By Vidheesha Kuntamalla/Indian Express
New Delhi, July 27: A doctoral research proposal on Kashmir’s ethnography and politics, which cites American linguist Noam Chomsky’s criticism of the NDA government, has led to a show-cause notice being issued to a PhD scholar and a disciplinary inquiry against his supervisor at the South Asian University (SAU) in New Delhi, The Indian Express has learned.
Incidentally, after the disciplinary inquiry was initiated against the supervisor, Sasanka Perera, who teaches sociology and is a founding member of the Sociology department at SAU, resigned from the university.
Meanwhile, the PhD scholar has tendered an apology to the university administration for hurting sentiments. The Indian Express reached out to the scholar, who denied to comment on the matter.
Perera also declined to comment on the disciplinary inquiry and his subsequent resignation. A cultural anthropologist, he holds a Master’s and PhD degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been the Chairman of the Department of Sociology (2011-2014), the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2011-2018), and the Vice President of SAU (2016-2019).
Prior to that, he was with the Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, for 20 years. Perera was also the Founding Chairman of the Colombo Institute for the Advanced Study of Society and Culture (2003-2010).
Reached for comment, SAU acknowledged that an inquiry had indeed been instituted but said that “no PhD proposal led to the resignation of a professor”.
The university did not address what it found objectionable about the proposal that led to the notice issued to the PhD student and the inquiry against his supervisor.
The Indian Express has learned that the PhD proposal was submitted by the PhD scholar in November last year and that it was approved by the supervisor before being sent to the Dean of Social Sciences.
According to SAU’s PhD guidelines on its official website state that a PhD candidate needs permission from his supervisor, the Dean, and/or the Department Board of Studies before starting fieldwork. In this particular case, the PhD scholar’s proposal was approved by the supervisor and was sent to the Dean for permission to start fieldwork. However, on May 9, the student was issued a show-cause notice.
The notice, it is learned, flagged a private YouTube video of an interview with Chomsky, which the scholar recorded in 2021 and uploaded in 2022. In this video, cited in the scholar’s PhD proposal, Chomsky is heard saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes from a “radical Hindutva tradition” and is attempting to “dismantle Indian secular democracy” and “impose Hindu technocracy”.
The notice demanded explanation from the PhD candidate and the supervisor regarding the choice of topic. A response to this was submitted on May 15 which included the rationale of pursuing the interview as academic research and an apology, following which the purported video was taken down.
The university also proceeded to establish an inquiry committee focusing on the supervisor’s role and the motivation behind the proposal in question.
In the meantime, it is learned, Perera put in his resignation papers with the varsity.
SAU is an international university sponsored by eight SAARC countries and comes under the Ministry of External Affairs.
After four years of functioning without a regular president, the governing board of SAU has appointed K K Aggarwal, the founder vice chancellor of Delhi’s Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, to the post last December. The varsity hasn’t had a head since Kavita A Sharma retired in 2019. In all, the university has had only two presidents in the past 13 years.
When this newspaper reached out to Aggarwal for comment, he directed the reporter to the Registrar, who, in turn, asked her to speak with the press relations officers.
In response to The Indian Express’s questionnaire, the university stated only that the inquiry against Perera and the show-cause notice were issued citing the SAARC Intergovernmental Agreement, Rules, Regulations, and Bye-Laws. It also mentioned that the inquiry had not yet concluded.
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