On October 26, a group of distinguished Indian historians issued a statement of concern about the damage being done in the current political climate to the traditions of tolerance, and freedom of speech, belief and practices, for which India was long applauded. We - historians and social scientists engaged in researching and teaching about the richness of Indian history and society in different locations overseas - write to express our solidarity with their statement. We share the deep concern over recent happenings in India, which are affecting freedom of artistic expression and historical and social science inquiry, and serving to produce a dangerously pervasive atmosphere of narrowness, intolerance and bigotry.
Currently reigning political attitudes and actions have seriously harmed the tradition of critical inquiry into the condition of India's past and present that undergirded the country's reputation of tolerance and democracy. Irresponsible statements by political leaders, declaring that India is finally free from 800 or 1,000 years of slavery, and that the glory of the Hindu nation will shine anew, are creating a sense of fear among millions of citizens now being defined as outsiders. What the present regime seems to be promoting, as our colleagues in India note, is a legislated account of the past, glorifying a homogenised and inflexible "Hindu" tradition. This denies the very inheritance that made the tradition exceptional: ongoing debate, a remarkable range of accepted beliefs and practices, and the necessity of change over time. Such a monolithic and flattened view of India's history is not supported by the sources, or by any serious historical inquiry.
It is a sad commentary on proclaimed traditions of tolerance and democracy that a family or individual can be lynched or burnt alive for an alleged social transgression (whether this be the eating of particular kinds of meat, or the forging of social relations across certain caste barriers) - without any formal charges being brought, let alone a trial being held in court. And that well-known and respected scholars can be killed for their intellectual opinions, research and writing because these do not fit with a particular political group's view of the "real" history or condition of India.
What makes the situation worse is that the prime minister and leaders of government have not felt it necessary to speak out promptly and strongly against these acts of criminal violence. With our colleagues in India, we urge the president, prime minister and central government, the governors and ministers of different state governments, and the chief justice and other justices of the Supreme Court and high courts, to uphold the law and the Constitution, allowing free and fearless expression of views, ensuring security for all sections of society, and safeguarding the values and traditions of plurality that India has long cherished.
Signed:
Aiyar, Sana - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ajantha Subramanian - Harvard University, MA
Alexander, Meena - City University of New York
Anand, Dibyesh - University of Westminster, UK
Appadurai, Arjun - New York University
Arondekar, Anjali - University of California, Santa Cruz
Baba, Norihisa - University of Tokyo
Bajpai, Rochana - School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Baker, J. Mark - Humboldt State University, CA
Basu, Amrita - Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Basu, Anustup - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Basu, Manisha - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Basu, Subho - Mcgill University, Canada
Bate, Bernard - Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Berger, Rachel - Concordia University, Canada
Bhabha, Homi Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Bhatia, Varuni - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Bhattacharyya, Debjani - Drexel University, Philadelphia
Bilgrami, Akeel - Columbia University, New York
Bose, Neilesh - University of Victoria, Canada
Bove, Paul A. - University of Pittsburgh, PA
Busch, Allison - Columbia University, New York
Chakravarti, Ananya - Georgetown University, Washington DC
Chakravartti, Paula - New York University
Chandra, Shefali - Washington University in St. Louis
Chandra, Sudhir - Nantes Institute for Advanced Study, France
Charusheela, S. - University of Washington, Bothell
Chatterjee, Partha - Columbia University, New York
Chatterji, Joya - University of Cambridge, UK
Chattopadhyay, Swati - University of California, Santa Barbara
Chopra, Rohit - Santa Clara University, CA
Cohen, Lawrence - University of California, Berkeley
Cole, Juan - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Dalta, Kavita Saraswath - Mount Holyoke College, MA
Daruvala, Susan - University of Cambridge, UK
Das Gupta, Monisha - University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Das, Shinjini - University of Cambridge, UK
Datta, Antara - Royal Holloway College, London
De, Rohit - Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Denault, Leigh - University of Cambridge, UK
Doniger, Wendy - University of Chicago
Duara, Prasenjit - National University of Singapore
Fernandes, Leela - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Fuller, Chris - London School of Economics, UK
Gandhi, Leela - Brown University, Providence RI
Ganguly, Debjani - Australian National University, Canberra
Ganti, Tejaswini - New York University
Ghose, Toorjo - University of Pennyslvania, Philadelphia
Ghosh, Bishnupriya - University of California, Santa Barbara
Ghosh, Durba - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Gill, Navyug - Hobart and William Smith Colleges, NY
Gold, Ann - Grodzins Syracuse University, NY
Goswami, Manu - New York University
Gottschalk, Peter - Wesleyan University, Connecticut
Govindrajan, Radhika - University of Washington, Seattle
Greenough, Paul R - University of Iowa
Grewal, Inderpal - Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Grey, Daniel - Plymouth University, UK
Guha, Sudeshna - University of Cambridge, UK
Gupta, Radhika - Gottingen University, Germany
Guyot-Rechard, Berenice - University of Cambridge, UK
