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However, it now turns out that some high-profile names associated with NLUs have signed the petition against Saiba Verma (see the Wire article). They are:
- Rahul Rao, Senior Lecturer at SOAS, NLSIU alum
- Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen, Assistant Prof at UC Irvine, NALSAR alum
- Kalpana Kannabiran, founding faculty at NALSAR
- Virginius Xaxa, NUJS Executive Committee member
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/university-of-california-san-diego-drops-author-saiba-verma-from-curriculum/408530
https://thewire.in/books/debate-does-familial-proximity-to-the-security-state-compromise-academic-research-on-kashmir
Some questions I raise-
1. Is her identity only related to her father's former occupation? The opposition to her work seems to be so. I find that deeply problematic and patriarchal to say the least.
2. Privileges she accrued aside, does she not have the faculty to have opinions other than what her father's occupation dictated him to have?
3. And is she doomed to an identity and ideology for the rest of her life because she is born into that family? Self-determination much?
The Wire article lays down her reply as well. Did she make mistakes? Yes. But did she deserve to be kicked out of her workplace? ( https://mountain-ink.com/california-university-disaffiliates-from-indian-scholar-for-being-dishonest-with-kashmiri-subjects/ )
No.
Jab khud par aati hai, tab pata chalta hai real idealism, varna its very easy to preach.
This is not about virtue signalling or cancel culture. Her father was a raw agent who tortured people in Kashmir, she used her fathers connections to gain access to stuff during her research, she interviewed people who were tortured in Kashmir and did not tell them who she was. They could not have consented, and we don’t even know what kind of harm she put them in, certainly RAW on the ground was more than easily able to track her and get to know what people had said in confidential interviews. She did all this for professional advancement. If she had simply disclosed to her research subjects and her publishers this whole scandal could be avoided. But she didn’t and it’s cause she knew she couldn’t finish the project if she disclosed it to people she was interviewing and that no publishing house would get past the breach of ethics and publish if she had disclosed.
This is plain and simple research ethics. That thing we should all care about because we’re human beings.
People in academia are not competitive the same way that people in law firms are. The nature of their work pushes them to be collaborative. And it’s a small community that usually sticks together. If these guys made these allegations, or supported criticism against her, it’s not because they’re in law school and trying to be the cool kids, it’s not because their career will advance somehow (how would that even work?) academia in the US, especially for brown people is not what you think- were constantly seen as the other and exoticised and sometimes even treated as inferior.these guys aren’t going to gain social status because they called out this person- they’ll probably lose some favor with their colleagues cause they got in the public eye. Or because “ Indian research is all done this way”.
Get the hell out of your own head. This is not about your life or your problems. If that’s even imaginable.
And UCSDs critical gender studies programme did not just decide to disaffiliate based on Twitter. And neither did her publishers decide to stop reprints based on Twitter. In statements they’ve made they’ve explained it’s because they investigated and found gross violation of research ethics.
This is not an issue that just “woke” people should be upset about either. She was working on sensitive stuff - going into mental health clinics- wouldnt you want full disclosure from people doing research at your mental health clinic? The fact that y’all can only view the world through this “woke”/RW lens is horrible for you both morally and intellectually. The world simply isn’t divided that way. Most people have a range of political opinions and stances based on a range of experiences.
Quote: https://twitter.com/pranesh/status/1443087631605125129