STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY FOR HYDERABAD CENTRAL UNIVERSITY STRUGGLE

We, the undersigned, who are UK-based concerned scholars, express our deep dismay over the police brutality directed at students and faculty members of Hyderabad Central University, starting on March 22, 2016. We are alarmed that students and staff calling for justice at the University have had charges pressed against them, have been disappeared from the campus, and that there are reports of assaults on them in custody. We condemn the police presence on campus, the authorities’ denial of water, electricity, and food to those remaining in student accommodation, and the brutal attack on a PhD scholar for cooking in University premises.

These actions, coming in the aftermath of events culminating in the suicide of a Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, constitute a severe assault on democratic rights of free expression and thought, assembly and association. They go against the very purpose of universities as places for critical thinking, and damage the international reputation of HCU. As scholars who admire the work of many academic colleagues and alumni at HCU, we are concerned that HCU seems to be fast descending into a campus of unrestrained repression of dissenting voices among students and staff.

We urge the Vice Chancellor and other University authorities to get rid of the police on campus, to protect its students and staff who have been held in custody and have had charges pressed against them, to bring normalcy to campus, and to assure its staff and students that their freedoms, dignity and rights will always be respected.

1. Dr. Subir Sinha, SOAS, University of London
2. Dr. Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick
3. Dr. Alpa Shah, LSE
4. Dr. Jens Lerche, SOAS, University of London
5. Dr. Navtej Purewal, SOAS, University of London
6. Dr. Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS, University of London
7. Dr. Kalpana Wilson, LSE
8. Prof. Phiroze Vasunia, University College London
9. Dr. Sarah Hodges, University of Warwick
10.                Professor Judith Heyer, University of Oxford
11. Dr. Leena Kumarappan, London Metropolitan University
12. Dr. Meeta Rani Jha, London Metropolitan University
13. Somak Biswas, doctoral student, University of Warwick
14. Dr. Lars Peter Laamann, SOAS, University of London
15. Prof. G K Bhambra, University of Warwick
16. Prof. Alfredo Saad Filho, Professor, SOAS, University of London
17. Prof. Mary Kaldor, LSE
18. Prof. Chandak Sengoopta, Birkbeck, University of London
19. Prof. Ben Rogaly, University of Sussex
20. Dr. Paolo Novak, SOAS, University of London
21. Dr. Feyzi Ismail, SOAS, University of London
22. Shreya Sinha, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
23. Lisa Tilley, University of Warwick
24. Dr. Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick
25. Prof. Venkatesh Chakravarthy, Michigan State University
26. Kanchana N Ruwanpura, University of Edinburgh
27. Aravinda Meera Guntupalli, Open University
28. Prof. Gerhard Kling, SOAS, University of London
29. Antonia Salib, University of Warwick
30. Krittika Bhattacharjee, University of Edinburgh
31. Gladwin Emmanuel
32. Dr. Veli Yadirgi, SOAS, University of London
33. Dr. Thomas Marois, SOAS, University of London
34. Eleanor Higgs, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
35. Radhika Govinda, University of Edinburgh
36. Aaron Vansintjan, Birkbeck, University of London
37. Barclay Lane, University of Warwick
38. Mathijs Lucassen, Open University
39. Oyndrila Sarkar, doctoral student, University of Heidelberg
40. Ritanjan Das, University of Portsmouth
41. Aditya Ray, Queen Mary University of London
42. Siobhan McGrath, Durham
43. J Jamie
44. Zakia Salime, Rutgers University
45. Prof. Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, University of Warwick
46. Prof. Pasquale Scaramozzino, SOAS, University of London
47. Prof. Barbara Harriss-White, University of Oxford
48. Prof. David Graeber, LSE
49. Ioana Cerasella, University of Birmingham
50. Niyati Sharma, doctoral student, Oxford University
51. Mazen Masri, City University of London
52. John Garrett, American University, Washington DC
53. Yasser Shams Khan, University of Oxford
54. Javed Wani, doctoral student, Royal Holloway
55. Isabelle Guerin, IRD-Cessma, France
56. Prof. Susan Himmelweit, Open University
57. Krithika Srinivasan , University of Exeter
58. Tahoora
59. Dr. Nikita Sud, University of Oxford
60. Baisali Mohanty, University of Oxford
61. Aashique Iqbal, doctoral student, University of Oxford
62. Devanshi Chanchani, University of East Anglia
63. Dr. Laura Bear, LSE
64. Dr. Rahul Rao, SOAS, University of London
65. Dr. Liam Campling, Queen Mary University of London
66. Sean Grover-Richards
67. Dr. Alice Tilche, LSE
68. David Andrew, Queen Mary University of London
69. Dr. Markus Daechsel, Royal Holloway College, London
70. Deepa Kurup, doctoral student, University of London
71. Sanjay
72. Neha Vermani, PhD student, Royal Holloway College, London
73. Prof. Katy Gardner, LSE
74. Prof. Wendy Olsen, University of Manchester
75. Varun
