A Dangerous Attack on Academic Freedom

An Open Letter to the Trustees, Administrators, and Faculty of Ashoka University

Mar 19, 2021

We are distressed to learn of Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s resignation under political pressure from Ashoka University. A prominent critic of the current Indian government and defender of academic freedom, he had become a target for his writings. It seems that Ashoka’s Trustees, who should have treated defending him as their institutional duty, instead all but forced his resignation. As he put it in his eloquent resignation letter: “My public writing in support of a politics that tries to honour constitutional values of freedom and equal respect for all citizens is perceived to carry risks for the university.”

We write in solidarity with Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and to reaffirm the importance of the values that he has always practiced. In political life, these are free argument, tolerance, and a democratic spirit of equal citizenship. In the university, they are free inquiry, candor, and a rigorous distinction between the demands of intellectual honesty and the pressure of politicians, funders, or ideological animus. These values come under assault whenever a scholar is punished for the content of public speech. When that speech is in defense of precisely these values, the assault is especially shameful.

The university must be a home for fearless inquiry and criticism. We support Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his practice of the highest values of intellectual inquiry and public life.

Signatories (organized alphabetically by last name):

Arash Abizadeh

Professor of Political Science

McGill University

Bruce Ackerman

Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science

Yale University

Sana Aiyar

Associate Professor of History

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Danielle Allen

James Bryant Conant University Professor

Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics

Harvard University

Sunil Amrith

Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History

Yale University

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Professor of Philosophy and Law

New York University

David Armitage

Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History

Harvard University

Timothy Garton Ash

Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford

Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Lawrie Balfour

James Hart Professor of Politics

University of Virginia

Aslı Ü. Bâli

Professor of Law

UCLA School of Law

Etienne Balibar

Anniversary Chair in Modern European Philosophy

Kingston University

Mukulika Banerji

Associate Professor of Anthropology

London School of Economics and Political Science

Amrita Basu

Paino Professor of Political Science and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies

Amherst College

Alyssa Battistoni

Environmental Fellow

Harvard University

Eric Beerbohm

Professor of Government

Chair, Committee on Degree in Social Studies

Harvard University

Charles Beitz

Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics

Princeton University

Teresa M. Bejan

Associate Professor of Political Theory

University of Oxford

Seyla Benhabib

Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Professor of Philosophy

Yale University

Homi K. Bhabha

Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Departments of English and American Literature and Comparative Literature

Harvard University

Akeel Bilgrami

Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy,

Professor, Committee on Global Thought,

Columbia University

Lee C. Bollinger

President

Columbia University

Richard Bourke

Professor of the History of Political Thought

University of Cambridge

Corey L Brettschneider

Professor of Political Science

Brown University

Jedediah Britton-Purdy

William S. Beinecke Professor of Law

Columbia University

David Bromwich

Sterling Professor of English

Yale University

Christopher Brooke

University Senior Lecturer in Political Theory

University of Cambridge

Wendy Brown

Class of 1936 First Chair

Department of Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Susan Buck-Morss

Distinguished Professor of Political Philosophy, Gradudate Center

City University of New York

Jennifer Bussell

Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy

University of California, Berkeley

Daniela Cammack

Assistant Professor of Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Partha Chatterjee

Senior Research Scholar in Anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies

Columbia University

Erwin Chemerinsky

Dean, School of Law

University of California, Berkeley

Joan Cocks

Emerita Professor of Politics

Mount Holyoke College

Jean Cohen

Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Contemporary Civilization in the Core Curriculum

