Row over ‘Draupadi’: 70 scholars from UK, Europe support M’garh professors
ABVP activists protest against the staging of a play based on Mahasweta Devi’s short story Draupadi. file photo
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 6
International academia have condemned the Central
University of Haryana (CUH), Mahendragarh, for clamping down on a play
based on Mahasweta Devi’s short story Draupadi.
The “harassment” of Profs Snehsata Manav and Manoj Kumar, who organised the play on the campus, has irked them.
The university’s English and Foreign Languages Department had, on
September 21, organised the play as a tribute to Jnanpith awardee
Mahasweta Devi who passed away on July 28. The play depicted soldiers as
raping a woman and committing other atrocities.
More than 70 UK- and Europe-based scholars with origins in South Asia have written to CUH Vice-Chancellor RC Kuhar.
Prominent among those who have signed the letter are Prof Pritam
Singh from Oxford Brookes University; Rashmi Varma from the University
of Warwick, Kalpana Wilson from Birkbeck University, Subir Sinha of the
School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Prof Dibyesh Anand from
the University of Westminster, London; Sundari Anitha of the University
of Lincoln; Prof Gautam Appa from the London School of Economics and
Political Science; and Murad Banaji from the University of Middlesex.
“The attack and threats of charges of sedition against those
involved in the performance is instigated by the BJP-affiliated student
group ABVP, which has falsely and maliciously spread the view that the
play is anti-national and represented an attack on Indian soldiers,” the
letter reads.
“We stand in solidarity with the courageous faculty members and
students who performed the play and strongly oppose the sedition charges
being brought on them. The university should be a place for free
expression of ideas, and thoughts; it should create space for dialogue
and debate, and even disagreement,” the professors said in the letter.
The VC continues to be on medical leave ever since the play courted controversy.
Registrar Ram Dutt said a six-member inquiry committee had
conducted one meeting. “The panel is likely to convene more meetings
before it submits a report.”
He denied any pressure on the university.
“This is not for the first time that ABVP activists have tried to
vitiate the academic atmosphere of the university. Earlier, they had
disrupted a candle march organised in the memory of Hyderabad University
student Rohith Vemula,” said Prof Snehsata.
Prof Kumar said ABVP had labelled him a “Naxalite”.
Parmod Shashtri, state ABVP president, alleged the CUH has become
a den of “anti-national” activities. He claimed pro-Pakistan slogans
were raised on the campus during a cricket World Cup match last year.
