Skip to main content

Historian Audrey Truschke's Hyderabad lecture cancelled under saffron "pressure"

By A Representative
Prominent American historian Audrey Truschke, who has authored the controversial book, "Aurganzeb: The Man and the Myth", has been forced to cancel her lecture in Hyderabad. This is what she wrote on her Facebook timeline:
"I regret to say that my lecture in Hyderabad scheduled for August 11 --titled "Unpopular Stories: Narrating the Indo-Islamic Past and Navigating Present-day Prejudices"-- has been cancelled. The organizers took this decision after being informed by the Hyderabad police that several individuals had written letters protesting my appearance. I saw only one such letter, and it was from an individual with self-admitted connections to the RSS, BJP and BJPM.
"I was to speak to Hyderabad on several areas of my academic research, including Mughal history and Sanskrit literature. I was especially looking forward to talking with Hyderabadis about Aurangzeb's brutal assaults on sultanates in the Deccan in the 1680s and debates concerning what brought about the end of Indian Buddhism in the early second millennium CE. I deeply regret that my presentation and the subsequent exchange of ideas will not occur.
"Today is a sad day for the pursuit of knowledge and academic freedom, and it is a happy day for proponents of the Hindu Rashtra."

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Civil society at a crossroads: Service delivery vs. rights in the fight for social change

Counterview News   In the latest episode of the podcast Unmute , hosts Gagan Sethi and Minar Pimple convened a profound conversation with two veteran development practitioners to dissect a persistent tension within civil society: the perceived divide between service delivery and the struggle for rights. The episode, titled "Beyond Service Delivery: Civil Society, Rights, and the Politics of Social Change," featured Apoorva Oza , a development practitioner with decades of experience in rural development and institution-building, and Professor Dipa Sinha , a development economist known for her work on food, nutrition, gender, and social policy.
Post a Comment
»

Arrests of Odisha activists raise wider concerns over criminalisation of dissent: CASR

By A Representative   A coalition of civil liberties, human rights, student, labour organisations,  Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), has condemned the arrest of Dr. Randall Sequeira, a doctor providing healthcare in Odisha’s Kalahandi and Rayagada districts, and Laxman Nayak, an activist associated with the Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Manch, and demanded their immediate release.
Post a Comment
»

Bangkok IMF-World Bank meetings: New reports put India's debt, climate, accountability crisis in focus

Counterview News   As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded their Annual Meetings in Bangkok this week, civil society groups and policy experts outside the official proceedings released two critical documents challenging the institutions' legacy and prescriptions for Asia, calling for a fundamental overhaul of the global financial architecture.
Post a Comment
»