Haider, Navina - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Hardiman, David - University of Warwick, UK
Hyder, Syed Akbar - University of Texas at Austin
Ibrahim, Amrita - Georgetown University, Washington DC
Inoue, Aeka - Shujitsu University, Japan
Jeffrey, Patricia - University of Edinburgh, UK
Jeffrey, Roger - University of Edinburgh, UK
Jenkins, Laura - University of Cincinnatti
Jones, Arun Emory - University, Atlanta
Joshi, Sanjay - Northern Arizona University
Juneja, Monica - University of Heidelberg, Germany
Kahrs, Eivind - University of Cambridge, UK
Kaicker, Abhishek - University of California, Berkeley
Kaul, Suvir - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Keshavmurthy, Prashant - Mcgill University, Canada
Khan, Yasmin - University of Oxford, UK
Kia, Mana - Columbia University, NY
Kimura, Makiko - Tsuda College, Japan
Krishna, Sankaran - University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Lal, Ruby Emory - University, Atlanta
Lal, Vinay - University of California, Los Angeles
Lelyveld, David - William Paterson University, NJ
Loomba, Ania - University of Pennyslvania, Philadelphia
Lukose, Ritty - New York University
Mahadev, Neena - Max Planck Institute, Berlin
Maira, Sunaina - University of California, Davis
Mannathkkaren, Nissim - Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada
Mantena, Rama - University of Illinois, Chicago
Mathew, Johan - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Matzner, Deborah - Wellesley College, Massachusetts
Mehta, Uday City - University of New York
Menon, Dilip - Univ of Witwatersrand, Johannesberg, South Africa
Menon, Minakshi - Max Planck Institute, Berlin
Metcalf, Barbara - University of California, Davis
Metcalf, Thomas - University of California, Berkeley
Mir, Raza - William Paterson University, NJ
Mistree, Dinsha - Stanford University, CA
Mitra, Durba - Fordham University, New York
Mohan, Sanal - Max Planck Institute, Gottingen
Mohanty, Satya - Cornell University, NY
Mukharji, Projit - University of Pennyslvania, Philadelphia
Muzaffar, Alam - University of Chicago
Nair, Savita - Furman University, South Carolina
Nakazato, Nariaki - University of Tokyo, Japan
Narayana Rao, V - Emory University, Atlanta
Newbigin, Eleanor - School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Pandey, Gyanendra - Emory University, Atlanta
Parthasarathi, Prasannan - Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Patel, Ian Sanjay - Goldsmiths College, University of London
Paterson, Marion - British Academy, London
Pernau, Margrit - Max Planck Institute, Berlin
Peterson, Indira - Mount Holyoke College, MA
Pollock, Sheldon - Columbia University, New York
Prakash, Gyan - Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Prashad, Vijay - Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Purohit, Teena - Boston University, MA
Raheja, Gloria - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Rahman, Raisur - Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Raj, Kapil - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Ramnath, Maia - Penn State University, PA
Randeria, Shalini - Institute for International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
Rao, Anupama - Barnard College, New York
Rao, Rahul - School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Redding, Jeff - Saint Louis University School of Law, MO
Reddy, Sujani - SUNY, Old Westbury, NY
Rizvi, Sajjad - University of Exeter, UK
Robinson, Francis - Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Roy, Haimanti - University of Dayton, Ohio
Roy, Rohan Deb - University of Reading, UK
Roy, Srirupa - University of Gottingen, Germany
Ryosuke, Furui - University of Tokyo, Japan
Sahota, G.S. - University of California, Santa Cruz
Saikia, Yasmin - Arizona State University
Saith, Ashwani - IISS, The Hague, Netherlands
Sanjam, Ahluwalia - Northern Arizona University
Sarkar, Aditya - University of Warwick, UK
Sarkar, Bhaskar - University of California, Santa Barbara
Sato, Hiroshi - Japan Association for South Asian Studies, Tokyo
Sen, Dwaipayan - Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Sen, Satadru - City University of New York
Sen, Uditi - Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
Seth, Sanjay - Goldsmiths, University of London
Sevea, Iqbal - University of North Carolina, Chapel-Hill
Shah, Alpa - London School of Economics, UK
Shankar, Subramanian - University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Sharafi, Mitra - University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sharma, Aradhana - Wesleyan University, Connecticut
Sharma, Jyotirmaya - Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Sharma, Shalini - Keele University, UK
Sheikh, Samira - Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Shingavi, Snehal - University of Texas at Austin
Shulman, David - Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Siegel, Benjamin - Boston University, Boston, MA
Singh, Amritjit - Ohio University, OH
Singh, Bhrigupati - Brown University, Providence RI
Singh, Prerna - Brown University, Providence RI
Sinha, Mishka - University of Cambridge, UK
Sinha, Mrinalini - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Skaria, Akay - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Stewart, Tony - Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Subramaniam, Banu - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Taneja, Anand - Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Tarlo, Emma - Goldsmiths College, University of London
Trivedi, Lisa - Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Vaidhyanathan, Siva - University of Virginia
van der Veer, Peter - Max Planck Institute, Berlin
van Schendel, Willem - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vazira, Zamindar - Brown University, Providence RI
Veeraraghavan, Rajesh - Brown University, Providence RI
Virmani-Boutier, Arundhati - ÉHESS, Marseille, France
Visweswaran, Kamala - University of California, San Diego
Wald, Erica - Goldsmiths College, University of London
Washbrook, David - University of Cambridge, UK
White, David - University of California, Santa Barbara
Zecchini, Laetitia - CNRS Paris
Original Source: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/intolerance-historians-irfan-habib-modi-de...
