Adding to the growing chorus of voices from across the country expressing support for Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and its students, the faculty at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi on Friday issued a statement expressing solidarity.
We, a group of faculty members from IIT Delhi, are seriously concerned by the events unfolding at JNU and in the national capital over the past few days.
A university space is an invitation to think, discuss, argue, debate ¬¬ sometimes heatedly, but always with respect.
This respect must extend to ideas one disagrees with. It is only from such an open exchange of ideas that our collective understanding can increase, and knowledge can advance.
But it seems that the spaces for such open discussion, of which JNU has always been one, are gradually being closed across the country. We condemn the increasingly narrow definitions of nationalism that are being imposed on the citizens of India and used as instruments for the closing of the Indian mind.
We choose to embrace a nationalism which celebrates our plurality as a country, and which is not threatened by dissent and disagreement.
We stand with all those who share this vision.
[This statement is issued in our individual capacities, and does not represent the institution’s opinion]
1. Krishna AchutaRao (Centre for Atmospheric Sciences)
2. Sumeet Agarwal (Electrical)
3. Vibha Arora (Humanities and Social Sciences)
4. Amitabha Bagchi (Computer Science)
5. Somnath Baidya Roy (Centre for Atmospheric Sciences)
6. Premachandran Balachandran (Mechanical)
7. Subhashis Banerjee (Computer Science)
8. Varsha Banerjee (Physics)
9. Biswajit Bhattacharjee (Civil)
10. Bijoy Boruah (Humanities and Social Sciences)
11. Arudra Burra (Humanities and Social Sciences)
12. Charusita Chakravarty (Chemistry)
13. Pritha Chandra (Humanities and Social Sciences)
14. Shouri Chatterjee (Electrical)
15. Santanu Chaudhury (Electrical)
16. Divya Dwivedi (Humanities and Social Sciences)
17. Naveen Garg (Computer Science)
18. Arjun Ghosh (Humanities and Social Sciences)
19. James Gomes (School of Biological Sciences)
20. K Hariharan (Mechanical)
21. Samar Husain (Humanities and Social Sciences)
22. Farhana Ibrahim (Humanities and Social Sciences)
23. Ravinder Kaur (Humanities and Social Sciences)
24. Stuti Khanna (Humanities and Social Sciences)
25. Reetika Khera (Humanities and Social Sciences)
26. Anshul Kumar (Computer Science)
27. Richa Kumar (Humanities and Social Sciences)
28. Narayanan Kurur (Chemistry)
29. Dinesh Mohan (Centre for Biomedical Engineering)
30. Debasis Mondal (Humanities and Social Sciences)
31. Saptarshi Mukherjee (Humanities and Social Sciences)
32. Angelie Multani (Humanities and Social Sciences)
33. Rukmini Bhaya Nair (Humanities and Social Sciences)
34. Atul Narang (Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology)
35. Rajakrishnan PR (Humanities and Social Sciences)
36. Nalin Pant (Chemistry)
37. Sourabh Paul (Humanities and Social Sciences)
38. Sanjiva Prasad (Computer Science)
39. A Ramanan (Chemistry)
40. Paroma Sanyal (Humanities and Social Sciences)
41. Simona Sawhney (Humanities and Social Sciences)
42. Sandeep Sen (Computer Science)
43. Aaditeshwar Seth (Computer Science)
44. Purnima Singh (Humanities and Social Sciences)
45. C. A. Tomy (Humanities and Social Sciences)
46. Geetam Tiwari (Civil)
47. Jayan Jose Thomas (Humanities and Social Sciences)
48. V Upadhyaya (Humanities and Social Sciences)
49. Sanil.V (Humanities and Social Sciences)
50. Milind Wakankar (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Earlier in the day, a section of the faculty at IIT Bombay extended their support to JNU, saying the state should not dictate the meaning of nationalism.