Ashish, a prolific writer and one of our most incisive minds is now being targeted, belatedly I might add, considering his views.
Hindutva Assault on Ashish Nandy http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html --- STATEMENT BY ACADEMICS AND ACTIVISTS ON THE HARASSMENT OF ASHIS NANDY AND A DEMAND FOR WITHDRAWAL OF SPURIOUS CHARGES LEVIED AGAINST HIM [Released on 16 June 2008] We write to protest in the strongest possible terms against the charges of criminal offence levied against Ashis Nandy, a political psychologist, sociologist and an internationally renowned public intellectual of the highest caliber. This is the latest case of harassment of intellectuals, journalists, artists, and public figures by antidemocratic forces that claim to speak on behalf of Hindu values sometimes and patriotism at other times, especially in Gujarat, but who have little understanding of either. What is pernicious in this case is that the charge of criminal offence against Nandy levied under Section 153 (A) and (B) for his newspaper article "Blame the Middle Classes" , was brought by the head of the Gujarat Branch of the National Council of Civil Liberties. The State Government of Gujarat by giving its permission for filing the case has shown its own complicity in the case. It seems part of the strategy of the most intolerant sections of Indian society today to make a cynical use the language of civil liberties to achieve ends that are the opposite of what the aspirations to civil liberties and the struggles over them represent. The harassment of well-known intellectuals and artists hides we fear, the daily intimidation being faced by members of minorities and especially the Muslims in Gujarat. We demand that all the charges against Professor Nandy be immediately dropped. We understand that there is a great deal of anxiety in Gujarat today about its lost honour. It might help to remind ourselves that this honour or "asmita" will not be gained by acts of violence and intimidation but by recovering or discovering the humanity of each other. Gujarat can and will regain its own destiny by remembering the politics of nonviolence, as one of its sons by the name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi once taught the nation and the world. 1.Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University, USA. 2.Homi Bhabha, Harvard University, USA 3.Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Center for Policy Research, Delhi, India 4.Gananath Obeyesekere, Princeton University, USA 5.Pratiksha Baxi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India 6. Saurabh Dube, El Colegio de Mexico 7. Diana Eck, Harvard University, USA 8.Sanjay Subrahmaniam, University of California at Los Angeles, USA 9.Lawrence Cohen, University of California Berkeley, USA 10.Sasanka Perera, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka 11. Jonathan Spencer, University of Edinburgh, UK 12.Flavia Agnes, Legal Center of Majlis, Mumbai, india 13. Harsh Mandar, Aman Biradari, Delhi, india 14. Uma Chakravarty, Independent Scholar, Delhi, India 15.Hent de Vries, Johns Hopkins University, USA 16. Ravinder Kaur, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India 17. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, University of California Berkeley, USA 18. Akhil Gupta, University of California Los Angeles, USA 19.Ishita Bannerjee, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico 20.Nivedita Menon, University of Delhi, India 21.Deepak Mehta, University of Delhi, India 22. Nirja Gopal Jayal, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India 23. Srimati Basu, University of Kentucky, USA 24. Pamela Reynolds, Johns Hopkins University, USA 25. Perveez Mody, University of Cambridge UK 26. Janaki Abraham, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India 27. Rajni Palriwala, University of Delhi, India 28. Kalpana Kannabiran, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad 29.Stewart Motha, Kent Law School, UK 30. Anand Pandian, Johns Hopkins University, USA 31.Vikram Vyas, St. Stephens College, University of Delhi 32.Maria Pia de Bella, CNRS-IRSI-EHESS, Paris 33. Gil Anidjar, Columbia University, USA 34. Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore 35 Ranendra K Das, Johns Hopkins University, USA 36. Stanley Samarsinghe, Tulane University, USA 37.Kavi Bhalla, Harvard Initiative for Global Health, USA 38.Naveeda Khan, Johns Hopkins University, USA 39 C K Raju, Center for Studies in Civilizations, Delhi, India 40. Asha Singh, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, Delhi. 41 Sanjay Barbora, Panos Institute South Asia, Guwahati, India 42.K. Tudor Silva, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 43. Ashok Xavier, Loyola College, Chennai, India 44. Rada Ivekovic, College international de philosophie, Paris 45. Vasuki Nesiah, Brown University, USA 46. Nermeen Shaikh, Asia Society, New York, USA 47. Mani Shekhar Singh, Independent Scholar, Delhi 48. Kavita Misra, Columbia University, USA 49. Christopher Stone, Hunter College, New York, USA 50.Arjun Appadurai, New School University, USA 51.Fredrique-Appfel Marglin, Smith College, USA 52. Ailli Trip, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA 53. Nayanika Mookherjee, Lancaster University, UK 54. Sanjay Reddy, University of Columbia, USA 55.Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago, USA 56. Sanmay Das, Ransellier Polytechnic Institute, USA 57. Mohan Trivedi, University of California, San Diego, USA 58.Kamala Visweswaran, University of Texas at Austin, USA 59.Banu Subramaniam, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA 60.Geeta Patel, University of Virginia, USA 61.Ajay Sakaria, University of Minnesota, USA 62.Gloria Goodwin Raheja, University of Minnesota, USA 63.Farah Aziz, Journalist, Mumbai, India 64.Pankj Mishra, Writer, New York, USA 65.Uday Mehta, Amherst College, USA 66.Qadri Ismail, University of Minnesota, USA 67. Rachel Dwyer, University of London, UK 68. Michael Dwyer, Publisher, London, UK 69.Bhaskar Sarkar, UC Santa Barbara, USA 70.Ashok Dhareshwar, Washington, DC, USA 71.Mahdi Almandrja, University Mohammad V Rabat, Morocco 72. Richard Falk, Princeton University, USA 73. Piya Chatterjee, UC Riverside, USA 74 Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University, New York 75. Sunil Bhavsar, San Diego, California, USA 76.Simone Sawhney, University of Minnesota, USA 77.Gyanendra Pandey, Emory University, USA 78.Sabina Sawhney, Hofstra University, New York, USA 79.Vivek Dhareshwar, Center for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, India 80. Adel Wessell, Southern Cross University, Australia 81. Baden Oxford, Southern Cross University, Australia 82. Indira Chowdhury, ARCH, Bangalore, India. 