‘DU Profs Objecting to My Book Haven’t Read it’: Nandini Sundar

DU professor Nandini Sundar also called the arrest of activists over Bhima Koregaon clashes a “witch hunt”.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

The crackdown on various activists and their branding as 'Urban Naxals' on Tuesday, 28 August , coincided with another development wherein once again, the term 'Naxalism' was at the centre of attention – this time at the prestigious Delhi University.

A few members of the DU's standing committee on academic matters reportedly raised objections to university professor Nandini Sundar's book Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar, 1854-2006 for supposedly “glorifying Naxalism”, and recommended its removal from the history department's reading list.

Alongside Sundar's book, another book found itself under the scanner – Archana Prasad's Against Ecological Romanticism: Verrier Elwin and the Making of an Anti-Modern Tribal Identity, with some committee members taking exception to it for "legitimising conversion of tribals to Christianity", reported The Times of India.

Lamenting this development as being "dictated by political reasons, rather than on academic grounds", Nandini Sundar – who has worked extensively on Chhattisgarh's Bastar – told The Quint:

They (the members who raised objections) clearly haven’t read the book because the people who I have seen quoted are saying things about the book which simply don’t exist in the book... I am sad that Delhi University is being reduced to this, where decisions about what we teach and the kind of extra-curricular seminars that we have are being dictated by political reasons and not on academic grounds.

Nandini Sundar to <b>The Quint</b>

The professor asserted that her position regarding the whole issue is made clear by the following excerpt from the preface of her other well-renowned book – The Burning Forest: India's War in Bastar:

The book is written against both the government’s militaristic understanding of the Maoist movement as a law and order problem that must be crushed, and the revolutionary certainties of the Maoists and their sympathisers. It is written for all those who hate the impunity and arrogance of the Indian state, who admire the Maoists for their sacrifices, but disagree with the wisdom of their path, and who recognise that violence, even against injustice, can degenerate into brutality and corruption.

The Burning Forest: India’s War in Bastar by Nandini Sundar

‘Sundar’s Book is Also Very Critical of Certain Facets of Naxalism’

Calling the objection a "political" one, Karen Gabriel, professor of English at St Stephen's College in the university, said the book in question is a "carefully researched piece of writing".

The book has been well-received and got good peer reviews. Such kind of an objection is very much in keeping with the sampling out of any thinking offering an alternative to the right-wing ideology. If “glorifying naxalism” is the ground on which one is objecting, then it’s very problematic.

Karen Gabriel to <b>The Quint</b>

Another university professor Maya John, who teaches history at the Jesus and Mary College (JMC), points out that Sundar's work is, in fact, also "very critical of certain facets of Naxalism", while providing "a holistic view" on the topic.

'Arrest of Activists a Witch-Hunt'

On the recent crackdown against activists for their alleged link to Maoists and involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence on 1 January, Nandini Sundar said this was part of demonisation of human rights activists by the regime, the same way JNU and its students were demonised under the bogey of "anti-national".

The rationale behind these arrests, she said, was to "whip up sympathy for PM Modi by creating a false plot".

This is a huge witch-hunt. None of these people, I can say confidently, were involved in Bhima Koregaon [clashes]. Gautam Navlakha, Sudha (Bharadwaj), Stan (Swamy) – they weren’t even there. I really don’t see that this is anything to do with actual evidence or cases.

Nandini Sundar to <b>The Quint</b>

Karen Gabriel concurred, calling the term 'Urban Naxal' a "fictitious idea of an individual who resists the dispensation".

"The people who have been picked up are in fact those who fight for social justice," she said.