On Friday, a group of international scholars – from the British-Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah and the Canadian Charles Taylor to Lee Bolinger, president of Columbia University, the Cambridge political philosopher John Dunn and Oxford international relations scholar Rosemary Foot – issued a statement of solidarity with Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who resigned as a professor of Ashok University in Haryana following a meeting with its trustees in which it emerged that his writings were seen as a “political liability” for the private university and its promoters.
We are reproducing the full text statement and list of signatories below.
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A Dangerous Attack on Academic Freedom
An Open Letter to the Trustees, Administrators, and Faculty of Ashoka University
We are distressed to learn of Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s resignation under political pressure from Ashoka University. A prominent critic of the current Indian government and defender of academic freedom, he had become a target for his writings.
It seems that Ashoka’s Trustees, who should have treated defending him as their institutional duty, instead all but forced his resignation. As he put it in his eloquent resignation letter:
“My public writing in support of a politics that tries to honour constitutional values of freedom and equal respect for all citizens is perceived to carry risks for the university.”
We write in solidarity with Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and to reaffirm the importance of the values that he has always practiced. In political life, these are free argument, tolerance, and a democratic spirit of equal citizenship. In the university, they are free inquiry, candour, and a rigorous distinction between the demands of intellectual honesty and the pressure of politicians, funders, or ideological animus. These values come under assault whenever a scholar is punished for the content of public speech. When that speech is in defence of precisely these values, the assault is especially shameful.
The university must be a home for fearless inquiry and criticism. We support Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his practice of the highest values of intellectual inquiry and public life.
Signatories (organised alphabetically by last name):
Arash Abizadeh, Professor of Political Science, McGill University
Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
Sana Aiyar, Associate Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor; Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
Sunil Amrith, Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History, Yale University
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York University
David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, Harvard University
Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Lawrie Balfour, James Hart Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Etienne Balibar, Anniversary Chair in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University
Mukulika Banerji, Associate Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science
Amrita Basu, Paino Professor of Political Science and Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies, Amherst College
Alyssa Battistoni, Environmental Fellow, Harvard University
Eric Beerbohm, Professor of Government; Chair, Committee on Degree in Social Studies, Harvard University
Charles Beitz, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics, Princeton University
Teresa M. Bejanl Associate Professor of Political Theory, University of Oxford
Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Departments of English and American Literature and Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy; Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University
Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University
Richard Bourke, Professor of the History of Political Thought, University of Cambridge
Corey L Brettschneider, Professor of Political Science, Brown University
Jedediah Britton-Purdy, William S. Beinecke Professor of Law, Columbia University
David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English, Yale University
Christopher Brooke, University Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Cambridge
Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 First Chair, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Susan Buck-Morss, Distinguished Professor of Political Philosophy, Gradudate Center, City University of New York
Jennifer Bussell, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
Daniela Cammack, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Partha Chatterjee, Senior Research Scholar in Anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
Joan Cocks, Emerita Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College
Jean Cohen, Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Contemporary Civilization in the Core Curriculum, Columbia University
Joshua Cohen, Distinguished Senior Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, Apple University
Greg Conti, Assistant Professor of Politics, Princeton University
Adi Dasgupta, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Merced
Sandipto Dasgupta, Assistant Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research
Rohit De, Associate Professor of History, Yale University
Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford
Joshua Foa Dienstag, Professor of Law, Shapiro Family Chair Professor of Modern Political Theory, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Lisa Disch, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
Rosalind Dixon, Professor of Law, University of New South Wales, Co-President, International Society of Public Law
John Dunn, Professor of Political Theory, emeritus, University of Cambridge
Kevin Duong, Assistant Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
Cynthia Estlund, Catherine A. Rein Professor of Law, New York University
Kate Sullivan de Estrada, Associate Professor in the International Relations of South Asia, University of Oxford
Matthew Anthony Evangelista, President White Professor of History and Political Science, Cornell University
John A. Ferejohn, Samuel Tilden Professor of Law, New York University
Michaele Lynne Ferguson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder
Rosemary Foot, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford
Katrina Forrester, Assistant Professor of Government and Social Studies, Harvard University
Jason Frank, Robert J. Katz Chair of Government, Cornell University
Jill Frank, Professor of Government, Cornell University
Elizabeth Frazer, Fellow in Politics and University Lecturer in Politics, New College, University of Oxford
Mark W. Frazier, Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research
Leela Gandhi, John Hawkes Professor of Humanities and English, Steering Committee, Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University
Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University, Bloomington
Stephen Gardbaum, Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Bryan Garsten, Professor of Political Science and Humanities, Yale University
David Gellner, Professor of Social Anthropology, Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford
Adom Getachew, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and the College, University of Chicago
Arunabh Ghosh, Associate Professor of History, Harvard University
Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Alex Gourevitch, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University
David Singh Grewal, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley
Bérénice Guyot-Réchard, Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century International History, King’s College London
Bernard E. Harcourt, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
Patrick Heller, Lyn Cross Professor of Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Bonnie H Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media (MCM) and Political Science, Brown University
Aziz Z. Huq, Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, University of Chicago
Andrew Hurrell, Montague Burton Professor of International Relations, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Samuel Issacharoff, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University
Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director, Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia University
Maya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History, Harvard University
Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Rob Jenkins, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
David C. Johnston, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
