many, is merely one version. Her “facts” can be countered by decades of “other facts” arising from scholarship and research by many others. The point here is that we are not confronting “facts” with “non-facts”, but confronting differing notions of nationhood with one another, and figuring out what it would mean to take democracy seriously. In that sense, I prefer the kind of honest argument that says “I dont care about the history of nation-formation, but India should not be dismembered”. At least we know what we are disagreeing on, then, whether the term dismemberment accurately reflects what might happen, etc.
b) What becomes evident from these kind of interventions claiming I am lying, distorting, or am simply more ignorant than any person who can write a competent term paper on India’s official position on Kashmir, is that Kashmir is a disputed and controversial issue, that is simply not debated in mainstream, educated India. The debate is now happening, not in marginal circles, but in the heart of the mainstream – surely that is the purpose of intellectual activity?
Saurabh Sharma of ABVP said in a recent interview, very honestly:
“Go back to text books. I have never read in any school book that Kashmir is not an integral part of the country.”
On being asked in response by the interviewer whether one might learn more in college than one knew in school, his frank response is:
“I would have never got full marks if I had written in my exams that Kashmir was not an integral part of India.” Now, Saurabh is a research scholar in neuroscience, his last social science text-book would have been read in Class 10, at the age of 15, and of course he would have got not just “not full marks”, but a zero if he had written anything else in his exam.
We might want to ask – why is that sort of education considered “neutral”, while opening up arbitrarily settled matters for debate and discussion becomes “propaganda”? It may be true for the sciences that some matters are beyond debate, but surely not for politics, history, and social sciences in general.
c) The signatories to this letter are not taking a stand on the substantive arguments at stake, but on the ways in which debate, democratic rights and the right to dissent are being attempted to be stifled through non-state mechanisms (privately owned media with a clear agenda, for example) inciting mob violence, and by the invocation of coercive apparatus of the state by private individuals against those whose opinions with which they disagree.
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Dear Nivi,
Please add me to the list of people who’ve signed the letter in support of you and Gauhar.
Take care,
Mini
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
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