83. Jerry Pinto, Journalist, Mumbai, India. 84. Andrea Pinto, Librarian, Mumbai, India. 85.Sruti Chaganthi, Center for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, India 86.David Loy, Xavier University, Ohio, USA 87.Jan Obevg, Transnational Foundation, Sweden 88. Vrinda Grover, Marg, Delhi 89.Mahua Sarkar, Binghamton University, USA 90.Joseph Borocz, Rutgers University, USA 91.Megha Subramanian, University of Southern California, LA, USA 92. Nayanika Mookherjee, Lancaster University, UK 93.Pradeep Jeganathan, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka 94. Malathi de Alwis, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka 95.Ein Lal, Independent Film Maker, Delhi, India 96.Shastri Ramachandran, Journalist, the Tribune, Chandigarh, India 97. Rita Brara, University of Delhi, India. 98. V.Venkatesan, Journalist, Frontline, Delhi 99. Debamitra Kar, Pearson Education, Delhi, India 100.Maitreyi Krishnan, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 101.Ponni Arasu, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 102.Manoranjani Thomas, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 103. Mayur Suresh, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 104. Prashant Iyengar, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 105. Namita Malhotra, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 106. Clifton Rosario, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 107. Arvind Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 108. Jiti Nichani, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 109. Usha R, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 110. Siddhartha Narrian, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India 111. Anand Chokhwala, Surat, India 112. Nayana M Trivedi, Scripps Memorial Hospital, San Diego, California, USA 113. Munira A Basnai, NIH, Bathesda, USA 114. Attila Melegh, Corvinus University, Hungary. 115. Gauri Viswanathan, Columbia University, USA 116.Bhrigupati Singh, Johns Hopkins University, USA 117. Prerna Singh, Princeton University, USA 118. Saumya Das, Mass. General hospital, Cambridge, USA 119.Ranjini Obesesekera, Independent Scholar, Sri Lanka 120. Sithie Tiruchelvam, Tiruchelvam Associates, Colombo, Sri Lanka 121.Jonathan Parry, London School of Economics, London, UK 122. Manav Ratti, Oxford University, UK 123. Priyamvada Gopal, University of Cambridge, UK 124.Harsh Pant, King's College, London, UK 125. Keya Ganguli, University of Minnesota, USA 126. Joshua Castollino, Middlesex University, UK 127. Sudeshna Guha, Univeristy of Cambridge, UK 128. Debjani Ganguli, Australian National University, Australia 129.Kavita Daiya, George Washington University, USA 130. Jonathan Woolf, University of Liverpool, UK 131. Soumhya Venkatesan, University of Manchester, UK 132.Kriti Kapila, University of Cambridge, UK 133. Shirin Rail, University of Warwick, UK 134. Radmila Nakarada, University of Belgrade, Serbia 135. Gul Khattak, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan 136. Suketu Bhavsar, Cal Poly, Pomona USA 137. Jishnu Das, Center for Policy Research, Delhi, India 138.Swati Chattopadhyay, UC Santa Barbara, USA 139.Dineshwar Tiwari, Deshkal Society, Delhi, India 140. Ranjeet Nirguni, Deshkal Society, Delhi, India 141.Mary JaJehanbegaloo, University of Toronto, Canada 142.. Imtiaz Ahmad, Dhaka University, Bangladesh 143. Shard Chandra Behar, Bhopal, MP, India 144.Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University, USA 145. Aamir Mufti, UC Los Angeles, USA 146.Nauman Naqvi, Brown University, USA 147. Steven Caton, Harvard University, USA 148. Ziauddin Sardar, City University, London, UK 149. Ohashi Masaki, Keisen University, Japan 150. Jessica Marglin Princeton University, USA 151. J. Mohan Rao, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA 152. Sylvia Marcos, Center for Psycho-ethnological Research, Cuernavaca, Mexico 153. Jean Robert, Architect, Mexico 154. Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, USA 155. Rajeev Bhargav, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi 156. Baber Johansen, Harvard University, USA 157. Srirupa Roy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA 158. Fredrique-Apffel Marglin, Smith College, Northampton, USA 159. Shudana Yusaf, Princeton University, USA 160. Sudhir Kakar, Psychoanalyst and Writer, Goa, India 161.Daho Djerbal, University of Algeria, Algeria 162. Upendra Baxi, Warwick University, UK 163. Harsh Kapoor, South Asia Citizen's Web 164.Govinda Rath, G.B.Pant institute of Social Sciences, Allahabad, India 165.William Connolly, Johns Hopkins University, USA 166.Dipankar Gupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India 167.Indrani Chatterjee, Rutgers University, Delhi 168. Peter Ronald deSouza, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Simla 169. Triloki Madan, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, India 170. Mira Kamdar, World Policy Institute, New York, USA 171.Ashutosh Kumar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. 172. Partha Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India 173.Amiya Kumar Choudhuri, MAKAIS, Kolkata, India. 174. Rajaram Pande, The Japan Foundation, New Delhi, India 175. Lloyd I Rudolf, University of Chicago 176. Susanne H Rudolf, University of Chicago 177. Rosemary M George, UC San Diego 178.Shylashri Shankar, Center for Policy Research , Delhi