Columbia University

Joshua Cohen

Distinguished Senior Fellow, University of California, Berkeley

Apple University

Greg Conti

Assistant Professor of Politics

Princeton University

Adi Dasgupta

Assistant Professor of Political Science

University of California, Merced

Sandipto Dasgupta

Assistant Professor of Politics

New School for Social Research

Rohit De

Associate Professor of History

Yale University

Faisal Devji

Professor of Indian History

University of Oxford

Joshua Foa Dienstag

Professor of Law

Shapiro Family Chair Professor of Modern Political Theory

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Lisa Disch

Professor of Political Science

University of Michigan

Rosalind Dixon

Professor of Law

University of New South Wales

Co-President, International Society of Public Law

John Dunn

Professor of Political Theory, emeritus

University of Cambridge

Kevin Duong

Assistant Professor of Politics

University of Virginia

Cynthia Estlund

Catherine A. Rein Professor of Law

New York University

Kate Sullivan de Estrada

Associate Professor in the International Relations of South Asia

University of Oxford

Matthew Anthony Evangelista

President White Professor of History and Political Science

Cornell University

John A. Ferejohn

Samuel Tilden Professor of Law

New York University

Michaele Lynne Ferguson

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Colorado Boulder

Rosemary Foot

Senior Research Fellow

Department of Politics and International Relations

University of Oxford

Katrina Forrester

Assistant Professor of Government and Social Studies

Harvard University

Jason Frank

Robert J. Katz Chair of Government

Cornell University

Jill Frank

Professor of Government

Cornell University

Elizabeth Frazer

Fellow in Politics and University Lecturer in Politics

New College

University of Oxford

Mark W. Frazier

Professor of Politics

New School for Social Research

Leela Gandhi

John Hawkes Professor of Humanities and English

Steering Committee, Center for Contemporary South Asia

Brown University

Sumit Ganguly

Distinguished Professor of Political Science

Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations

Indiana University, Bloomington

Stephen Gardbaum

Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Bryan Garsten

Professor of Political Science and Humanities

Yale University

David Gellner

Professor of Social Anthropology

Fellow of All Souls College

University of Oxford

Adom Getachew

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and the College

University of Chicago

Arunabh Ghosh

Associate Professor of History

Harvard University

Tom Ginsburg

Leo Spitz Professor of International Law

Professor of Political Science

University of Chicago

Alex Gourevitch

Associate Professor of Political Science

Brown University

David Singh Grewal

Professor of Law

University of California, Berkeley

Bérénice Guyot-Réchard

Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century International History

King’s College London

Bernard E. Harcourt

Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science

Columbia University

Patrick Heller

Lyn Cross Professor of Social Sciences

Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs

Brown University

Bonnie H Honig

Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media (MCM) and Political Science

Brown University

Aziz Z. Huq

Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law

University of Chicago

Andrew Hurrell

Montague Burton Professor of International Relations, Balliol College

University of Oxford

Samuel Issacharoff

Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law

New York University

Jameel Jaffer

Executive Director

Knight First Amendment Institute

Columbia University

Maya Jasanoff

Coolidge Professor of History

Harvard University

Sheila Jasanoff

Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies

John F. Kennedy School of Government

Harvard University

Rob Jenkins

Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center

City University of New York

David C. Johnston

Professor of Political Science

Columbia University

Shruti Kapila

Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies

Corpus Christi College

University of Cambridge

Mary Fainsod Katzenstein

Milman Professor of American Studies

Cornell University

Ira Katznelson

Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History

Interim Provost

Columbia University

Sudipta Kaviraj

Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies

Columbia University

Duncan Kelly

Professor of Political Thought and Intellectual History

University of Cambridge

Tarun Khaitan

Vice Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory & Hackney Fellow in Law, Wadham College

University of Oxford

Sharon R. Krause

William R. Kenan, Jr. University Professor of Political Science

Department of Political Science

Brown University

Cécile Laborde FBA

Nuffield Chair in Political Theory, Nuffield College

University of Oxford

Hélène Landemore

Associate Professor of Political Science

Yale University

Melissa Lane

Class of 1943 Professor of Politics & Director, University Center for Human Values

Princeton University

Benjamin Lee

Professor of Anthropology and Philosophy

New School for Social Research

Lawrence Lessig

Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership

Harvard Law School

Steve Levitsky

Professor of Government

Harvard University

Jacob T. Levy

Tomlisnon Professor of Political Theory

McGill University

Darryl Li

Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Sciences in the College

University of Chicago

Stephen Macedo

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values

Princeton University

Manjari Mahajan

Associate Professor of International Affairs & Starr Professor and Co-Director of the India China Institute

New School for Social Research

Charles S. Maier

Leverett Saltonstall Research Professor of History

Harvard University

Mahmood Mamdani

Herbert Lehman Professor of Government

Columbia University

Anandi Mani

Professor of Behavioural Economics and Public Policy

Blavatnik School of Government

University of Oxford

Harvey C. Mansfield

William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government

Harvard University

Karuna Mantena

Professor of Political Science

Columbia University

Patchen Markell

Associate Professor of Government

Cornell University

Daniel Markovits

Guido Calabresi Professor of Law

Yale University

John P. McCormick

Professor of Political Science

University of Chicago

Stephanie McCurry

R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of U.S. History

Columbia University

Uday Singh Mehta

Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Graduate Center

City University of New York

Bernadette Meyler

Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law

Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life

Stanford University

Rana Mitter

Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China

University of Oxford

Vice-President-elect (Communications), British Academy

Tariq Modood

Director, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship

Bristol University

Glyn Morgan

Director, Moynihan Center of European Studies

Syracuse University

Yascha Mounk

Associate Professor of the Practice

School of Advanced International Studies

Johns Hopkins University

Samuel Moyn

Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence

Professor of History

Yale University

Jan-Werner Mueller

Professor of Politics

Princeton University

Russell Muirhead

Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics

Chair, Department of Government

Dartmouth College

Rahul Mukherji

Professor and Head, Department of Political Science

Heidelberg University

Rani D. Mullen

Associate Professor of Government

College of William and Mary

Kanta Murali

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Toronto

Sankar Muthu

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Chicago

Isaac Nakhimovsky

Associate Professor of History and Humanities

Yale University

Vipin Narang

Associate Professor of Political Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Eric Nelson

