Tag Archives: Higher Education

A study of response to suicides of Dalit students

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A study of the responses to suicides by Dalit and other marginalised students in higher educational institutions in India throws up a disturbing picture of a deeply casteist society. Not just the government, but the college administrations, the police, the health system and non-State players such as the media and the civil society, have reacted in prejudicial and problematic ways to the 25-30 suicide cases reported in the past decade.

While in the immediate aftermath of a suicide the attempt had been to hush up the matters, once the college admits that there was one, what then follows is a long drawn painful battle for the family of the deceased to bring out the truth behind it. Wherever enquiry committees were set up by college administrations to probe the cause of death, it was only after constant follow up and pressure from the family or friends. Many of these reports are yet to be filed or made public, even several years after more suicides were reported from the same institutions. The parents and family members of these students, still await closure.

A case in point is that of Indian Institution of Technology (IIT) Bombay. In September 2014, Aniket Ambhore, 22 was found dead below a six-storey hostel building. At first, the institution tried to hush up the matter as a freak accident and were hesitating to term it ‘suicide’. In their quest for an explanation for his death, his parents wrote to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) but got no response. Only after they managed to get their Member of Parliament to raise the issue in Rajya Sabha, a probe committee was set up. The larger campus community was not informed that the committee had been set up and people close to him were not interviewed to judge the veracity of the caste slurs he suffered, says Kranthi Kumar, member of the Dalit student’s body on campus, Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle(i). Students themselves had to approach the authorities to submit their statements.

Dalit student Aniket Ambhore's parents during an interaction with media.

Dalit student Aniket Ambhore’s parents during an interaction with media. Image Courtesy : Mid Day.

Explaining the kind of institutionalised discrimination on campus, Kranthi says, “Students who have a work backlog are sent to counsellors and enrolled in Academic Rehabilitation Program(ARP) where some of them are treated for depression and made to have anti-depressants. Most in ARP are Dalits who are made to feel they don’t deserve to be in IIT.” Aniket was made to enrol in ARP and was worried about his academic performance as is known through the letters he wrote to his supervisor. His parents, Sunita and Sanjay, went to meet Prof Narayanan, who was heading the ARP in April 2012 to inquire about Aniket’s position. In their testimony, the parents said, “In that meeting, Narayanan asked Aniket his JEE rank (which was 7242, and his category rank was 92) and then spoke to him in a humiliating manner, “How did you get admission here, do you know? Because of reservation. You will have to work harder since you are from a category. This is not a chocolate that everybody can have.” He also mentioned in that meeting that any JEE rank beyond 3000 is useless. Then he told us in a harsh tone, in front of Aniket, “You take him away from here. He will not be able to cope here. He will be happy in other normal engineering colleges….” and in a discouraging manner he simply told us to take Aniket away from IITB. Hearing these statements we told Prof Narayanan that his comments were demotivating and that he was being unfair to Aniket by dismissing him as a weak student. He then remarked, “These people take 7-8 years to clear the course and waste whole lives here. “These comments were disturbing for us since such a senior faculty member was making such casteist remarks about Aniket’s academic ability.”

The report submitted by psychiatrist Dr Rajendra Barve, of Parivartan in April 2015, based on his sessions with Aniket during 2014 also states that Aniket felt discriminated at the institution. “Apart from his difficulties as a person during the course of therapy he expressed that he was experiencing casteist feelings about belonging to a particular caste. He also mentioned that he found interacting with some professors at IIT painful. He expressed his desire to earn his success on his own merits and not based on caste and socioeconomic circumstances. He recalled comments and felt humiliated when a professor suggested that he should drop out.” That no action has taken place based on these testimonies, or nobody has been asked to explain themselves publicly, exposes how lightly the institution takes accountability. This also exposes an acute lack of will to course correct within the teaching community in IIT, despite multiple suicides. Or simply that casteism is so entrenched amongst them that they refuse to admit guilt by one of their own. The students say that the committee report on Ambhore has been submitted and that the institution is reluctant to make it public but the same could not be verified as the committee members were unavailable for comment. Aniket’s mother, Sunita wrote a moving letter to Rohith Vemula’s family and friends highlighting the direct as well as “hidden casteism” that took the lives of both these promising young men.

