André Devambez, 1867–1944, aquatint on vellum / Image Courtesy: The Met Museum.

 
In May 2017, Braj Bihari Kumar was appointed the Chairperson of the ICSSR, the premier government institution for social sciences research. Does Kumar have the academic and research credentials for this job? Or has the government, predictably, bypassed democratic procedures by appointing Kumar? The ICSSR collegium, which is in charge of appointing a new Chairperson, was allegedly kept in the dark over Kumar’s appointment.

It is disappointing that the only person the government could choose for this significant position is a teacher of organic chemistry. Besides the fact that his discipline does not fall under social sciences, Braj Bihari Kumar de-legitimises the research work carried out by social scientists. He commented on Nobel Laureate Aamrtya Sen’s book The Argumentative Indian, stating that it is “politics, rather than economics”. Kumar is also of the opinion that “A large number of our intellectuals – the scholars in the field of social sciences and humanities – themselves are deficient in the knowledge about their country and society; they have developed vested interests in being collaborators and agents.”

Braj Bihari Kumar has written controversial books on various topics that have to do with the social sciences. He has said that Naga tribal identity was built up by colonial administrators and Christian missionaries. On the demarcation of states, he is of the opinion that small, economically unviable states are a bad idea. In one of his books, he even blames Muslim rulers for the caste system in India.

The new Chairperson of ICSSR, who makes all these absurd comments, is actually quite unknown to the social sciences fraternity. It is also not clear what contribution Dialogue and Chintan Srijan – journals edited by Braj Bihari Kumar – have made to social sciences. Former professor of JNU Ghanshyam Shah says “I don’t know about Kumar or his views on the status of social sciences. Nor have I come across his journal. There are hundreds of journals in the social sciences. I would also not say that because I am not familiar with him, he is not qualified for the position.”

The 2015 October-December edition of Dialogue reads, “Narendra Modi has proved himself to be the best Prime Minister. The economy of the country was in bad shape, when he came to power; in the brief period, we have overtaken China in GDP growth…” Last month’s report on GDP shows that India has officially lost the tag of the fastest growing economy to China as the March quarter registered a growth rate of 6.1 per cent much below than expected 7.1 per cent. The GDP growth was 8 per cent in 2015-16 and 7.5 per cent in the previous year.

It is evident that the only qualification Kumar has for this post is his loyalty to the ruling government and its ideology. Hardly a fortnight after he took office, he made a controversial statement: that teaching school children about Hindu-Muslim riots will make them social activists. The implication is that “social activists” are undesirable. Even worse is the implication for education, that students need not – or should not – learn about the reality of India.

More recently, JNU professor Amita Singh, who had kicked up a storm last year with her remarks that all Dalits and Muslims are "anti-nationals", is among the thirteen people chosen by the HRD Ministry as member of the ICSSR. The cases of Kumar and Singh indicate what has happened to autonomy, democracy and diversity of opinion in ICSSR, a premier body no longer allowed to be premier.
 

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Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Padmavati is attacked once again. This time, the film set was torched and almost reduced to ashes with the use of petrol bombs. In the early hours of Wednesday at Kohlapur a group of two dozen men wearing masks have indulged in this act of vandalism. In January, director Bhansali was assaulted by the Rajput outfit Karni Sena while filming at the Nahargarh Fort at Jaipur. The film production was allegedly shifted out of Rajasthan following the attack.

The incident is said to have occured at the set spread over 50,000 sq. ft. at the picturesque Masai Pathar, 10 km from Panhala. Props and costumes have been burned down, but crew members were not injured. This entire incident wrapped up within 15 minutes, but the loss could cost the maker approximately Rs. 4 crores say the members of the crew. It has also been reported that since the fire brigade could not reach the disaster site quickly, nearby villagers helped douse the flames and moved the people and animals from the set avoiding casualties.