Robert M. Beren Professor of Government

Harvard University

Anne Norton

Stacey and Henry Jackson President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science

University of Pennsylvania

Martha C. Nussbaum

Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics

University of Chicago

Andrew Ollett

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor

South Asian Languages and Civilizations

University of Chicago

Kate O'Regan

Professor of Human Rights Law

Director, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

University of Oxford

Giulia Oskian

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Yale University

Anthony Pagden

Distinguished Professor of Political Science

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Davide Panagia

Professor of Political Science

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Alan Patten

Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Politics

Chair, Department of Politics

Princeton University

Susan Pedersen

Morris Professor of British History

Columbia University

Elizabeth J. Perry

Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government

Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard University

Jennifer Pitts

Professor of Political Science and Social Thought

University of Chicago

Gyan Prakash

Dayton-Stockton Professor of History

Princeton University

Lant Pritchett

RISE Research Director, Blavatnik School of Government

University of Oxford

Hari Ramesh

College Fellow in Social Studies

Harvard University

Aziz F. Rana

Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law

Cornell University

Corey Robin

Associate Professor of Political Science, Graduate Center

City University of New York

Michael Rosen

Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government

Harvard University

Nancy L. Rosenblum

Senator Joseph Clark Research Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, emerita

Harvard University

Poulami Roychowdhury

Assistant Professor of Sociology

McGill University

Lucia Rubinelli

Junior Research Fellow in the History of Political Thought, Robinson College

University of Cambridge

Alan Ryan FBA

Emeritus Professor of Political Theory

University of Oxford

Michael J. Sandel

Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government

Harvard University

Shalini Satkunanandan

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of California, Davis

Cheryl Saunders

Laureate Professor Emerita of Law

University of Melbourne

Thomas M. Scanlon

Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, Emeritus

Harvard University

Melissa Schwartzberg

Professor of Politics

New York University

Joan Wallach Scott

Professor Emerita

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Will Selinger

Lecturer in European History, 1700-1850

University College London

Akhil Sharma

Department of English

Duke University

Tommie Shelby

Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy

Harvard University

Prerna Singh

Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs

Brown University

Rogers Smith

Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science

University of Pennsylvania

Sophie Smith

Associate Professor of Political Theory and Tutorial Fellow, University College

University of Oxford

Carole Spary

Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations

Deputy Director, Asia Research Institute

University of Nottingham

Amia Srinivasan

Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory

All Souls College

University of Oxford

Paul Staniland

Associate Professor of Political Science

Faculty Chair, Committee on International Relations

University of Chicago

Hillel Steiner FBA

Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy

University of Manchester

Anna Stilz

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and Human Values

Princeton University

Geoffrey R. Stone

Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law

University of Chicago

John Tasioulas

Director, Institute for Ethics in AI

Faculty of Philosophy

University of Oxford

Charles Taylor

Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy

McGill University

Tariq Thachil

Director, Center for Advanced Study of India

Madan Lal Sobti Associate Professor for the Study of Contemporary India

University of Pennsylvania

Louise Tillin

Reader in Politics

King’s College London

Richard Tuck

Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government

Harvard University

Maya Tudor

Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy

Blavatnik School of Government

University of Oxford

James Tully

Professor Emeritus of Political Science

University of Victoria

Mark Tushnet

William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus

Harvard University

Nadia Urbinati

Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory

Columbia University

Milan Vaishnav

Senior Fellow and Director, South Asia Program

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Ashutosh Varshney

Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia

Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences

Brown University

Rajesh Veeraraghavan

Assistant Professor of Science, Technology and International Affairs

Georgetown University

Jeremy Waldron

University Professor

New York University

Patrick Weil

Research Professor

University of Paris1-Sorbonne

Stephen K. White

Professor of Political Science, Emeritus

University of Virginia

Steven Wilkinson

Nilekani Professor of India and South Asian Studies

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

Yale University

Melissa Williams

Professor of Political Science

Founding Director, Centre for Ethics

University of Toronto

Elizabeth Wingrove

Professor of Political Science

University of Michigan

Jianying Zha

India China Institute

New School for Social Research

After publication of the original letter, the following signatories added their names:

