Professor Sasanka Perera. Photo credit: Colombo Telegraph
A PhD student at South Asian University (SAU) received a show-cause notice from the university for referencing an interview with the scholar Noam Chomsky, where he criticized the Modi government and called it a threat to Indian democracy. In addition to the notice, a disciplinary inquiry was launched against the PhD student’s supervisor, Sasanka Perera, who subsequently resigned from his position at the university.
Sasanka Perera is a cultural anthropologist who is one of the founding members of the sociology department at South Asian University where he has worked for 13 years. Before joining SAU, Professor Perera taught sociology at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka. As an academic, he works on issues of visual culture, political violence, and religion.
The research proposal on Kashmiri politics, which Perera was supervising, had been originally submitted in November 2023. Nearly six months later, notices were sent firstly to the supervisor, Professor Perera in April 2024, and later to the PhD student on May 9, 2024. The notice requested explanations from the PhD student and the supervisor regarding the citation of Chomsky’s interview as well as the reasons for choosing Kashmiri politics as the topic for research. The PhD student sent an apology to the university on May 15, expressing regret for hurt feelings of any involved, and removed the reference to the interview.
Informed by Professor Perera, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne met with the SAU President on April 23 in order to express concerns about the actions taken by the university against the Sri Lankan scholar. However, following correspondence with the SAU President, the High Commissioner retracted her statements, claiming that she did not know that the Chomsky interview was cited. Prof. Perera criticized the High Commissioner, stating that she was prioritizing bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and India over the responsibility of protecting the rights of their overseas citizens.
According to the September 5 report by The Indian Express, Professor Perera confirmed that if not for the “trumped up irrational charges” he was facing from the university administration and his disbelief in the fairness of the investigation, he would have remained at the university for one more year, until his planned retirement. He also expressed his disappointment in the “deafening silence” of his former colleagues, which he called a “a classic example of the parochiality now apparent in SAU”. Professor Perera stated that in this atmosphere, any critical scholarly work would be impossible at SAU, regardless of department and discipline.
In addition to restrictions on research, SAU administration has also recently placed limits on student activism. Following a series of student protests in 2022 for higher stipends and more democratic representation in governance, in 2023, the university required new students to pledge not to take part in “protests or activities that could disturb the peace on campus”. Reportedly, the SAU administration has also introduced new restrictions on student activities, which includes a ban on movie screenings.
South Asian University is only one among several universities in India that have increasingly ramped up their restrictions on academic freedom. Schools like the Tata Institute of Social Science and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi have also placed restrictions on both the content and form of campus protests.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the actions of the South Asian University administration towards censoring the scholarly works of its students and faculty on unjustified grounds, which is a serious violation of academic freedom as a fundamental human right. We call on South Asian University to respect the rights and freedoms of its members and eliminate any and all obstacles to their critical academic work. The governments involved should take the necessary actions towards ensuring academic freedom is protected within higher education institutions in the region. We further invite all members of the global community dedicated to upholding human rights to join our call.
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