Book Description

The book 'Why I was expelled from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India is about how a parochial government led by Bhartiya Janata Party and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh are bent upon destroying the academic environment of our campuses in an effort to take them over. This has happened campus after campus. Scholars have been made to leave, humiliated, events of organisations believing in ideology different from the Hindtuva ideology of RSS/BJP have been cancelled on campuses at last moment if they were lucky to get initial permission, students have been suspended, unqualified people belonging to RSS have been appointed to top positions, mythology has been paraded as history/science, research is sought to be controlled, etc., since the BJP government came to power in 2014. In 2016, I was expelled from BHU on charges that my teachings were anti-national, I was a Naxalite sympathiser and I had committed cyber crime by sharing the link of BBC documentary 'India's Daughters' which was banned by Government of India. I went to the Allahabad High Court. In spite of getting a wonderful order which upheld my fundamental right to freedom of expression and supported the idea of respect for diversity of thought by quoting none other than the founder of the University, Madan Mohan Malviya, the Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi, whose academic credentials to hold this high post were suspect, did not let me return to campus. What is happening to our university campuses is part of larger exercise to communalise the society and polarise the voters. In doing so the fascist tendencies of RSS/BJP are killing all spaces of dissent, so essential for any academic activity. The BHU VC thought that the only reason why students needed a 24 hours internet facility was to be able to watch pornography. The mindset of people in power since 2014 has been anti-intellectual and is causing permanent damage to our academic institutions. The book has been written to share these concerns so that the fight against retrograde forces could be strengthened, not only to save the academic campuses but also the larger society. The liberal values of liberty, equality, justice, fraternity-sorority and the entire Constitution is under threat today. A basic question is confronting Indian society today, whether democracy will survive or not? It is hoped that the book will contribute in some way towards this larger struggle.