76. Dr. Indrajit Roy, University of Oxford
77. Deepak Padmanabhan, Queen’s University, Belfast
78. Dr. Rohan Deb Roy, University of Reading
79. Anju Christine
80. Prof. Zoe Matthews, Southampton University
81. Dr. Rochana Bajpai, SOAS, University of London
82. Cosimo Zene,SOAS, University of London
83. Laura Tidd, Durham University
84. Prof. Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University
85. Srinath Vedal
86. Dr. Aravinda Guntupalli, Open University
87. Abhilasha Joshi, University of Oxford
88. Prof. Matthew McCartney, University of Oxford
89. Satendra Rao
90. Dr. Hugo Gorringe, University of Edinburgh
91. Prof. David Owen, University of Southampton
92. Prof. Francesca Orsini, SOAS, University of London
93. Prof. Patricia Jeffery, University of Edinburgh
94. Kavita Bhanot, writer
95. Dr. Mireille Ribiere, independent scholar and writer
96. Karthikeyan Damodaran, University of Edinburgh
97. Dr. Claire Chambers, University of York
98. Amrita Sengupta, MSc Student, University of Oxford
99. Divya Ghelani, writer
100. Sipra Mukherjee, West Bengal State University
101. Dr. Luisa Steur, University of Amsterdam
102. Nithya Natarajan, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
103. Sourit Bhattacharya, doctoral student, University of Warwick
104. Dr. Annapurna Waughray, Manchester Metropolitan University
105. Rowena Hill, Nottingham Trent University
106. Pritham Chakravarthy, Chennai
107. Dr. Meera Sabaratnam, SOAS, University of London
108. Usha Iyer, Clark University, US
109. Christi Merrill, University of Michigan, US
110. Ranjani Mazumdar, JNU, India
111. Connor Hiorth, Trent University, Canada
112. Indrani Karmakar, University of York
113. Dr. Nicole Thiara, Nottingham Trent University
114. Prof. Arun Mukherjee, York University, Canada
115. Ravichandran
116. Prof. Alok Mukherjee, Ryerson University, Canada
117. Dr. Julie Mullaney, Manchester Metropolitan University
118. Prof. Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia
119. Prof. Roger Jeffery, University of Edinburgh
120. Dr. Doyeeta Majumder, University of Edinburgh
121. Dr. Dorota Goluch, University of Cardiff
122. Dr. Eda Ulus, University of Leicester
123. Judith Misrahi-Barak, Universite Paul-Valery Montpellier 3, France
124. Dr. Caroline Osella, SOAS, University of London
125. Dr. Tim Pringle, SOAS, University of London
126. Priya
127. Dr. Satoshi Miyamura, SOAS, University of London
128. Dr. Letizia Alterno, University of Manchester
129. Akanksha Mehta, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
130. Jayesha Koushik, Hindu College, University of Delhi
131. Dr. Eleanor Newbigin, SOAS, University of London
132. Prof. Edward Simpson, SOAS, University of London
133. Dr. Gajendran Ayyathurai, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
134. Rajni Kumar, Springdales
135. Dr. Simona Vittorini, SOAS, University of London
136. Dr. Roulin Khondoker, Imperial College, University of London
137. Dr. Mary Montgomery, LSE
138. Dr. Candide Simard, SOAS, University of London
139. Prof. Richard Widdess, SOAS, University of London
140. Dr. Lucia da Corta, University of Bath
141. Chinmay Sharma, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
142. Dr. Caroline Herbert, Leeds Beckett University
143. Dr. Cyril Fouillet, ESSCA Business School, France
144. Prof. Deborah James, LSE
145. Dr. Andrew Newsham, SOAS, University of London
146. Prof. Nira Yuval-Davis, University of East London
147. Dr. Carolyn Heitmeyer, University of Sussex
148. Dr. Michael Waters, University of Oxford
149. Margaux Fisher, LSE
150. Dr. Catherine Allerton, LSE
151. Gill Shepherd, LSE
152. Prof. David Jonas
153. Marcos Marchesoni
154. Dr. Mishka Sinha, University of Cambridge
155. Prof. David Mosse, SOAS, University of London
156. Dr. Shabnum Tejani, SOAS, University of London
157. Yanina Hinrichsen, LSE
158. Prof. Raminder Kaur, University of Sussex
159. Dr Fae Dussart, University of Sussex
160. Dr. Emma Mawdsley, University of Cambridge
161. Prof. Gilbert Achcar, Professor, SOAS, University of London
162. Dr. Sumi Madhok, LSE
163. Dr. Adam Hanieh, SOAS, University of London
164. Prof. Henry Bernstein, Professor Emeritus, SOAS, University of London
165. Prof. David Lewis, LSE
166. Dr. Matthew Nelson, SOAS, University of London
167. Dr. James Staples, Brunel University
168. Prof. Andrea Cornwall, University of Sussex
169. Prof. Katharine Adeney, University of Nottingham
170. Dr. Yasmeen Narayan, Birkbeck, University of London
171. Dr. Stephen Hughes, SOAS, University of London
172. Dr. Kate Meagher, LSE
173. Dr. Jacqueline Hirst, University of Manchester
174. Dr. John Stevens, SOAS, University of London
175. Dr. James Caron, SOAS, University of London
176. Anwesha Mukherjee, University of East Anglia
177. Dr. Geert De Neve, University of Sussex
178. Dr. Virinder S Kalra, University of Manchester
179. Prof. Filippo Osella, University of Sussex
180. Dr. Aditya Sarkar, University of Warwick
181. Demeter Chanter, LSE
182. Dr. Kavita Ramakrishnan, University of East Anglia
183. Dr. Grace Carswell, University of Sussex
184. Dr. Ben Selwyn, University of Sussex
185. Stephanie Putsch
186. Vani Sreekanta