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.
- Dr. Subir Sinha, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick
- Dr. Alpa Shah, LSE
- Dr. Jens Lerche, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Navtej Purewal, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Kalpana Wilson, LSE
- Prof. Phiroze Vasunia, University College London
- Dr. Sarah Hodges, University of Warwick
- Professor Judith Heyer, University of Oxford
- Dr. Leena Kumarappan, London Metropolitan University
- Dr. Meeta Rani Jha, London Metropolitan University
- Somak Biswas, doctoral student, University of Warwick
- Dr. Lars Peter Laamann, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. G K Bhambra, University of Warwick
- Prof. Alfredo Saad Filho, Professor, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Mary Kaldor, LSE
- Prof. Chandak Sengoopta, Birkbeck, University of London
- Prof. Ben Rogaly, University of Sussex
- Dr. Paolo Novak, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Feyzi Ismail, SOAS, University of London
- Shreya Sinha, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
- Lisa Tilley, University of Warwick
- Dr. Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick
- Prof. Venkatesh Chakravarthy, Michigan State University
- Kanchana N Ruwanpura, University of Edinburgh
- Aravinda Meera Guntupalli, Open University
- Prof. Gerhard Kling, SOAS, University of London
- Antonia Salib, University of Warwick
- Krittika Bhattacharjee, University of Edinburgh
- Gladwin Emmanuel
- Dr. Veli Yadirgi, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Thomas Marois, SOAS, University of London
- Eleanor Higgs, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
- Radhika Govinda, University of Edinburgh
- Aaron Vansintjan, Birkbeck, University of London
- Barclay Lane, University of Warwick
- Mathijs Lucassen, Open University
- Oyndrila Sarkar, doctoral student, University of Heidelberg
- Ritanjan Das, University of Portsmouth
- Aditya Ray, Queen Mary University of London
- Siobhan McGrath, Durham
- J Jamie
- Zakia Salime, Rutgers University
- Prof. Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, University of Warwick
- Prof. Pasquale Scaramozzino, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Barbara Harriss-White, University of Oxford
- Prof. David Graeber, LSE
- Ioana Cerasella, University of Birmingham
- Niyati Sharma, doctoral student, Oxford University
- Mazen Masri, City University of London
- John Garrett, American University, Washington DC
- Yasser Shams Khan, University of Oxford
- Javed Wani, doctoral student, Royal Holloway
- Isabelle Guerin, IRD-Cessma, France
- Prof. Susan Himmelweit, Open University
- Krithika Srinivasan , University of Exeter
- Tahoora
- Dr. Nikita Sud, University of Oxford
- Baisali Mohanty, University of Oxford
- Aashique Iqbal, doctoral student, University of Oxford
- Devanshi Chanchani, University of East Anglia
- Dr. Laura Bear, LSE
- Dr. Rahul Rao, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Liam Campling, Queen Mary University of London
- Sean Grover-Richards
- Dr. Alice Tilche, LSE
- David Andrew, Queen Mary University of London
- Dr. Markus Daechsel, Royal Holloway College, London
- Deepa Kurup, doctoral student, University of London
- Sanjay
- Neha Vermani, PhD student, Royal Holloway College, London
- Prof. Katy Gardner, LSE
- Prof. Wendy Olsen, University of Manchester
- Varun
- Dr. Indrajit Roy, University of Oxford
- Deepak Padmanabhan, Queen’s University, Belfast
- Dr. Rohan Deb Roy, University of Reading
- Anju Christine
- Prof. Zoe Matthews, Southampton University
- Dr. Rochana Bajpai, SOAS, University of London
- Cosimo Zene,SOAS, University of London
- Laura Tidd, Durham University
- Prof. Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University
- Srinath Vedal
- Dr. Aravinda Guntupalli, Open University
- Abhilasha Joshi, University of Oxford
- Prof. Matthew McCartney, University of Oxford
- Satendra Rao
- Dr. Hugo Gorringe, University of Edinburgh
- Prof. David Owen, University of Southampton
- Prof. Francesca Orsini, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Patricia Jeffery, University of Edinburgh
- Kavita Bhanot, writer
- Dr. Mireille Ribiere, independent scholar and writer
- Karthikeyan Damodaran, University of Edinburgh
- Dr. Claire Chambers, University of York
- Amrita Sengupta, MSc Student, University of Oxford
- Divya Ghelani, writer
- Sipra Mukherjee, West Bengal State University
- Dr. Luisa Steur, University of Amsterdam
- Nithya Natarajan, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
- Sourit Bhattacharya, doctoral student, University of Warwick
- Dr. Annapurna Waughray, Manchester Metropolitan University
- Rowena Hill, Nottingham Trent University
- Pritham Chakravarthy, Chennai