Reacting once again to the attck on Padmavati, filmmaker Karan Johar said that he hopes "steps are taken to prevent such incidents" at the trailer launch of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion on Thursday. SS Rajamouli, who is presenting the Hindi version of the film, said at the same venue "Freedom of speech is a fundamental right of the people of this country and any artiste, any filmmaker should be able to express his views".

Both Karan Johar and Rajamouli have raised reasonable concerns. But, if Bollywood had demanded immediate punishment of Karni Sena members after Bhansali was manhandled in January, the two dozen men who vandalised the film set would have thought twice. Bollywood stars like Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Singh and Shahid Kappor pleaded innocent. They claimed to have not intended to hurt the sentiments of Rajputs and played the sympathy card in January.

Karni Sena has welcomed this crude act of vandalism and has also stated that if wrong facts are continued to be presented, the protest will continue. Karni Sena had earlier claimed that the film was distorting the history of their Godess Padmini. They reasoned out the attack on Bhansali by stating that he was portraying a romantic sequence between 14th century emperor Alauddin Khilji (played by Ranvir Singh) and Rani Padmini (played by Deepika Padukone).

Instead of demanding strict action against the members of Karni Sena after he was attacked the first time, Bhansali went onto have an agreement with the criminals. He bowed down to their demands of "no intimate scenes in Padmavati", "no distortion of history" (more like "no distortion of Karni Sena "story"") and "Padmavati name be changed". Will Bhansali have more negotiations with the outfit that torched his set?

Luckily there was no casualty of life. But there were several horses and few camels in the set, and one horse is said to have been injured. Can luck be relied on every time? The attackers and Karni Sena spokespersons who legitimise violence should be punished otherwise such instances will continue to grow, as the cultural space for violence seems to ripe at present.

 

The Hindu right-wing has long been trying to propagate their belief that many inventions and discoveries of modern science and technology were known to people of ancient India. The right-wing administration of the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) has reiterated  this belief by hailing several sages dating between 6th and 2nd BCE for their “contribution to science” in their official dairy for 2017. These sages are being credited with the invention of nuclear technology, cosmetic surgery and rocket science.

Only few days ago, the MS University administraion called off a workshop on politics of caste and social movements in India citing possible “backlash” from “some people” similar to the ruckus the ABVP created in Ramjas college of Delhi University. Now, we hear that Sushrut is being hailed as the “father of cosmetic surgery” and that Acharya Kanad “developed nuclear technology”. The dairy also states that Kapil Muni is the “father of cosmology”, Maharshi Bhardwaj, “discovered rockets and aeroplanes”, Charak Rishi is “father of medicine” and Garga Muni is the “scientist of stars”. It’s a pity that an educational institution cannot dicsuss the realities of India – caste, dalit movements, labour issues and corruption – but lies such as these can be perpetuated by the administation; the administration which should actually be creating a space for fearless learning.

These bunch of people in the adiministration of MSU are merely following the path that the right-wing has paved for decades and one which the Prime Minister of India treads on. Narendra Modi gave the examples  of Karna and Ganesha to support the view that cosmetic surgery and reproductive genetics were used thousands of years ago in this part of the world.

One wonders whether there are any women figures among these ancient scientists? The bhakths equally propagate the lie that the Vedic period was a women friendly period, and that violence against women is influenced by the West. Deep knowledge of history is not needed to disprove these claims. One lie of the right-wing negates another lie.

It is obvioius for evident reasons that we need not raise the question of what caste these wannabe scientists belonged to. They had to belong to the educated caste.

Mayank Vahia of Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who leads India’s Astronomy Olympiad programme said at an event last week that these false “claims make Indian scientists look like idiots. And even genuine work gets negated because of these baseless ideas.” He also said that he was very proud of his Indian heritage and has great respect for Aryabhatta, Charaka, and many others who have made some phenomenal scientific and philosophical contributions.

Vadodara or Baroda, where Maharaja Sayajirao University is located, is known as the cultural capital of Gujarat. Capital of what kind of culture? That of threatening free speech, of curtailing right to discuss and debate, and of falsifying history?

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum