This is a statement of March 29, 2016 from students, faculty and affiliates of Columbia University. We publish it below with apologies for the delay.

We, students, faculty and affiliates of Columbia University, strongly condemn the violation and atrocities brought upon the students and faculty of the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) on March 22, 2016. Since Professor Appa Rao Podile was on leave and under investigation for the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, his return to the campus to resume duties as the Vice Chancellor was unacceptable. The students justifiably organized a peaceful protest in the campus that day. The institutional responses to that, by the University authorities, the Andhra and Telangana police force, Rapid Action Force personnel, the media, and the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on campus, were outrageous, inhuman, and fascist. The University authorities, instructed by Prof Podile, shut down the Internet connection, dining hall and drinking water facilities in retaliation to the peaceful student protest. The Andhra and Telangana police force lathi-charged students and faculty, violently beat up and severely injured them, molested and threatened to rape female students, targeted Muslims and Dalits, abused them verbally, and eventually arrested 24 students and 3 faculty. The ABVP members resorted to violence and aggressive sloganeering from the very beginning of the students’ peaceful protest and also attacked and injured them. The mainstream media has been ignoring these atrocious events at a Central university campus and has decidedly turned away from its responsibility and its accountability to the public. This is ironic, at the very least, when some of the news anchors just last month were so focused on fabricating stories of “terrorist” and “anti-national” activities at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. The media ultimately failed to demonize the students then. Now, yet again, the media is unabashedly siding with the authoritarian regime of corporate and state power; this time by ignoring the brutality of the police and the HCU authorities.

We strongly condemn

–       the fascist abuse of power by the University authorities, who decided to deprive the students of basic facilities as ‘revenge’ for the peaceful demonstration

–      the violence, the targeting and the brutality of the police force

–   the irresponsibility of the media for not reporting this on prime time and for effectively siding with the tyrannical regime in power

–       the atrocities unleashed by the casteist, capitalist, Hindu fundamentalist government and its affiliates, especially ABVP.

Given the current regime’s unceasing acts of violence aimed at Dalit, Muslim and tribal, students and activists, as well as anyone voicing their support, we believe that this is not an isolated event. We stand against such atrocities in campuses around the country as well as in other areas under threat from the regime and its affiliates. We stand in support of the students and faculty at HCU and of the right to peaceful protest, the right to dissent and the right against state violence.

1. Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and MESAAS, Columbia University
2. Gil Anidjar, Professor of Religion and MESAAS, Columbia University
3. Aftab Ahmad, Lecturer, Hindi-Urdu, MESAAS, Columbia University
4. Sheldon Pollock, Professor of MESAAS, Columbia University
5. Debashree Mukherjee, MESAAS, Columbia University
6. Allison Busch, Professor of MESAAS, Columbia University
7. Sayori Ghoshal, PhD student, MESAAS
8. Syantani Chatterjee, Anthropology, PhD
9. Sayantani Mukherjee, Department of History
10. Uponita Mukherjee, MESAAS
11. Samyak Ghosh, PhD student
12. Lindsey Dayton, History, GSAS
13. Anand Venkatkrishnan, PhD 2015 (Religion)
14. Vatsal Naresh, IRCPL
15. William Burton, PhD student, French & Romance Philology
16. Souad Lamrani (Visiting student)
17. Sohini Pillai, (MESAAS MA 2015)
18. Marianne González Le Saux, PhD candidate, History Department
19. Victor Petrov (PhD History, Columbia)
20. Sohaib Khan (Columbia University)
21. Sarandha Jain, PhD, Anthropology
22. Howard Taylor, Columbia University, Anthropology PhD
23. Taarini Mookherjee, PhD Student English & Comparative Literature
24. Marina Alamo-Bryan, Anthropology Department, Columbia University
25. Anna Schirrer PhD Anthropology
26. Selim Karlıtekin, Ph.D Candidate CU MESAAS
27. Dominic Vendell, Ph.D. student, History
28. Hallie Nell Swanson CC ’16
29. Mukund Palat Rao, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
30. Tania Bhattacharyya, PhD candidate, Department of History
31. Matan Cohen, doctoral candidate, MESAAS, Columbia University
32. Sarah Hawas, PhD Student, MESAAS
33. Aviroop Sengupta, PhD Student, MESAAS
34. Rosa Klein-Baer, MA student at MESAAS
35. Hanine Hassan, MESAAS
36. Henny Ziai, PhD Student
37. Karim Malak, alumni
38. Nadia Sariahmed, GSAS, PhD student in MESAAS
39. Catherine Ambler, GSAS
40. Mary Ann Chacko (Teachers College)
41. Manpreet Kaur, Religion, PhD student
42. Wendell Marsh, MESAAS
43. Yayra Sumah, Columbia University
44. Ibrahim Elhoudaiby, MESAAS
45. Vivek Yadav
46. Zeinab Azarbadegan, Department of History
47. Tyler Williams, alumni, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (currently Assistant Professor, University of Chicago)
48. A student at SIPA
49. Anna Schirrer Department of Anthropology
50. Irem Az, Columbia University
51. Brian Wright, Anthropology
52. A student, MA Art History
53. Stefan Tarnowski, Anthropology
54. Daniel West, PhD Anthropology
55. Ria Gyawali, South Asian Institute
56. Valerie Giesen GSAS Anthropology
57. Nouri, School of Engineering and Applied Science
58. Ashraf Abdalla, PhD Candidate
59. Claire Gohorel, GSAS
60. Jnee’ Hill, Columbia School of Social Work