To, The Governor of Maharashtra, Address
Cc: The Vice Chancellor, University of Mumbai, Address The Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Address Subject: Statement of Opposition Against the Vice-Chancellor’s Decision to Drop Such A Long Journey from the SYBA English Syllabus of Mumbai University We, the undersigned condemn the undemocratic manner in which Rohintion Mistry’s novel Such A Long Journey has been omitted from the Second Year Bachelor of Arts (SYBA) English Literature syllabus of the University of Mumbai. We are disturbed and alarmed by the manner in which the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Rajan Welukar, bowed down to the demands of the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (the student wing of the Shiv Sena) and had the novel dropped from the syllabus overnight, purely on account of the group’s displeasure with “anti Shiv Sena passages”; “derogatory references” to Mumbai’s dabbawalas, the Marathi Manoos and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; and “extremely obscene and vulgar language in its’ text”. While we do not deny that the BVS and its’ supporters have every right to be outraged by the contents of the novel, we strongly oppose the means which they have chosen to express their dissent, which includes burning copies of the book and the issuing of ultimatums not only for the VC to omit the text from the syllabus within 24 hours, but also to exclude the professors who included to text in the syllabus from any university work in the future. Furthermore, being keenly aware of the immense bureaucracy involved in the decision-making processes of the University, we question the nature of the administrative process which led to the book being dropped from the syllabus and demand that the details of the said proceedings be made public. Lastly, in the interest of upholding the democratic principles enshrined within the Indian Constitution, we demand that the novel be reinstated in the syllabus and urge the BVS and its’ supporters to initiate healthy and democratic debate regarding whether it deserves a place in the syllabus or not. Yours sincerely, Your name, College/Organisation name, Position/Department/Year, etc. Sincerely, http://www.petitiononline.com/SYBAban/petition.html -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist The UID project is going to do almost exactly the same thing which the predecessors of Hitler did, else how is it that Germany always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of the Nazis? The Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM which was in the 'census' business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but also identifying them. At the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was responsible for organising the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews. *SAY NO TO UID CAMPAIGN- SPREAD THE WORD AND JOIN FB GROUP* *http://aadhararticles.blogspot.com/ http://questioningaadhaar.blogspot.com/* *http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132334350149754* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
