Why nobody listens to left-wing ‘liberal’ academics of Indian origin in Australia

London: The Australia-India Institute (AII) was set up in 2008 at the University of Melbourne with a grant of US$ 8 million from the Australian government. The purpose was to “engage and gain a greater understanding of the two countries through various streams of academic research” in the wake of a series of hate crimes against Indians. Recently however 14 Fellows of the institute resigned in protest. There have been rumblings from the 14 Fellows that the Indian High Commission is interfering with the work of the Institute. They cite the following three examples:
First, a publicly adverted event was downgraded to a private invitation-only seminar upon the high commissioner’s alleged intervention. This was a talk in 2019 entitled ‘Key words for India: Violence’. The speaker discussed violence by Hindu nationalist groups against Muslims.
Second, the Institute refused to publish an academic piece by Dr Dolly Kikon and Professor Hari Bapuji, University of Melbourne. Following the decapitation of Gandhi’s statue in Melbourne they wrote an article titled, ‘ Understanding Modern Attacks on Gandhi’. They try to portray Gandhi as a racist who was being disowned by many Universities. For good measure they also speculate that Gandhi attempted to bring Brahminical rule to India! Some missionary movements and left-wing academics want very much to take away the notion that Gandhi was a Hindu and his ideas challenged the Western interpretation of justice and morality.
Third, the Institute refused to include a podcast entitled “Caste and the Corporation, in India and abroad”, by the same two fellows, on its website. Caste is never far from our learned academics!
In her article written in the ‘East India Forum’ dated February 2020 senior lecturer Priya Chako at the University of Adelaide wrote: “India is rapidly changing politically. Recent events, such as the introduction of religious criterion to its citizenship laws and violent crackdowns on protests, call into doubt the government’s commitment to secular democracy. As the ruling regime intensifies its ideologically-driven policy agenda and its bid for political domination, India enters a cycle of protest and violence.”
She continued in this period of political flux, China appears to be becoming a model for the Modi regime. According to her India’s Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar recently dismissed the protests and praised China for having “the mindset to decisively address its current issues.” I admire the writer’s incredible feat of trying to lump the world’s biggest democracy with the Chinese regime.
According to the academics who resigned from Australia India Institute, ‘ Current Indian government celebrates its, ‘dominant’ culture and language while overlooking and or downplaying the current regimes oppression and marginalisation of Indian minority, dissenting and critical viewpoints and identities’
These academics while living in countries where the majority plays a dominant role in the fabric of the society cannot fathom that in India too the majority ethos and way of life will and should be granted its proper place. This does not take anything away from the minorities
Some of the names of academics who have resigned from AII are: Develeen Ghosh professor of School of Communications, University of Technology, Sydney; Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Monash University; Priya Chacko senior lecturer Dept. of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide; Kuntala Lahiri -Dutt Professor at Australia National University; and among others, Purshottam Bilimora, the former Professor University of Melbourne, who has been senior research Fellow with Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies, Oxford.
So why are these desperate cries of Indian academics in Australia not being taken seriously? One reason may be that for too long Indian academics abroad have been transfixed by their hatred of the majority Hindu culture. In the process they have abandoned all academic protocols. They fail in the most basic principle of being unbiased and honest so as not to mislead the public. The second reason is that India has just signed a groundbreaking trade deal with India. To celebrate the event the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison prepared prime minister Modi’s favourite dish Khichdi!. The Indian academics no doubt think that this is pampering the Hindu majority! The academics need to realise that their prejudices and anti-India mindset have left them in limbo while India moves on to be the world’s major economic power.