Over 400 academicians from global varsities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge, have come out in support of JNU students agitating against a row over an event on the campus.
We have learnt of the shameful act of the Indian government which, invoking sedition laws formulated by Indias colonial rulers, ordered the police to enter the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus and unlawfully arrest a student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, on charges of inciting violence – without any proof whatever of such wrongdoing on his part.
From the reports of a large number of witnesses and the most highly respected journalists in the country, these are the known facts that no impartial observer denies: In a student meeting, acting well within the rights he possesses by the law of the land, Kumar spoke critically of the BJP governments policies. On the previous day, at some other event, which he had no part in organising and at which he did not speak, a handful of other students, not even identifiable as students of the university, were shouting slogans about the rights of Kashmiris to independence from Indian military oppression over the last many decades. Kumar, whose speech (widely available on a video) cannot in any way be connected with the slogans uttered on the previous day, was nonetheless arrested for anti-national behaviour and for violating the sedition laws against the incitement to violence. Since there is no evidence to establish these charges, we can only conclude that this arrest is further evidence of the present governments deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent, setting aside Indias longstanding commitment to toleration and plurality of opinion, replicating the dark times of an oppressive colonial period and briefly of the Emergency in the mid-1970s.
These actions of the police have brought great dishonour to the government; and the failure of the Vice-Chancellor to speak out against these actions and moreover to allow the suspension of seven other students on charges that have not been established by a fair and transparent inquiry, will bring great dishonour to the most prominent university in the country in the eyes of the academy all over the world.
We, the undersigned, take a stand of heartfelt solidarity with the students and faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru University in their efforts to resist these developments on its campus and, in the name of the liberties that India and Indian universities until recently could take for granted, we not only condemn the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated, but urge all those genuinely concerned about the future of India and Indian universities to protest in wide mobilisation against it.
Signed by:
1. Noam Chomsky, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
2. Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Laureate, Turkey
3. Jonathan Cole, Former Provost of Columbia University, USA
4. Judith Butler, Professor of Linguistics, University of Californi, Berkeley
5. Richard N. Zare, Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University, USA
6. Robert Wade, Professor of International Development, London School of Economics, UK
7. Akeel Bilgrami, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, USA
8. Dimitri Papadimitriou, Director, Levy Institute, Bard College, USA
9. Mriganka Sur, Professor of Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
10. Jan Breman, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Amsterdam University, The Netherlands,
11. Sanat Kumar, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, USA
12. Sheldon Pollock, Professor of Sanskrit, Columbia University, USA
13. Barbara Harriss-White, Emerita Professor of Development Studies, Oxford University, UK
14. Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, USA.
15. N. V. Ramana, Professor of Physics, Princeton University, USA
16. James Galbraith, Professor of Economics, University of Texas at Austin, USA
17. Charles Taylor, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, McGill University, Canada
18. Servaas Storm, Professor of Economics, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
19. Arjun Appadurai, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, USA.
20. Alicia Puyana Mutis, Professor of Economics, Flacso, Mexico.
21. Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics, University of Amherst at Massachusetts, USA
22. Juan Carlos Moreno Brid, Professor of Economics, Universidad National de Mexico,USA
23. Gerald Epstein, Professor of Economics, University of Amherst at Massachusetts, USA
24. Pasuk Phongpaichit, Emerita Professor, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok Thailand.
25. Kanti Rai, leading leukemia specialist, USA
26. Gauri Vishwanathan, Professor of English, Columbia University, USA
27. Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, UK
28. Jennie Traschen, Professor of Physics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
29. David Kastor, Associate Head of Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
30. Ugo Pagano, Professor of Economics, Università degli Studi di Siena,
31. Mira Nair, Film
32. Ozlem Onaran, Professor of Economics, University of Greenwich,
33. Engelbert Stockhammer, Professor of Economics, University of Bristol,
34. Gary Dymski, Professor of Applied Economics, University of Leeds,
35. Arjun Jayadev, University of Massachusetts, Boston,
36. Elissa Braunstein, Colorado State University, USA
37. Alicia Giron, Universidad National de Mexico, USA
38. Daniele Tori, University of Greenwich,
39. Pablo Bortz, Universirty of San Martin, Beunos Aires,
40. Daniela Gabor, UWE Bristol,
41. Annina Kaltenbrunner, University of Leeds,
42. J.George Waardenburg, Emeritus professor in development economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The
43. Fernando J. Cardim de Carvalho, Emeritus Professor, Federal University of Rio de
44. Mario Tonveronachi, Università degli Studi di Siena,
45. Jan Kregel, Director of Research, Levy Institute, Bard College,
46. Thomas Ferguson, University of Massachusetts, Boston,
47. Malcolm Sawyer, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Leeds,
48. Thea Harvey-Barratt, Levy Institute, Bard College,
49. Amrita Chhachhi, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
50. Noemi Levy, Universidad National de Mexico,
51. Ilhan Dogus, University of Hamburg,
52. Edward Fullbrook, Executive Director, World Economics
53. Brendan Burchell, University of Cambridge,
54. Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Professor of Economics, University of Amherst at Massachusetts,
55. Sripad Motiram, University of Massachusetts at Bosto,
56. Stefano Zambelli, Universita di Trento,
57. Andrew B. Tylecote, Emeritus Professor, University of Sheffield,
58. Jing Cai, University of Aberdeen,
59. Julian Wells, Kingston University,
60. Mehmet Kerem Coban, Lee Kuan Yew Institute of Public Policy, National University of
61. Andres Lazzarini, University of San Martin,
62. Radha Upadhyaya, University of Nairobi,
63. Riccardo Bellofiors, Universita di Bergamo,
64. Carolina Alves, University of
65. Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University,
66. Stephanie Seguino, University of Vermont,
67. Nicolas Pons-Vignon, EHSS,
68. Sergio Cesarotto, Universita di Siena,
69. Tomas Rotta, University of Greenwich,
70. Robin Blackburn, Cullman Fellow, New York Public
71. David Freedberg, Director, Warburg Institute, University of
72. Mario Seccareccia, University of Ottowa,
73. Jens Lerche, University of London,
74. Kevin Gallagher, Boston University,
75. Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”,
76. Pascal Petit, University of Sorbonne, Paris
77. Deepankar Basu, University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
78. María Cecilia Ainciburu, Università degli Studi di Siena,
79. Eugenia Correa, Universidad Nacional de Mexico, Mexico
80. Wendy Olsen, Professor of Socio-Economics, University of Manchester,
81. Radhika Balakrishnan, Rutgers University,
82. Eduardo Strachman, Sao Paulo State University,
83. Wesley Colin Marshall, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa,
84. Trevor Evans, Berlin School of Economics and Law,
85. Geoffrey C. Harcourt, University of New South Wales,
86. Terrence McDonough, National University of Ireland,
87. Rod ODonnell, University of Sydney,
88. David Bromwich, Professor of English, Yale University, USA
89. Alfredo Saad Filho, SOAS, University of London, UK
90. Victoria Chick, Professor Emerita, University College London, UK.
91. Makoto Itoh, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo, Japan
92. Nobuharu Yokokawa, Musashi University, Tokyo, Japan
93. Giovanni Vaggi, University of Pisa, Italy
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