JNU world alumni back university students, faculty

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, February 16

Nearly 500 academics from all over the world, including many of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) alumni, have released a statement representing the concerns of JNU’s international alumni, and a “wider global academic community of friends and comrades”.

It asserts that JNU is “far more than a besieged university campus in India”. JNU stands for a vital imagination of the space of the university – an imagination that embraces critical thinking, democratic dissent, student activism, and the plurality of political beliefs. It is this critical imagination that the current establishment seeks to destroy, the statement says. “And we know that this is not a problem for India alone. Similar attacks on critical dissent and university spaces are being attempted and resisted across the world.”

The unedited “Solidarity Statement” is as under:

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the students, faculty and staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi against the illegal ongoing police action since February 9, 2016. With them, we affirm the autonomy of the university as a non-militarized space for freedom of thought and expression. Accordingly, we condemn police presence on campus and the harassment of students on the basis of their political beliefs.

The charge of sedition, under the guise of which the police have been given a carte blanche to enter the JNU campus, to raid student hostels, arrest and detain students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, the current president of the JNU Students Union, is an alibi for the incursion of an authoritarian regime onto the university campus. Under Indian law sedition applies only to words and actions that directly issue a call to violence. The peaceful demonstration and gathering of citizens does not constitute criminal conduct. The police action on JNU campus is illegal under the constitution of India.

An open, tolerant, and democratic society is inextricably linked to critical thought and expression cultivated by universities in India and abroad. As teachers, students, and scholars across the world, we are watching with extreme concern the situation unfolding at JNU and refuse to remain silent as our colleagues (students, staff, and faculty) resist the illegal detention and autocratic suspension of students. We urge the Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University to protect members of the university community and safeguard their rights.

Dated/- 15 February 2016

1.          Asma Abbas, Bard College at Simon’s Rock

2.         Syed Shahid Abbas, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, U.K.

3.         Gilbert Achcar, SOAS, University of London

4.         Katie Addleman, University of Toronto

5.         Barun Adhikary, JNU

6.         Aniket Aga, Yale University

7.         Ashish Aggarwal, (JNU 2012)

8.         Aftab Ahmad, (JNU 2000), Columbia University

9.         Aijaz Ahmad, University of California, Irvine

10.        Meena Alexander, City University of New York

11.        Nosheen Ali, Habib University

12.        Tariq Omar Ali, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign

13.        Liyanage Amarakeerthi, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

14.        Harini Amarasuriya, Open University of Sri Lanka

15.        Eyal Amiran, UC Irvine, California, USA

16.        Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster

17.        Sundari Anitha, (JNU 1996), University of Lincoln Brayford Pool

18.        Ponni Arasu, (JNU 2005), University of Toronto

19.        Jayadev Athreya, University of Washington

20.       Anjali Arondekar, University of California, Santa Cruz

21.        Saurabh Arora, University of Sussex

22.       Edward Anderson, (JNU 2009), Cambridge University

23.       Abdul Kalam Azad, TISS-UNICEF

24.       Edward Bacal, University of Toronto

25.       Nandita Badami, (JNU 2011), University of California Irvine

26.       Shiladitya Banerjee, University of Chicago

27.       Amit R. Baishya, (JNU 2003), University of Oklahoma

28.       Anirban Baishya, (JNU 2013), University of Southern California

29.       Aparna Balachandran, (JNU 2000), University of Delhi

30.       Sai Balakrishnan, Harvard University

31.        Ian Balfour, York University

32.       Jairus Banaji, (JNU 1975) SOAS, London

33.       Murad Banaji, University of Middlesex

34.       Sandeep Banerjee, McGill University

35.       Sreenanti Banerjee, Birkbeck, University of London

36.       Anustup Basu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

37.       Arani Basu, (JNU 2015), Humboldt University

38.       Ananyo “Tito” Basu, American Cooperative School of Tunis

39.       Priyanka Basu, (JNU 2011), SOAS, London

40.       Srimati Basu, University of Kentucky

41.        Subho Basu, (JNU 1988), McGill University

42.       Lalit Batra, University of Minnesota

43.       Daniel Bender, University of Toronto

44.       Ankur Betageri, IIT-Delhi

45.       Madhav Badami, McGill University

46.       Sukanya Banerjee, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

47.       Homi Bhabha, Harvard University

48.       Gurminder K Bhambra, University of Warwick/Linnaeus University

49.       Brenna Bhandar, SOAS, University of London

50.       V. Bhaskar, (JNU 1981, JNUSU President 1981), University of Texas at Austin

51.        Udit Bhatia, Oxford University

52.       Varuni Bhatia, (JNU), University of Michigan Ann Arbor

53.       Enakshi Bhattacharya, IIT-Madras

54.       Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of East London

55.       Nandini Bhattacharya, (JNU 2005), University of Dundee

56.       Ritwik Bhattacharyya, Princeton University

57.       Shreya Bhattacherjee, (JNU 2010), University of California, Riverside

58.       Soumyadip Bandyopadhyaya, IIT-Kharagpur

59.       Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University

60.       Debanjali Biswas, (JNU 2011), King’s College London

61.        Nabaneeta Biswas, University of Georgia

62.       Somak Biswas, (JNU 2015), University of Warwick

63.       Amiel Bize, Columbia University

64.       Manuela Boatcă, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

65.       Anannya Bohidar, (JNU 2014), University of Pennsylvania

66.       Jenisha Borah, (JNU 2013)

67.       David Boyk, University of California, Berkeley

68.       Andrea Brock, University of Sussex

69.       Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley

70.       Kriti Budhiraja, (JNU 2014), University of Minnesota Twin Cities

71.        Allison Busch, Columbia University

72.       Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley

73.       Erica Burman, University of Manchester

74.       Utathya C., (JNU 2011), University of Illinois

75.       Linda Carty, Syracuse University

76.       Radhika Chadha, (JNU 2005), Delhi University

77.       Pavel Chakraborty, (JNU 2003), Oxford University

78.       Pratik Chakrabarti, (JNU 2000), University of Manchester

79.       Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago

80.       Priyanka Chakraborty, Southern Methodist University

81.        Paula Chakravartty, NYU

82.       Aditi Chandra, University of California

83.       Ananya Chatterjea, University of Minnesota

84.       Anindita Chatterjee, University of Minnesota

85.       Anomitro Chatterjee, (JNU 2010), Georgia State Universit

86.       Chandrayee Chatterjee, (JNU 2012), Georgia State University.

87.       Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University

88.       Piya Chatterjee, Scripps College

89.       Sreya Chatterjee, (JNU 2004)

90.       Sumita Dutt Chatterjee, (JNU 1989), University of Miami

91.        Sameer Chaturvedi,  Jawaharlal Nehru University

92.       Antara Ray Chaudhury, Jawaharlal Nehru University

93.       Divya Cherian, (JNU 2008), Rutgers University