Victims of Systemic Casteism

In July 2015, a B.Tech student from Haryana committed suicide by consuming chemicals. He was a victim of a case of backlogs, ARP and depression. In Nov 2008, two videographers Nitin Kamble and Narendra Divekar, attempted suicide over caste slurs allegedly hurled at them over several months by the Centre for Distance Engineering Education Program’s web director Rahul Deshmukh. And afterwards, in May and June 2015, a third-year chemical engineering student and a 23-year-old pursuing MTech in Earth Sciences attempted suicides, respectively. There have been several students, who after experiencing systemic forms of caste discrimination on campus, leave the place and the course itself.

The commonality in these deaths is the urge to brand the deceased to be suffering from depression. They tried to say Aniket was depressed, Shrikant Malepula, who committed suicide in 2007 in IIT Bombay was depressed. Not just college administration but media experts are also quick to brand Dalit suicides as cases of depression. Manu Joseph, a columnist in a leading newspaper came under severe flak for insinuating that Rohith Vemula had died of depression and not oppression. Noted journalist and Magsaysay awardee P Sainath, amongst others, at a speech in HCU, called him out for trying to brand all farmer suicides and Dalit suicides in this country as products of depression. “why are some classes and castes in society more depressed than everyone else? But, there is a more cruel and venomous insinuation in this: This is not emotional depression, they are treating it as a mental health issue…this is inborn.”Soon after, the social media was abound with hashtags of ManuSmriti (combining Manu Joseph’s first name and the first name of Smriti Irani the current HRD minister, thus a convenient combination of Manusmriti the code of law which dehumanizes women and members of oppressed sections of the society was made.

Most of these deaths have been of students in the science or technical streams and particularly the IITs and National Institute of Technologies (NITs). We spoke to students across these campuses and found that the incidence of casual taunts and caste slurs towards students who get into these institutions via reservation, by professors and fellow students is phenomenally high. To begin with, there is tremendous work pressure on students who make it to these institutions and the accompanied discrimination, is what may lead to some students feeling anxious or depressed but that does not mean they are all going to commit suicide. “It is not because professors are bad or anything, but they are ignorant about how to deal with students from different backgrounds. They have such little knowledge outside of their research sphere. What is needed is a sensitisation program to educate professors across campuses on how to deal with SC/ST /OBC, religious minority, queer and other students,” says Phanendra Srikanth, student IIT Bombay.

Amongst the IITs, Kanpur is by far the most notorious for suicides. Eight were recorded between 2005-10 and an RTI query revealed that no enquiry committee was formed to probe these cases. Instead, a fact finding team was put in place to find the reason for the suicides but none was found. The institute said, in its reply to the RTI query, that they can’t reveal the findings of the committee to media or public as it was an internal matter. As preventive measures, the IIT panel suggested yoga classes, to replace ceiling fans with table fans and reduce the speed of the internet! How this will help students from feeling better and not committing suicide is beyond logical comprehension.

Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's mother and brother during a protest meeting held in Hyderabad.

Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s mother and brother during a protest meeting held in Hyderabad. Image Courtesy : India Today.

Not always are the recommendations of committees so bizarre and completely off the mark. Noteworthy is the Vinod Pavarala committee that was set up after the death of Senthil Kumar, PHD student in School of Physics, HCU in 2008 and gave several recommendations for admissions, allotment of supervisors and actual process of supervision. It said, “Overall, there is a need for all faculty members to internalize greater sensitivity about students belonging to the reserved categories, including those from other socially and educationally backward classes. Rather than being impervious to caste and other markers of inequality in our society, it is important to be pro-active in mentoring and advising of students who come from less privileged backgrounds, both in the classroom and outside. At a time when ‘access and equity’ in higher education are the watchwords of the government and the UGC, it is imperative that a top-ranking central institution such as ours takes a lead in nurturing and promoting a corps of scientists from among the marginalized sections of our society.” In the wake of Rohith Vemula’s death, how many of these recommendations were taken seriously by the teachers, remains a pertinent question.

The role of the media is the most questionable amongst all other institutions. Most of these deaths did not find enough column space in mainstream dailies and faded from public memory precisely because the media did not follow up on further actions. The media has always functioned as a watchdog of afflicted tragedies and seldom as an accountable estate as far as these deaths go. On other matters of Dalits, they are laden with suspicion. A recent report in a leading newspaper on the amendments to the SC/ST POA Act, read like an alarm bell, insisting that the Act was bound to be misused. Such biased depiction does not help the cause of correctly informing the public about the real situation of marginalised people in the country. A political commentator remarked caustically that most laws in this country are misused, especially traffic laws, so should we do away with all of them? Whatever legal provisions are put in place first, one has to accept that caste discrimination thrives in society and thereby also exists in our higher educational institutions. Only then, the safeguards put in place can work.

