The reign of unfreedom

Abhay Kumar

Rabindranath Tagore, the poet and philosopher, dreamed of the decolonized India to be a country where “the mind” would be “without fear” and “knowledge” would be “free”.

After the dawn of Independence, Tagore was recognised as the national poet and his work was made an inseparable part of the school syllabus by the political elites as a symbolic expression of gratitude to him.

But when it comes to imbibing the true message of Tagore in free India and respecting freedom of expression and civil liberty, the establishment of “democratic” India has often faltered.

While the previous secular governments discouraged critical voices on several occasions, the current BJP-led regimes have gone far ahead in crushing dissents.

The latest victim of the Hindutva wrath is Prof. Ganesh Devy. A former professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Prof. Devy, a renowned cultural critic and rationalist thinker, was scheduled to deliver a lecture at IIT-Mumbai on last Wednesday (Feb. 1).

A recipient of the Padma Shri, Prof. Devy’s lecture was finalized months ago and he was all set to speak on “The Crisis Within: On Knowledge and Education in India”.

The students and faculty members of IIT-Mumbai were eagerly waiting to feast on intellectual interaction with him.

But they were shocked to be informed that the lecture had been cancelled by the administration due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

A scholar of international fame, Prof. Devy was almost ready to leave for Mumbai. But a day before the scheduled lecture, he was informed by a person about the cancellation of the event.

Talking to the press, he expressed his disappointment: “Such last-minute cancellations do leave a bitter taste.”

Commenting on the cancellation of the event, Devy told The Times of India (February 1), “It is difficult for me to understand the motivation behind calling off the event. If I could deliver a lecture at IIT-Guwahati, another central institute, governed by the same regulations, then why not IIT-Bombay?”

Note that he spoke at IIT- Guwahati in October on “Describing India: People’s Movements and Knowledge Production.

But IIT-Mumbai seemed to have shivered at the prospect of his intellectual expression on its campus. Following the cancellation of the lecture, the students of IIT-Mumbai expressed their dismay.

Some wrote on social media against the decision of the administration. Condemning the act of administration, Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (IIT-Mumbai), read out a portion of Devy’s book as a mark of protest.

It appears that the cancellation of Devy’s lecture has less to do with academic and administrative reasons than political factors. The previous records show that the administration of IITMumbai had cancelled lectures under political pressure.

For example, Prof. Achin Vanaik of the University of Delhi was invited to deliver a lecture on “Israel-Palestine: The Historical Context” in November last year. But the event was cancelled.

After the cancellation of the talk, dozens of students sent a letter to the authorities concerned, adding that such an act was “tantamount to destroying our academic freedom”.

However, the administration did not pay any heed to the student’s concerns.

The reason for cancellation is not difficult to understand. Prof. Vanaik, an eminent scholar and critical voice in international politics, has been a vocal supporter of the just cause of Palestine.

His views are not liked by the pro-establishment scholars, administrators and mainstream media houses as the foreign policy under the Modi Government has heavily tilted towards Israel.

Similarly, Devy is a big champion of diversity, pluralism and secularism. Moreover, his scholarship and life have been committed to upholding the rights of the marginalised communities.

As a result, the Hindu Right considers him to be a formidable opponent to their ideology of majoritarianism, exclusion and cultural supremacy.

Devy is a scholar, writer, philosopher, activist and foot-soldier of the rational and progressive movements. He belongs to Maharashtra, the land of Phule and Ambedkar and his lifelong mission is to act as an antidote to the communal venom produced from Nagpur.

He is an avid reader as well as a tireless traveller, interacting with people and learning from them. While he spent decades at the university teaching English literature, a great portion of his later life went on amid the indigenous people of the country.

While he has a mastery of literature, language, linguistics, anthropology, history and ma