South Asia Citizens Web

The public complaint that the state’s writ in regard to its benevolent functions, such as guaranteeing its citizens security of life, liberty and a means of a decent living, is shrinking is now old hat. A new cause of their anxiety is that the state’s growing reliance on its coercive powers is undermining its credibility as a responsible entity and is putting the democratic system at risk.

selected statements of concern over developments at JNU from Human rights organisations, social movements and from international scholars and former students

Eminent historian Romila Thapar has been associated with JNU since its earliest years. She talks to writer Githa Hariharan about JNU’s vision for educating the young to be questioning citizens. She also traces the pattern of recent attacks against voices of dissent on Indian campuses. Her advice to students and teachers is that they should continue to raise questions, both in and outside the classroom.

On the 12 Feb 2016 the Maharashtra Adhashtradha Nirmulan Samitee [Maharashtra Anti Superstition Committee] (MANS) held a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi they released later at a press conference a letter to India’s Prime minister and a note explaining the urgent need to coordinate and expedite the police investigations underway into the assassinations of Govind Pansare, Prof MM Kalburgi and Narendra Dhabolkar.

We the undersigned are seriously concerned that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which is a militant Right-wing Hindu-supremacist organization that has played an active role in unleashing pogroms against minority religious communities in India, and which has been systematically propagating a version of Indian history that suits its ideological agenda without caring for either historical evidence or the scientific method, is now trying to establish, through some of its affiliated organizations, four Chairs at the University of California, Irvine, for the study of three Indian religions and of modern Indian history.