In stark contrast to these responses, the response of international academics, in one instance led by Rupa Viswanath, Professor of Indian Religions, University of Göttingen, Germany restores some hope in the role larger society can effectively play. In an open letter to the Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad, 275 from the global scholarly community without mincing any words demanded that “the authorities at the University of Hyderabad to immediately reinstate Rohith Vemula’s four peers, to provide support to his family, and to launch a police investigation into his passing. But that is not enough. The University of Hyderabad must ensure not only that justice be done now, but that further injustice be rigorously prevented.”

This blog post is written by Divya Trivedi.

Divya is a New Delhi based journalist covering social issues among other things. 

Images courtesy : India Today and Mid Day.

Open Letter to the University of Hyderabad Vice Chancellor on Rohith Vemula

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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad

We of the global scholarly community make an urgent appeal that justice be done in the most recent case of caste discrimination in Indian higher education, that of the University of Hyderabad’s prejudicial suspension of five young Dalit men pursuing PhDs. It was ordered under political pressure, without even allowing the young men in question to speak in their own defense.  It directly contravened an earlier decision made by the University administration itself, which had exonerated them of any charges of wrongdoing—charges which had been trumped up by political rivals opposed to the activism of these young men.

This prejudice has now exacted a terrible price. One of the five, a scholar of great promise, Rohith Vemula, committed suicide on January 17. Unable to bear the despair of having his one chance at a future snatched from him, of his value being reduced, in his own eloquent parting words, to nothing but “a vote” and “an immediate identity,” he took his own life (see https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/letter-should-shake-our-world-dalit-scholar-suicide-triggers-outrage ). As scholars we know that individual actions are never just that. This suicide is not an individual act. It is the failure of higher educational institutions in democratic India to meet their most basic obligation: to foster the intellectual and personal growth of India’s most vulnerable young people. Instead, Rohith now joins a long list of victims of prejudice at premier institutions in the country, where pervasive discrimination drives so many Dalit students to depression and suicide, when not simply forcing them to quietly drop out.

As international scholars of South Asia, we ask the authorities at the University of Hyderabad to immediately reinstate Mr. Vemula’s four peers, to provide support to his family, and to launch a police investigation into his passing. But that is not enough. The University of Hyderabad must ensure not only that justice be done now, but that further injustice be rigorously prevented. It is vital to the life of any academic institution to actively nurture students exactly like Rohith, whose contribution to civic life and healthy political debate made the university the place of learning and personal transformation it should be. Measures must be implemented to ensure that such students are supported and allowed to thrive when they enter what is all too often the hostile, casteist environment of higher education in India.  A university where students turn away from life with the regularity they have at the University of Hyderabad requires urgent and massive rehauling.

The involvement of political leaders in buttressing caste discrimination in Indian universities, and the double standards applied by university administrations to anti-caste student activity, directly contribute to the negative reputation India is earning among scholars worldwide. We urge the University of Hyderabad to restore our confidence by living up to its obligation to end institutionalized discrimination, to educate all students in a climate of respect and empathy, and to resist political pressures to do otherwise. We are all watching.

