New Delhi: On November 12, Gurugram University’s department of political science and public policy was to host a talk on the agenda – ‘Palestinian Struggle for Equal Rights: India & Global Response’ by Zoya Hasan, professor emerita, centre for political studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
However, on November 10, Hasan received a call from that organisers that the talk had been cancelled without a date of postponement.
Hasan was approached by the university faculty, which had initially shown interest to arrange a discussion on the kind of response there is towards the Palestinian struggle in India and across the world.
“I readily accepted the invitation to deliver the talk on Palestine though fully aware and apprehensive that it might actually not happen” Hasan told The Wire. That’s exactly what happened, she said. She added that had it been a talk on social policies etc, the talk would have still happened even if there were logistical issues. But for Palestine, it seems the Department suddenly became logistically unequipped.
This talk at the university was to be chaired by professor Dinesh Kumar, the vice chancellor of the varsity and also the chief patron.
This is not the first incident where a talk on Palestine has been cancelled at an Indian institution.
In October, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) cancelled three seminars, to be addressed by the Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese Ambassadors to India on separate occasions, citing “unavoidable circumstances”. The seminars were meant to address the ongoing violence in West Asian countries and had been organised by the Centre for West Asian Studies, housed under the university’s School of International Studies (SIS). Reportedly, senior faculty members had expressed concern over potential protests on campus due to the polarising nature of topics chosen for the seminars.
In November 2023, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay cancelled a scheduled lecture titled ‘Israel-Palestine: The Historical Context’ by professor Achin Vanaik. The decision was taken in the wake of a growing controversy surrounding the professor’s alleged pro-Hamas and pro-Palestine stance.
Ever since Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestine on October 6, 2023, seven Indian states have filed criminal cases against pro-Palestine protesters. Article-14 reported about 17 FIRs – in which 51 people have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 – for organising pro-Palestine rallies and for posting pro-Palestine content on social media.
This crackdown comes despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself pledging India’s “unwavering support” to the people of Palestine in September 2024, as he held talks with the President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to New York and the United Nations. India has abstained on a UN resolution calling on Israel to vacate the Occupied Palestinian Territories within the next 12 months.