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| Faculty Letter to California State University, Long Beach |
March 17, 2005
Dr. Arnold P. Kaminsky
Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies
Dr. John Tsuchida
Professor and Chair of Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-1002
Dear Professor Kaminsky and Professor Tsuchida:
As South Asian faculty and specialists on the region, we are disturbed to learn that the Asian and Asian American Studies Department of California State University, Long Beach, has invited Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the Yadunandan Center for India Studies on 22 March 2005. We believe that you may not be in possession of all the facts about Mr. Modi, and urge you in the strongest possible words to withdraw his invitation to inaugurate the new Center for Indian Studies on your campus.
In Gujarat, between February 28-March 02, 2002, under Narendra Modi's leadership, more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, aided and abetted by the state. In the aftermath, 200,000 people have been rendered homeless and internally displaced. Today, three years after the event, the victims of the violence still await justice and reparations. Mr. Modi not only failed to take preventative measures against those who were planning the violence with his knowledge, but undertook a series of actions which either tacitly or explicitly condoned the brutal violence, which included torture of children and mass rapes of women.
Numerous inquiries and commissions, including the Indian National Human Rights Commission, have condemned the role of the Government of Gujarat headed by Mr. Modi which provided leadership and material support in the politically motivated attacks on minorities in Gujarat in 2002. The European Union, and every major Indian and international human rights organization: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Commonwealth Initiative for Human Rights, Citizen's Initiative, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), have condemned the Gujarat genocide, and pointed to the complicity of the Government of Gujarat in the violence. The interim report of the Justice U.C. Banerjee Commission has concluded that the fire in coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express, which resulted in the deaths of 59 people, was an accident, and not a terrorist attack on Hindu pilgrims as the State Government of Gujarat claimed in its attempt to justify the violence.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States Department of State released a report on International Religious Freedom in 2002, pointing to the culpability of the Government of Gujarat in the violence, its violations of human rights and religious freedoms, and the targeting of other minority groups, such as Christians, following the event.
As you may know, there has also been bi-partisan support in the United States for human rights in Gujarat. Former President Clinton condemned the events in Gujarat, and Congressman Pitts (R-PA) addressed the United States House of Representatives on June 18, 2002, condemning the premeditated brutality in Gujarat and acknowledging insufficient action on the part of the United States. Mr. Joseph R. Pitts also conveyed that Hindu extremist groups receive some of their funds from charities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Research undertaken by two independent groups, the Campaign To Stop Funding Hate and South Asia Watch Ltd, have demonstrated as well that Hindu nationalist organizations supporting Mr. Modi in Gujarat have corresponding organizations in the United States, that undertake fundraising to sustain the work of Hindu fundamentalism in India. Mr. Modi is on such a fundraising trip to the United States now.
Under Mr. Modi's leadership, more than 2,000 of 4,000 cases filed by the victims of the violence were never investigated or dismissed, leading the Supreme Court of India to rebuke both the Gujarat judiciary and the Government of Gujarat for its handling of the cases, and transferring several cases out of the state for trial. Three years later, the Government of Gujarat continues to harass and discriminate against its Christian and Muslim minority populations, as well as other marginalized groups with new policies and skewed application of existing laws. For these reasons, Mr. Modi is in violation of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as well as other international laws and should be denied a visa to enter the United States.
Please also realize that Mr. Modi, apart from his position as Chief Minister of Gujarat, is also a volunteer or pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS has been responsible since its inception in 1925 for propagating a politics of hate and violence against non-Hindu minorities and for its agenda of racist Hindu supremacism. M.S. Golwalkar, one of the ideologues of the RSS, explicitly endorsed Hitler's campaign against the Jews in Germany, calling it a form of "race pride" India should emulate. An RSS member assassinated Gandhi on January 30, 1948, and the organization has been banned in India more than once for its incendiary activity.
The line between hate speech and free speech can be blurred, and U.S. courts have often struggled to define this line. We wish to make it clear that we are not against free speech: one can imagine contexts where it might be productive to see RSS representatives debate its views. This is not, however, the program that Cal State Long Beach has organized. By inviting an elected official and RSS member who has been indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity in India to inaugurate the program in Indian Studies at Cal State Long Beach you are unwittingly helping to sanitize Mr. Modi's image, even as you are compromising the academic integrity of the new Center for India Studies all of us who are South Asia faculty would like to fully support. Many of us, as South Asia specialists, are particularly concerned by the attempt of Hindu nationalist organizations to gain access to college campuses and universities by endowing India centers and programs of study. Mr. Modi has utilized his position of leadership to foster campaigns of violence and discrimination toward minority communities in Gujarat. He hardly represents the kind of image a university should project to its students, faculty and larger campus community. Please think through carefully the ramifications of offering an RSS pracharak an open invitation to a U.S. university, which in India will be seen as putting a U.S. stamp of approval on RSS political campaigns. We strongly urge Cal State Long Beach to rescind Mr. Modi's invitation next week, and to consider reorganizing another event where the RSS viewpoint can be counterbalanced by different perspectives from the community, including those who contest the idea that "Hindutva" has any meaningful relationship to "Hinduness" or Hinduism, and where the historical record about the RSS in India can be discussed by journalists and scholars who have studied the organization.