  1. Rupa Viswanath, Professor of Indian Religions, University of Göttingen, Germany
  2. Joel Lee, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Williams College, USA
  3. Dwaipayan Sen, Assistant Professor of History, Amherst College, USA
  4. Nathaniel Roberts, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany
  5. Gajendran Ayyathurai, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Göttingen, Germany
  6. David Mosse, Professor, SOAS University of London, UK.
  7. Karthikeyan Damodaran, PhD Scholar, University of Edinburg, UK.
  8. Hugo Gorringe, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK.
  9. T. Dharmaraj, Visiting Professor, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany
  10. Ania Loomba, Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
  11. Lalit Vachani, Research Fellow, Center for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany
  12. Srirupa Roy, Professor of State and Democracy, Center for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany
  13. Christophe Jaffrelot, Dr., CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, France
  14. Suvir Kaul, A. M. Rosenthal Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USA
  15. Frank J. Korom, Professor of Religion and Anthropology, Boston University, USA
  16. John Harriss, Professor, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  17. Dilip Menon, Professor and Director, Centre for Indian Studies, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
  18. Raka Ray, Professor of Sociology and South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
  19. Jonathan Spencer, Regius Professor of South Asian Language, Culture and Society, University of Edinburgh, UK
  20. Constantine Nakassis, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago, USA
  21. Sankaran Krishna, Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii-Manoa, USA
  22. Chandra Mallampalli, Professor of History, Westmont College, USA
  23. Timothy Lubin, Professor, Washington and Lee University, USA
  24. Linda Hess, Senior Lecturer, Stanford University, USA
  25. Auritro Majumder, Assistant Professor, University of Houston, USA
  26. P. Bagavandoss, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, USA.
  27. Shirin Rai, Professor of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK.
  28. Indira Arumugam, Assistant Professor of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  29. Michele Friedner, Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University, New York, USA
  30. Dibyesh Anand, Associate Professor, University of Westminster, UK
  31. Ravinder Kaur, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
  32. James Caron, Lecturer in Islamicate South Asia, SOAS, University of London, UK.
  33. Francis Cody, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada.
  34. Christopher Taylor, Assistant Professor of English, University of Chicago, USA
  35. Alpa Shah, Associate Professor (Reader) of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
  36. Bishnupriya Ghosh, Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
  37. Gloria Goodwin Raheja, Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, USA
  38. Anjali Arondekar, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
  39. Nosheen Ali, Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan
  40. Vazira Zamindar, Associate Professor of History, Brown University, USA
  41. Kavita Philip, Professor of History, University of California at Irvine, USA
  42. Bhavani Raman, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Canada.
  43. Subir Sinha, Development Studies, SOAS, London, UK.
  44. Francesca Orsini, Professor, SOAS, London, UK.
  45. Gilbert Achcar, Professor, SOAS, London, UK.
  46. Nilanjan Sarkar, Deputy Director, South Asia Center, LSE, UK.
  47. Jon Wilson, Senior Lecturer in History, King’s College, London, UK.
  48. Peter van der Veer, Director and Professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany.
  49. Tam Ngo, Researcher, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany
  50. Shakuntala Banaji, Lecturer, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  51. Meena Dhanda, Reader in Philosophy and Cultural Politics, University of Wolverhampton, UK
  52. Goldie Osuri, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK.
  53. Shana Sippy, Visiting Scholar, Carleton College, USA
  54. Sarah Hodges, Associate Professor, University of Warwick, UK
  55. Mukulika Banerjee, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director, South Asia Centre, London School of Economics, UK
  56. Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor, MCC and Galatin, New York University, USA
  57. Narendra Subramanian, Professor of Political Science, McGill University, Canada, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany.
  58. Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor, University of Warwick
  59. Rashmi Varma, Associate Professor, University of Warwick, UK
  60. Uday Chandra, Assistant Professor of Government, Georgetown University, Qatar
  61. Anupama Rao, Associate Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA
  62. Neena Mahadev, Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany.
  63. Nusrat S. Chowdhury, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Amherst College, USA
  64. Kavin Paulraj, Lecturer, Saint Mary’s College of California, USA
  65. Asiya Alam, History Department, Louisiana State University, USA
  66. Ananya Chakravarti, Assistant Professor of History, Georgetown University
  67. Jesse Knutson, Assistant Professor of Sanskrit, University of Hawaii Manoa
  68. Gopal Balakrishnan, Professor, History of Consciousness, University of California Santa Cruz, USA
  69. Geir Heierstad, Research Director, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Norway
  70. Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Coordinator, Norwegian Network for Asian Studies, Norway.
  71. Andrew Liu, Assistant Professor of History, Villanova University, USA
  72. Toussaint Losier, Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.
  73. Pinky Hota, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Smith College, Northampton MA
  74. Madhumita Lahiri, Assistant Professor of English, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
  75. Juned Shaikh, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
  76. Neilesh Bose, Canada Research Chair in Global and Comparative History University of Victoria
  77. Lawrence Cohen, Professor and Director, Institute of South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  78. John Holmwood, Professor of Sociology, University of Nottingham, UK.
  79. Balmurli Natrajan, Associate Professor, William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA.
  80. Richard Alexander, Lecturer in Financial Law, SOAS University of London, UK.
  81. Eleanor Newbigin, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London
  82. Chinnaiah Jangam, Assistant Professor of History, Carleton University, Canada.
  83. Matthew J Nelson, Reader in Politics, SOAS, University of London.
  84. Sîan Hawthorne,Lecturer in Critical Theory & the Study of Religions, SOAS, London, UK.