Shruti Kapila, Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Milman Professor of American Studies, Cornell University
Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Interim Provost, Columbia University
Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, Columbia University
Duncan Kelly, Professor of Political Thought and Intellectual History, University of Cambridge
Tarun Khaitan, Vice Dean, Faculty of Law, Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory & Hackney Fellow in Law, Wadham College, University of Oxford
Sharon R. Krause, William R. Kenan, Jr. University Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Brown University
Cécile Laborde FBA, Nuffield Chair in Political Theory, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Hélène Landemore, Associate Professor of Political Science, Yale University
Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics & Director, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
Benjamin Lee, Professor of Anthropology and Philosophy, New School for Social Research
Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School
Steve Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University
Jacob T. Levy, Tomlisnon Professor of Political Theory, McGill University
Darryl Li, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Sciences in the College, University of Chicago
Stephen Macedo, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
Manjari Mahajan, Associate Professor of International Affairs & Starr Professor and Co-Director of the India China Institute, New School for Social Research
Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Research Professor of History, Harvard University
Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government, Columbia University
Anandi Mani, Professor of Behavioural Economics and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Harvey C. Mansfield, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government, Harvard University
Karuna Mantena, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
Patchen Markell, Associate Professor of Government, Cornell University
Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale University
John P. McCormick, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Stephanie McCurry, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of U.S. History, Columbia University
Uday Singh Mehta, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Bernadette Meyler, Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life, Stanford University
Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford; Vice-President-elect (Communications), British Academy
Tariq Modood, Director, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, Bristol University
Glyn Morgan, Director, Moynihan Center of European Studies, Syracuse University
Yascha Mounk, Associate Professor of the Practice, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Samuel Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence, Professor of History, Yale University
Jan-Werner Mueller, Professor of Politics, Princeton University
Russell Muirhead, Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics, Chair, Department of Government, Dartmouth College
Rahul Mukherji, Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Heidelberg University
Rani D. Mullen, Associate Professor of Government, College of William and Mary
Kanta Murali, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto
Sankar Muthu, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Isaac Nakhimovsky, Associate Professor of History and Humanities, Yale University
Vipin Narang, Associate Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Eric Nelson, Robert M. Beren Professor of Government, Harvard University
Anne Norton Stacey and Henry Jackson President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago
Andrew Ollett, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
Kate O’Regan, Professor of Human Rights Law, Director, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford
Giulia Oskian, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University
Anthony Pagden, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Davide Panagia, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Alan Patten, Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Politics; Chair, Department of Politics, Princeton University
Susan Pedersen, Morris Professor of British History, Columbia University
Elizabeth J. Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government; Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University
Jennifer Pitts, Professor of Political Science and Social Thought, University of Chicago
Gyan Prakash, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton University
Lant Pritchett, RISE Research Director, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Hari Ramesh, College Fellow in Social Studies, Harvard University
Aziz F. Rana, Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law, Cornell University
Corey Robin, Associate Professor of Political Science, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Michael Rosen, Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, Harvard University
Nancy L. Rosenblum, Senator Joseph Clark Research Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, emerita, Harvard University
Poulami Roychowdhury, Assistant Professor of Sociology, McGill University
Lucia Rubinelli, Junior Research Fellow in the History of Political Thought, Robinson College, University of Cambridge
Alan Ryan FBA, Emeritus Professor of Political Theory, University of Oxford
Michael J. Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, Harvard University
Shalini Satkunanandan, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California, Davis
Cheryl Saunders, Laureate Professor Emerita of Law, University of Melbourne
Thomas M. Scanlon, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, Emeritus, Harvard University
Melissa Schwartzberg, Professor of Politics, New York University
Joan Wallach Scott, Professor Emerita, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Will Selinger, Lecturer in European History, 1700-1850, University College London
Akhil Sharma, Department of English, Duke University
Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy, Harvard University
Prerna Singh, Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Rogers Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Sophie Smith, Associate Professor of Political Theory and Tutorial Fellow, University College, University of Oxford
Carole Spary, Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Deputy Director, Asia Research Institute, University of Nottingham
Amia Srinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Souls College, University of Oxford
Paul Staniland, Associate Professor of Political Science; Faculty Chair, Committee on International Relations, University of Chicago
Hillel Steiner FBA, Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Manchester
Anna Stilz, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University
Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago
John Tasioulas, Director, Institute for Ethics in AI, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford
Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, McGill University
Tariq Thachil, Director, Center for Advanced Study of India; Madan Lal Sobti Associate Professor for the Study of Contemporary India, University of Pennsylvania
Louise Tillin, Reader in Politics, King’s College London
Richard Tuck, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government, Harvard University
Maya Tudor, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
James Tully, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Victoria
Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard University
Nadia Urbinati, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory, Columbia University
Milan Vaishnav, Senior Fellow and Director, South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Ashutosh Varshney, Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, Brown University
Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Assistant Professor of Science, Technology and International Affairs, Georgetown University
Jeremy Waldron, University Professor, New York University
Patrick Weil, Research Professor, University of Paris1-Sorbonne
Stephen K. White, Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, University of Virginia
Steven Wilkinson, Nilekani Professor of India and South Asian Studies, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Yale University
Melissa Williams, Professor of Political Science, Founding Director, Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Elizabeth Wingrove, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
Jianying Zha, India China Institute, New School for Social Research