Thank you for your consideration. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like further information.
Contact Person: Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, University of California,
Los Angeles (310) 206.0572 (ask for Anju Relan); (818)990.1719
Signed,
- Ravina Aggarwal, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Smith College
- Meena Alexander, Distinguished Professor of English, Hunter College and the Graduate Centre, City University of New York
- Arjun Appadurai, Provost and John Dewey Professor of the Social Sciences, The New School University
- Anjali Arondekar, Assistant Professor of Women's Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Brian Keith Axel, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Swarthmore College
- Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley
- Amrita Basu, Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College
- Dilip Basu, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Srimati Basu, Associate Professor of Anthropology, DePauw University
- Manu Bhagavan, Assistant Professor of History, Hunter College, CUNY
- Rajesh Bhaskaran, Director of Swanson Engineering Simulation Program, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University
- Purnima Bose, Associate Professor of English and India Studies, Indiana University
- Paul R. Brass, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and South Asian Studies, University of Washington
- Carol Breckenridge, Associate Professor of History, New School University
- Christopher Candland, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College and Principal Advisor, U.S Department of State, Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy
- Paula Chakravartty, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Massachussetts, Amherst
- Sharad Chari, Lecturer in Geography, London School of Economics
- S.Charusheela, Associate Professor of Womens Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa
- Indrani Chatterjee, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University
- Piya Chatterjee, Associate Professor, Dept of Women's Studies, University of California-Riverside
- Angana Chatterji, Associate professor of Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies
- Lawrence Cohen, Director, Medical Anthropology Program Depts. of Anthropology and of South & Southeast Asian Studies University of California Berkeley
- Frank F. Conlon, Professor Emeritus of History & South Asian Studies, University of Washington
- Vasudha Dalmia, Professor of South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
- Veena Das, Professor of Anthropology, The Johns Hopkins University
- Leela Fernandes, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University
- Shelley Feldman, Professor of Development Sociology, Cornell University
- Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching Professor, State University of New York Oswego
- Keya Ganguly, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota
- Bishnupriya Ghosh, Associate Professor, English, UC Davis
- Gautam Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, South Asian Studies and International Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
- Stewart Gordon, Visiting Professor, Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan
- Manu Goswami, Assistant Professor of History, New York University
- Paul Greenough, Professor of History, University of Iowa
- Inderpal Grewal, Professor, Women's Studies, Unversity of California, Irvine
- Sumit Guha, Professor of History, Rutgers University,
- Mary Hancock, Associate Professor of History and Anthropology University of California, Santa Barbara
- Hans Henrich Hock, Professor of Sanskri, University of Illinois, Chamapign-Urbana
- Robert A. Hueckstedt, Professor of Sanskrit, University of Virginia
- Syed Akbar Hyder, Assitant Professor of South Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin
- Priya Joshi, Associate Professor, English, University of California, Berkeley
- Sangeeta Kamat Associate Professor of Education, UMASS Amherst.
- Sampath Kannan, Professor of Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania
- Shuchi Kapila Assistant Prof. of English Grinnell College
- Suvir Kaul, Professor of English and Director, South Asia Center, University of Pennsylvania
- Dane Kennedy , Elmer Louis Kayser Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University
- Satish Kolluri, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Pace University, New York
- Smitu Kothari, Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
- Amitava Kumar, Associate of Professor, English, Pennsylvania State University
- Nita Kumar, Visiting Professor of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Priya Kumar, Assistant Professor of English, University of Iowa, Iowa City
- Jayati Lal, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, University of Michigan.
- Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles
- Smita Lahiri, Asst Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
- David Lelyveld, Professor of History, William Paterson University
- Ania Loomba, Professor of English and South Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- Ritty Lukose, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
- Bakirathi Mani, Assistant Professor of English Literature, Swarthmore College
- McKim Marriott, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and South Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Chicago
- Biju Matthew, Associate Professor of Management, Rider College of Business
- Sucheta Mazumdar, Professor of History, Duke University
- Ernestine McHugh, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Religion, University of Rochester
- Monika Mehta, Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies and Radio, Television and Film, University of Texas, Austin
- Kalyani Devaki Menon, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, DePaul University
- Christi A Merrill, Assistant Professor of South Asian Literature, University of Michigan
- Sally Engle Merry, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas, Department of Anthropology Wellesley College
- Zia Mian, Research Scientist, Program on Science and Global Security Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Princeton University
- Ali Mir, Associate Professor of Management, Cotsakos College of Business, William Paterson University
- Raza Mir, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, Cotsakos College of Business, William Paterson University
- Joya Misra, Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
- Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Professor of Women's Studies and Dean's Professor of the Humanities, Syracuse University
- Satya P. Mohanty, Professor of English, Cornell University
- Radhika Mongia, Assistant Professor, Department of Women's Studies, UC-Santa Cruz
- Richa Nagar, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Vijaya Nagarajan, Associate Professor, Departments of Religious Studies, Environmental Studies, University of San Francisco
- Savita Nair, Assistant Professor of History, Furman University
- Mira Nair, Professor of Film, Columbia University
- Velcheru Narayana Rao, Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Longman Professor of English, Oberlin College
- Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago
- Rupal Oza, Assistant Professor of geography, Hunter College, CUNY
- Geeta Patel, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, Wellesley College
- Brian K. Pennington, Associate Professor of Religion, Maryville College
- William R. (Vijay) Pinch, Associate Professor of History, Wesleyan University
- Sheldon Pollock, George V. Bobinskroy Professor of Sanskrit, South Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Chicago
- Steven Poulos, Director, South Asia Language Resource Center, the University of Chicago
- Vijay Prashad, Associate Professor of History and Director of the International Studies Program, Trinity College
- Gautam Premnath, Assistant Professor of English, University of California at Berkeley
- Jyoti Puri, Associate Professor, Sociology, Simmons College
- R. Radhakrishan, Professor of Literature and Chair, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Irvine
- Gloria Goodwin Raheja, Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
- S. Ravi Rajan, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Aneil Rallin, Assistant Professor of English and Center for Academic Writing, York University
- Junaid Rana, Assitant Professor of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
- Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Ford International Assistant Professor of Law and Development Director, MIT Program on Human Rights & Justice
- Anupama Rao, South Asian History, Barnard College
- Ashwini Rao, Assistant Professor, Columbia University
- Nagesh Rao, Assistant Professor of English, Wake Forest University
- Kasturi Ray, Assistant Professor, Global Studies, Sarah Lawrence College
- Raka Ray, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
- Sandra Robinson, Professor of Asian Studies, Sarah Lawrence College
- Anindyo Roy Associate Professor of English, Colby College, Waterville, Maine
- Parama Roy, Associate Professor of English, University of California, Riverside
- Modhumita Roy, Professor of English, Tufts University
- Lloyd I. Rudolph, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of Chicago
- Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, of Political Science Emeritus, University of Chicago
- Sharmila Rudrappa, Assistant Professor of Sociology and the Center for Asian American Studies, University of Texas, Austin
- Bhaskar Sarkar, Assistant Professor of Film Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Mahua Sarkar, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY Binghampton
- Simona Sawhney, Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota
- Sabina Sawhney, Associate Professor, English, Hofstra University
- Malini Johar Schueller, Professor, Department of English, University of Florida
- Martha Selby, Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin
- Sharmila Sen, Assistant Professor of English, Harvard University
- Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks Associate Professor of English and Director, of Women's Studies Program, Boston College
- Nayan Shah, Associate Professsor of History, University of California San Diego
- Richard Shapiro, Associate Professor and Chair, Anthropology Department, California Institute of Integral Studies
- Aradhana Sharma, Asst. Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies, Wesleyan University
- Jenny Sharpe, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles
- Zoe Sherinian, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Oklahoma
- Amritjit Singh, Professor of English & Director of African and African American Studies, Rhode Island College
- Nikhil Pal Singh, Associate Professor of History, University of Washington, Seattle
- Mrinalini Sinha, Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies, Penn State University
- Ajay Skaria, Associate Professor, Global Studies and History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
- Nidhi Srinivas, Assistant Professor, Nonprofit Management Milano School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University
- Ajantha Subramanian, Asst. Professor of Anthropology and Social Studies, Harvard University
- Narendra Subramanian, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University
- Abha Sur, Lecturer, Program in Women's Studies, MIT
- Mriganka Sur, Professor, Program in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
- Rachel Sturman, Assistant Professor of History & Asian Studies, Bowdoin College
- David S. Thomas, Professor of History, Rhode Island College
- Jyotsna Vaid, Professor of Psychology, Texas A&M University
- Gauri Viswanathan, Class of 1933 Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
- Kamala Visweswaran, Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin
- David Gordon White, Chair, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Joanna Williams, Professor, History of Art & South/Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Cc:
Dr. Charles B. Reed
Chancellor
California State University
401 Golden Shore
Long Beach, CA 90802-4210
Mr. Robert C. Maxson
President, California State University, Long Beach
Office of the President
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
BH 300
Long Beach CA 90840-0115
Mr. Aristide J. Collins
Vice President, University Relations and Development
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
BH 387
Long Beach CA 90840-0115
If you are an academic and would like to sign this letter, please send a note to Dr.Angana Chatterji.
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