  85. Amrita Shodhan, SOAS, University of London, UK.
  86. Michael Hutt Professor and Director, SOAS South Asia Institute, University of London, UK
  87. Jonathan Goodhand, Professor in Conflict and Development Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK
  88. Nitasha Kaul, Author and academic, University of Westminster, London.
  89. Deepankar Basu, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  90. Somak Biswas, Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, University of Warwick, UK
  91. Michael Levien, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, USA
  92. Nilisha Vashist, M.Phil/PhD student, University College London, UK
  93. Rama Mantena, Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
  94. Sohini Kar, Assistant Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  95. Dr. Jacob Copeman, Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh.
  96. Dr. Priyamvada Gopal, Cambridge University, UK.
  97. Carole Spary, Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham, UK.
  98. James Putzel, Professor of Development Studies, LSE, UK.
  99. Romola Sanyal,  Assistant Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  100. Dr Barnita Bagchi, Literary Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands.
  101. Dag Erik Berg, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany.
  102. Dr Kalpana Wilson, London School of Economics, UK
  103. Chetan Bhatt, Professor, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  104. Rahul Rao, Senior Lecturer in Politics, SOAS, University of London, UK
  105. Dr Alan Bullion, The Open University, UK
  106. Katharine Adeney, Professor and Director of the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies, University of Nottingham, UK
  107. Dr. Mara Matta, Modern Literatures of the Indian Subcontinent, SAPIENZA Università di Roma, Italy
  108. Pritam Singh, Professor of Economics, Oxford Brookes University, UK.
  109. Dr. Sunil Kumar, Lecturer, London School of Economics, UK
  110. Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  111. Richa Nagar, Professor, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA
  112. Mary Kaldor, Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  113. David Lewis, Professor of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  114. Dr. Suthaharan Nadarajah, Lecturer, SOAS, University of London
  115. Dr. Navtej Purewal, SOAS, University of London, UK
  116. Shruti Sinha, Toulouse School of Economics, France.
  117. Robert Cassen, Professor
  118. Apurba Kundu, Deputy Dean, Anglia Ruskin University, UK.
  119. Rachel McDermott, Associate Professor of Religion, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA.
  120. Dr. Clarinda Still, Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, University of Oxford, UK
  121. Chad M. Bauman, Associate Professor of Religion, Butler University, USA.
  122. Nandini Bhattacharya, Lecturer in History, University of Dundee, UK
  123. Vijay Prashad, Professor, Trinity College, USA and Chief Editor, LeftWord Books.
  124. Lucinda Ramberg, Assistant Professor, Cornell University, USA.
  125.  Pippa Virdee, Senior Lecturer in Modern South Asian History, De Montfort University, UK.
  126. Andrew J. Nicholson, Associate Professor, State University of New York, Stony Brook
  127. Dr. Teena Purohit, Department of Religion, Boston University.
  128. Sahana Bajpaie, Instructor in Bengali, SOAS, University of London, UK.
  129. M. V. Ramana, Physicist, Princeton University, USA
  130. Andrew Sartori, Professor of History, New York University, USA
  131. Shailaja Paik, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati, USA.
  132. Jayadev Athreya, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Washington, USA.
  133. Ajantha Subramanian, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, Harvard University
  134. Sumeet Mhaskar, Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany.
  135. Whitney Cox, Associate Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, USA.
  136. Nandini Deo, Associate Professor of Political Science, Lehigh University, USA.
  137. Dia Da Costa, Associate Professor, University of Alberta, Canada.
  138. Debjani Bhattacharyya, Assistant. Professor, Drexel University, USA
  139. Yogesh Chandrani, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Colorado College, USA
  140. Projit Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
  141. Tejaswini Ganti, Associate Professor, Anthropology, New York University
  142. Amit R. Baishya, Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma, USA.
  143. Tsitsi Jaji, Associate Professor, Duke University, USA.
  144. Pulikesi C. Rajangam, Faculty Assistant, Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
  145. Sharika Thiranagama, Assistant Professor of Anthropology , Stanford University
  146. Benjamin Siegel, Assistant Professor of History, Boston University, USA.
  147. Shefali Chandra, Associate Professor of South Asian History, Washington University in St. Louis, USA.
  148. Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey, Assistant Professor, Alma College, USA.
  149. Kasturi Ray, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University, USA
  150. Nandita Sharma, Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
  151. Malarvizhi Jayant, PhD Student, University of Chicago, USA
  152. Martha Ann Selby, Professor of South Asian Studies and Chair of Department of Asian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
  153. Dr Sumeet Jain, Lecturer in Social Work, University of Edinburgh, UK
  154. Nandita Sharma, Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
  155. Sanjukta Das Gupta, Associate Professor, Department of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
  156. Priyanka Srivastava, Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
  157. Sujani Reddy, Associate Professor of American Studies, State University of New York Old Westbury, USA
  158. J A Hernández Carrillo, Associate Professor of History, The University of Houston, USA
  159. Carmel Christy, Fulbright-Nehru visiting scholar, Department of History, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
  160. Johan Mathew, Departments of History and Economics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA
  161. Rukmini Barua, PhD Candidate, University of Göttingen, Germany
  162. Romina Robles Ruvalcaba, Lecturer, California State University, Long Beach
  163. Aditya Sarkar, Assistant Professor, History Department, Warwick University, UK
  164. Chandak Sengoopta, Professor of History, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
  165. Tarini Bedi, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
  166. Urmitapa Dutta, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA
  167. Shweta Moorthy, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Northern Illinois University, USA
  168. Daniel Rudin, Reserch Scholar, Film and Digital Media, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
  169. Indrajit Roy ESRC Research Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK.
  170. Jacob Kovalio, Professor of Japanese/Chinese/Asian History/Studies

