RESEARCH CAUGHT IN POLITICAL QUAGMIRE
Arnab Gupta
Thanks,
Arnab.
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RESEARCH CAUGHT IN POLITICAL QUAGMIRE
The march of fascism has engulfed all the major institutions of higher
education under the BJP rule in India today. Independent research is
rapidly being muffled for the 'Hindutva' prachar. I don't know if
Hinduism constitutes any form of intolerance as till the present
century it has seen a wide scope for assimilation of different
cultures, races and religions. But, it is possible that the Sangh
Parivar has redefined the whole cult of Hinduism from 'universalism' to
'unilateralism.' It is
probably under this aegis that any independent research on countries
following a different religion is being considered 'blasphemous.' One
such heinous attempt at stifling the voices of freedom is being
systematically carried out at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of
Asian Studies in Calcutta. This Institute set up at the inspiration of
late Prof. Nurul Hasan and the august guidance of Prof. Barun De, aimed
to become a pioneering research Institute in the field of political,
social, economic and cultural aspects of the countries of Northwest,
Central and South Asia. Established in 1993, it has been rapidly
gaining international repute, first under the directorship of Prof.
Barun De and later under Prof. Ranabir Samaddar, the next acting
director. Important projects were initiated including a comprehensive
study on the culture and ethnicity of Central Asia, status of migrants
in South Asia, the refugees in Afghanistan, political movements in
Bangladesh alongwith the initiation of a language center on
contemporary Asian languages of relevance to the Institute, namely,
Persian, Urdu, Turkish and Russian. A project for setting up a
documentation center had also been initiated alongwith making the
Institute's library one of the best in the region. The ultimate aim was
to make the Institute a focal point on area studies. It
is a matter of pride that visiting scholars to the city from different
parts of India, including the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University
and the Indian Institute of Management, and abroad, found the center a
haven for resources. But such resourcefulness was not to be tolerated
and an attempt was made to stifle all progress by deputing Dr. B.P.
Saha, a former Indian Police Services officer as the director of the
Institute, replacing the then acting director, Prof. Samaddar. The move
had been so sudden and clandestine that the whole game smirked of
malice and a deliberate conspiracy to kill the Institute. What had been
a month ago a team working single-mindedly for the promotion of
research turned into a pitched battle ground between the scholars and
the director. It must be mentioned here that Dr. Saha has no experience
of running any educational institute, let alone one of such specialized
research. His appointment lacked any formal procedures, no
advertisements, no search committees and no interviews were conducted.
Within a couple of weeks' time it became evident that he neither knew
the norms nor had the temperament of running such an august place. At a
faculty meeting, he called senior fellows of the Institute mentally
deranged, unilaterally took the decision of stopping the publication of
the Institute's Newsletter, which had gathered an impressive mailing
list of readers in India and abroad. He stopped all developmental
projects in the Institute on the grounds that qualified and dedicated
people hitherto put in charge of such projects had been selected solely
on the basis of favouritism and nepotism. This was done without any
consideration to the
remendous amount of effort being put in by each member of the team and
the acclaim of scholars within and without the Institute. That Dr. Saha
considers the Institute in similar terms as his police camp becomes
evident by his singularly dictatorial and repressive efforts. He has
gone to the extent of unilaterally denigrating duly appointed scholars
at the Professorial level to the Readership grade merely to satisfy his
own ego. He insists that all invitations to scholars to attend seminars
should be routed through him which is completely unheard of in any
academic institute as invitations to scholars depend upon the need of
the seminar organizer. While on the one hand he issued a note to a
senior scholar denying him the permission to attend a seminar, facing
rough weather, he contradicted himself by saying that he had never said
so. It is sad to think that a place, which could have become an august
center for serious interdisciplinary research, a rare feat in India
today, should face such turpitude. This is an appeal to the
international academic community who already know about this Institute
and those who don't and yet believe in academic freedoms to come forward
to save this Institute from becoming another political battleground of
incompetent people as is today the fate of many institutes of learning
in India. I earnestly hope that I'm not show-caused for whatever I've
written as is today the price for freedom of expression in the Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies.