Express News Service
NEW DELHI: More voices have come out in support of Ashoka University professor Sabyasachi Das, who resigned after his paper highlighting possible manipulation in the 2019 general elections faced backlash.
Many present and past faculty members and students have demanded the unconditional reinstatement of Prof Das, who taught economics, and sought to set up a panel on academic freedom.
Earlier, another economics professor Pulapre Balakrishnan resigned, protesting against Das’ ouster. Political science, sociology, and anthropology departments also showed solidarity with Das following English and Creative Writing which have already supported the demand. This was following the Economics Department’s open letter of support for Das and his ‘unconditional’ reinstatement.
As many as 87 faculty members, including from history, mathematics, and physics departments, have written to Vice Chancellor Somak Raychaudhury stating that free thought within universities in India is in crisis and demanded that all decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold till the promised Committee for Academic Freedom is in place.
In the evening, The Ashoka University Student Government (AUSG) posted on X (formerly Twitter), “The student body must be informed of the creation and functioning of the Academic Freedom Committee. There must be NO role of governing body in evaluating faculty research. We expect the student body to be kept up-to-date with details of the Faculty meeting.”
Ashoka set up on a sprawling 25-acre campus in Haryana’s Sonepat, has over 160 faculty members, 19 departments, and over 2,800 students.
The letter signed by 87 faculty members was on Thursday reposted on X by Amit Chaudhuri, author and professor of creative writing at Ashoka.
“Free thought within universities in India is in crisis today, largely because of the near-absolute intolerance of critique. What is critique? It is a legitimate disagreement and comprises the raising of questions that are inextricable, at any given point, from the fabric of a free and healthy society. It is to be distinguished, firmly, from defamation or incitement to hatred or all categories of expression that will not stand up in a court of law or which do not abide by the Constitution,” the letter, written on August 13, said. The letter was drafted and circulated before the resignation of Das and Balakrishnan.
“To stifle critique is to poison the lifeblood of pedagogy. Consequently, it is to damage whatever future our students might have as serious thinkers. Recent events around a paper published by Professor Sabyasachi Das are a reminder that the crisis is an ongoing and deep one, with implications for every academic working at Ashoka University and, for that matter, in India,” the joint letter signed by nearly 100 faculty members said.
The joint letter noted that it is not a crisis that will go away by wishing that papers like Professor Das’s will not be written in the future because that is not a realistic possibility in a working institution.
“Apologies and resignations will not solve it. It has to be addressed with academic freedom constituting the core of our position about the crisis. Ashoka University drafted and adopted a document for academic freedom in 2021. It has been bewildering to witness events unfold in the last two weeks that are directly related to academic freedom in a way that makes no reference to this document and behaves, to all purposes, as if it does not exist,” the letter said and demanded the immediate formation of the Committee for Academic Freedom.
Ashoka is mired in controversy after the varsity distanced itself from Das’s paper ‘Democratic Backsliding in the World’s Largest Democracy.’ Das resigned weeks after the research created a furore earlier this month for suggesting that the BJP won “disproportionately” in closely contested seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, especially in states where it was in power.
The letter of support from the economics department came on Wednesday, a day after the varsity vice-chancellor in a statement, confirmed Prof Das’s resignation.
NEW DELHI: More voices have come out in support of Ashoka University professor Sabyasachi Das, who resigned after his paper highlighting possible manipulation in the 2019 general elections faced backlash.
Many present and past faculty members and students have demanded the unconditional reinstatement of Prof Das, who taught economics, and sought to set up a panel on academic freedom.
Earlier, another economics professor Pulapre Balakrishnan resigned, protesting against Das’ ouster. Political science, sociology, and anthropology departments also showed solidarity with Das following English and Creative Writing which have already supported the demand. This was following the Economics Department’s open letter of support for Das and his ‘unconditional’ reinstatement.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
As many as 87 faculty members, including from history, mathematics, and physics departments, have written to Vice Chancellor Somak Raychaudhury stating that free thought within universities in India is in crisis and demanded that all decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold till the promised Committee for Academic Freedom is in place.
In the evening, The Ashoka University Student Government (AUSG) posted on X (formerly Twitter), “The student body must be informed of the creation and functioning of the Academic Freedom Committee. There must be NO role of governing body in evaluating faculty research. We expect the student body to be kept up-to-date with details of the Faculty meeting.”
Ashoka set up on a sprawling 25-acre campus in Haryana’s Sonepat, has over 160 faculty members, 19 departments, and over 2,800 students.
The letter signed by 87 faculty members was on Thursday reposted on X by Amit Chaudhuri, author and professor of creative writing at Ashoka.
“Free thought within universities in India is in crisis today, largely because of the near-absolute intolerance of critique. What is critique? It is a legitimate disagreement and comprises the raising of questions that are inextricable, at any given point, from the fabric of a free and healthy society. It is to be distinguished, firmly, from defamation or incitement to hatred or all categories of expression that will not stand up in a court of law or which do not abide by the Constitution,” the letter, written on August 13, said. The letter was drafted and circulated before the resignation of Das and Balakrishnan.
“To stifle critique is to poison the lifeblood of pedagogy. Consequently, it is to damage whatever future our students might have as serious thinkers. Recent events around a paper published by Professor Sabyasachi Das are a reminder that the crisis is an ongoing and deep one, with implications for every academic working at Ashoka University and, for that matter, in India,” the joint letter signed by nearly 100 faculty members said.
The joint letter noted that it is not a crisis that will go away by wishing that papers like Professor Das’s will not be written in the future because that is not a realistic possibility in a working institution.
“Apologies and resignations will not solve it. It has to be addressed with academic freedom constituting the core of our position about the crisis. Ashoka University drafted and adopted a document for academic freedom in 2021. It has been bewildering to witness events unfold in the last two weeks that are directly related to academic freedom in a way that makes no reference to this document and behaves, to all purposes, as if it does not exist,” the letter said and demanded the immediate formation of the Committee for Academic Freedom.
Ashoka is mired in controversy after the varsity distanced itself from Das’s paper ‘Democratic Backsliding in the World’s Largest Democracy.’ Das resigned weeks after the research created a furore earlier this month for suggesting that the BJP won “disproportionately” in closely contested seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, especially in states where it was in power.
The letter of support from the economics department came on Wednesday, a day after the varsity vice-chancellor in a statement, confirmed Prof Das’s resignation.