The following signatories were added subsequently (organized alphabetically by last name):

Katharine Adeney

Professor and Director of the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute

Faculty of Social Sciences

University of Nottingham

Loubna El Amine

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Northwestern University

Sam Asher

Assistant Professor of International Economics

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Geremie Barme

Director, Australian Centre on China in the World and Professor of Chinese History

Australian National University

Srinjoy Bose

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

University of New South Wales

Joseph Carens

Professor of Political Science, emeritus

University of Toronto

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Joshua L. Cherniss

Assistant Professor of Government

Georgetown University

Christopher Clary

Assistant Professor of Political Science

University at Albany, SUNY

Elizabeth F. Cohen

Professor of Political Science

Syracuse University

Dennis Dalton

Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Political Science, emeritus

Barnard College, Columbia University

Stefan Eich

Assistant Professor of Government

Georgetown University

Elisabeth Ellis

Professor of Philosophy and Director, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Programme

University of Otago

Leonard Feldman

Associate Professor of Political Science, Graduate Center

City University of New York

Fonna Forman

Associate Professor of Political Science

Founding Director of the Center on Global Justice

University of California, San Diego

Michael Forman

Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

University of Washington

Rainer Forst

Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy

Goethe University

Vinay Gidwani

Professor of Geography, Environment, and Society

University of Minnesota

Lisa Gilson

Assistant Professor of Politics

Bates College

Jeffrey Goldfarb

Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology

New School for Social Research

Michael Goodhart

Professor of Political Science and Director of the Global Studies Center

University of Pittsburgh

Cheryl Hall

Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies

University of South Florida

Timothy Hellwig

Professor of Political Science and Academic Director of the Europe Gateway

Indiana University

Kinch Hoekstra

Chancellor's Professor of Political Science and Law

University of California, Berkeley

Jeffrey C. Isaac

James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science

Indiana University

Anil Kalhan

Professor of Law

Drexel University

Demetra Kasimis

Assistant Professor

Department of Political Science

University of Chicago

George Kateb

William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, emeritus

Princeton University

Arang Keshavarzian

Associate Professor and Department Chair

Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

New York University

Amalia D. Kessler

Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies

Associate Dean for Advanced Degree Programs, Stanford Law School

Professor, by courtesy, History

Director, Stanford Center for Law and History

Stanford University

Daniel N. Lipson

Associate Professor, Political Science & International Relations Department

SUNY New Paltz

Alexander Livingston

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Government

Cornell University

Catherine Lu

Professor of Political Science

McGill University

Lauren M. MacLean

Arthur F. Bentley Chair and Professor of Political Science

Indiana University

James Manor

Emeritus Professor of Commonwealth Studies

School of Advanced Study, University of London

Jamie Mayerfeld

Professor of Political Science

University of Washington

Benjamin McKean

Associate Professor of Political Science

Ohio State University

Rahul Mehrotra

Chair, Department of Urban Planning and Design

John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization

Graduate School of Design

Harvard University

Roberto Merrill

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

University of Minho

Barbara D. Metcalf

Professor Emeritus of History

University of California, Davis

Jennifer L. Mnookin

Dean, School of Law

University of California, Los Angeles

Michael Mosher

Professor of Political Science

University of Tulsa

Dipali Mukhopadhyay

Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs

Columbia University

Nicholas Mulder

Assistant Professor of History

Cornell University

Julie Novkov

Professor of Political Science and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Studies

University at Albany, SUNY

Paul Novosad

Associate Professor of Economics

Dartmouth College

Soledad Artiz Prillaman

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Stanford University

Camille Robcis

Associate Professor of French & History

Columbia University

Kim Lane Scheppele

Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs

Princeton University

William E. Scheuerman

James H. Rudy Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Department of Political Science

Indiana University

Sanford Schram

Professor of Political Science, Hunter College

City University of New York

Anurag Sinha

Assistant Professor of Political Science

University of Minnesota

Ajay Skaria

Professor of History

University of Minnesota

Sarah Song

Professor of Law and Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Arzan Tarapore

Research Scholar on South Asia, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center

Stanford University

Senior Nonresident Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research

Brandon Terry

Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and Social Studies

Harvard University

Jeffrey Tulis

Professor of Government

University of Texas at Austin

Jack Turner

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Washington

David Watkins

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Dayton

Stuart White

Associate Professor of Politics

University of Oxford

William Kindred Winecoff

Associate Professor of Political Science

Indiana University

Dali L. Yang

William C. Reavis Professor of Political Science

University of Chicago