- Dr. Meera Sabaratnam, SOAS, University of London
- Usha Iyer, Clark University, US
- Christi Merrill, University of Michigan, US
- Ranjani Mazumdar, JNU, India
- Connor Hiorth, Trent University, Canada
- Indrani Karmakar, University of York
- Dr. Nicole Thiara, Nottingham Trent University
- Prof. Arun Mukherjee, York University, Canada
- Ravichandran
- Prof. Alok Mukherjee, Ryerson University, Canada
- Dr. Julie Mullaney, Manchester Metropolitan University
- Prof. Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia
- Prof. Roger Jeffery, University of Edinburgh
- Dr. Doyeeta Majumder, University of Edinburgh
- Dr. Dorota Goluch, University of Cardiff
- Dr. Eda Ulus, University of Leicester
- Judith Misrahi-Barak, Universite Paul-Valery Montpellier 3, France
- Dr. Caroline Osella, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Tim Pringle, SOAS, University of London
- Priya
- Dr. Satoshi Miyamura, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Letizia Alterno, University of Manchester
- Akanksha Mehta, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
- Jayesha Koushik, Hindu College, University of Delhi
- Dr. Eleanor Newbigin, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Edward Simpson, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Gajendran Ayyathurai, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
- Rajni Kumar, Springdales
- Dr. Simona Vittorini, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Roulin Khondoker, Imperial College, University of London
- Dr. Mary Montgomery, LSE
- Dr. Candide Simard, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Richard Widdess, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Lucia da Corta, University of Bath
- Chinmay Sharma, doctoral student, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Caroline Herbert, Leeds Beckett University
- Dr. Cyril Fouillet, ESSCA Business School, France
- Prof. Deborah James, LSE
- Dr. Andrew Newsham, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Nira Yuval-Davis, University of East London
- Dr. Carolyn Heitmeyer, University of Sussex
- Dr. Michael Waters, University of Oxford
- Margaux Fisher, LSE
- Dr. Catherine Allerton, LSE
- Gill Shepherd, LSE
- Prof. David Jonas
- Marcos Marchesoni
- Dr. Mishka Sinha, University of Cambridge
- Prof. David Mosse, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Shabnum Tejani, SOAS, University of London
- Yanina Hinrichsen, LSE
- Prof. Raminder Kaur, University of Sussex
- Dr Fae Dussart, University of Sussex
- Dr. Emma Mawdsley, University of Cambridge
- Prof. Gilbert Achcar, Professor, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Sumi Madhok, LSE
- Dr. Adam Hanieh, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. Henry Bernstein, Professor Emeritus, SOAS, University of London
- Prof. David Lewis, LSE
- Dr. Matthew Nelson, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. James Staples, Brunel University
- Prof. Andrea Cornwall, University of Sussex
- Prof. Katharine Adeney, University of Nottingham
- Dr. Yasmeen Narayan, Birkbeck, University of London
- Dr. Stephen Hughes, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. Kate Meagher, LSE
- Dr. Jacqueline Hirst, University of Manchester
- Dr. John Stevens, SOAS, University of London
- Dr. James Caron, SOAS, University of London
- Anwesha Mukherjee, University of East Anglia
- Dr. Geert De Neve, University of Sussex
- Dr. Virinder S Kalra, University of Manchester
- Prof. Filippo Osella, University of Sussex
- Dr. Aditya Sarkar, University of Warwick
- Demeter Chanter, LSE
- Dr. Kavita Ramakrishnan, University of East Anglia
- Dr. Grace Carswell, University of Sussex
- Dr. Ben Selwyn, University of Sussex
- Stephanie Putsch
- Vani Sreekanta
Now, to prolong the matter, a skirmish has been fabricated in NIT Srinagar , Kashmir. The attention of public has been turned to the incidents in Kashmir and the fanatics are raising hue and cry on the safety of ‘Hindu minorities’. Thus, the investigations in HCU and JNU are no more hot topics. They have been relegated and justice to Rohith has been sidelined. This is deliberate tactics of ABVP/ BJP / VHP and their coterie to take up ‘non-issues’ in some institute or the other and agitate on it till the heat subsides. Then, take an other useless one and continue. In this way, they are planning to cover -up their follies and mistakes and at the same time see that the real issues fade out from public memory.
The solidarity statements are most welcome, but just not enough. Something more militant is needed to achieve the goals and thwart attempts of ruling fundamentalists along with their student wing of deliberate fabrication of issues and agitation so as to keep the real matters at bay.
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