Carleton University, Canada

  1. Mayur Suresh, Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK.
  2. Divya Cherian, Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University, USA.
  3. Dr Jayeeta Sharma, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
  4. Kalyani Devaki Menon, Associate Professor, DePaul University, USA
  5. Renisa Mawani, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of British Columbia, Canada
  6. Ajay Parasram, Doctoral Candidate and Lecturer Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Canada
  7. Raza Mir, Professor of Management, William Paterson University, USA
  8. Deborah Nurse, PhD Candidate, Carleton University, USA.
  9. Pratik Chakrabarti, Professor of History of Science and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK
  10. Ambarien Alqadar, Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
  11. Kajri Jain, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
  12. Praseeda Gopinath, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA

  1. Prof. Shubhra Gururani, Associate Professor, Anthropology, York University, Canada.
  2. Sourit Bhattacharya, Doctoral candidate and seminar tutor, English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK
  3. Dr Satoshi Miyamura, Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London, UK
  4. Shrikant Botre, PhD  student, University of Warwick, UK.
  5. Deepa Kurup, MPhil candidate, Oxford University, UK.
  6. Sarah Pierce Taylor, Visiting Instructor of Religion, Mount Holyoke College, USA.
  7. Clement Bayetti, PhD Student, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, UK.
  8. Gayatri Reddy, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, UK
  9. Nancy Rose Hunt, Professor of History, University of Michigan, USA.
  10. Manuel Capella, PhD student, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, UK
  11. Nicole D’souza, PhD Candidate, Division of Social & Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill Unviersity, Canada
  12. Luisa Molino, MSc – Research Associate, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Canada
  13. Janet Hoy, PhD, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Toledo, Ohio, USA
  14. Dr Sophia Koukoui, PsyD/PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Postdoctoral Fellow of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada.
  15. Himani Bannerji, Professor Emeritas, Department of Sociology, York University, Canada.
  16. Ram Mahalingam, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
  17. Raza Mir, Professor of Management, William Paterson University
  18. Cosimo Zene, Reader in the Dept of Religions and Philosophies, SOAS, University of London, UK
  19. Dr. Amrita Ibrahim, Adjunct Lecturer,  Department of Anthropology, Georgetown University, USA.
  20. Livia Ottisova, MSc, Trainee Clinical Psychologist, King’s College London, UK
  21. Jyoti Puri, Professor of Sociology, Simmons college, USA.
  22. Sangeeta Kamat Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
  23. Biju Mathew Associate Professor, College of Business Administration, Rider University, New Jersey
  24. Sahana Udupa, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany
  25. Barbara Whitaker, Psychologist, Consultation for Victims of Torture and War
    Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland.
  26. Suman Fernando, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities, London Metropolitan University, UK and Professorial Fellow, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, UK
  27. David Ingleby, Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Psychology, University of Utrecht and Researcher,, Centre for Social Science and Global Health, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  28. Emine Kale, Advisor/ Clinical psychologist, Norwegian Centre for Minority Health Research (NAKMI), Norway
  29. Madhavi Murty, Assistant Professor, Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.
  30. Dr Sunita Abraham, Lancaster University, UK
  31. Dr. James Rodger, Honorary Associate Research Fellow, University of Exeter, UK
  32. Mary Hanlon, PhD Scholar, University of Edinburgh.
    215. James Manor, Emeritus Professor of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
  33. Poulomi Saha, Assistant Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  34. Dr Rochana Bajpai, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK.
  35. Dr Shabnum Tejani, Senior Lecturer in the History of Modern South Asia, SOAS, University of London, UK.
  36. Kannan Srinivasan, Independent Scholar, Wertheim Study New York Public Library, USA.
  37. Dina Siddiqi, ESS BRAC University, Bangladesh.
  38. Tanoj Meshram, PhD Scholar, Social Policy, Brandeis University, USA
  39. Varuni Bhatia, Assistant Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
  40. Saadia Toor, Associate Professor, Sociology, College of Staten Island, USA
  41. Madiha Tahir, PhD candidate, Columbia University
  42. Jaspreet Mahal, MA-Sustainable International Development, Brandeis University, USA
  43. Vasuki Nesiah, The Gallatin School, New York University, USA
  44. Lalit Batra, PhD Candidate, University of Minnesota, USA
  45. Jinee Lokaneeta, Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA
  46. Sahar Romani, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University, USA
  47. Sonali Perera, Associate Professor, Hunter College of the City University of New York, USA
  48. Tapoja Chaudhuri, Affiliate Faculty, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington; USA
  49. Sangay Mishra, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA.
  50. Tejasvi Nagaraja, PhD candidate, New York University, USA
  51. Anand Venkatkrishnan, Junior Research Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford, UK
  52. Maliha Safri, Associate Professor, Drew University, USA
  53. Debashree Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, Columbia University, USA.
  54. Meena Alexander, Distinguished Professor of English, Graduate Center/ Hunter College, City University of New York, USA
  55. Swapna Banerjee, Associate Professor of History, Brooklyn College City University of NewYork, USA
  56. Layli Uddin, Graduate Student, Department of History, University of London, UK
  57. Samina Luthfa, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, UK
  58. Jana Tschurenev, Research fellow, Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Göttingen, Germany
  59. Praveen K. Chaudhury, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, USA
  60. Alva Bonaker, PhD Candidate, University of Göttingen, Germany
  61. Achintya Prahlad, Graduate Student, Neurosciences, University of Göttingen, Germany
  62. Atreyi Dasgupta, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Hematology and Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine, USA
  63. Stephanie Leder, Ph.D. Student, Center for Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cologne, Germany
  64. Harshit Rathi, Graduate Student, University of Minnesota, USA
  65. Ishita Pande, Associate Professor of History, Queen’s University
  66. Usha Iyer, Assistant Professor of Screen Studies, Clark University, USA
  67. Ritika Prasad, Assistant Professor of History, UNC Charlotte, USA
  68. Leah Koskimaki, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa
  69. Aswin Punathambekar, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, USA
  70. Swati Birla, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA
  71. Madhusree Mukherjee, Historian and writer, Germany
  72. Dharashree Das, Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  73. Ritty Lukose, Associate Professor, NYU Gallatin, USA
  74. Anupama Kapse, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, Queens College CUNY, USA
  75. Regina Hansda, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK
  76. Arindam Basu, Professor of Health Sciences, University of Canterbury, UK
  77. Mary Louise Adams, Professor of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University, USA
  78. Jyotsna Kapur, Professor of Cinema and Photography, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA
  79. Shaheen Rana, Research Associate, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
  80. Patton Burchett, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, College of William and Mary, USA
  81. Tyler Williams, Assistant Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago, USA.
  82. Uwe Skoda, Associate Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark
  83. Bhaswati Bhattacharya, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany
  84. Ananya Chatterjea, Professor, University of Minnesota, USA
  85. Vedita Cowaloosur, Postdoctoral Fellow, English Department, Stellenbosch University, South Africa