Oh yay. A Sudhir sucks thread. Haven’t seen one of those in a while eh?

Tell me something folks who think Sudhir is abrasive and hateful and devoid of empathy and rude and mean and arrogant and all that stuff.

How would you behave if someone threw firecrackers in your room and tried to cause you physical harm ? All because they were held to a higher standard ? Why are these people reliable character witnesses when they have admitted to being in a mob that tried to harm a teacher simply because they didn’t get the grades they were used to ? Are students automatically victims who should be believed even when they are being violent ? Can it ever be their fault ? Or are children gods ?

If you look up Sudhir Krishnaswamy on google scholar you know what you see ? You see some stuff he’s written but scroll past it and overwhelmingly you’ll see other scholars - younger scholars - thanking him for mentoring them, thanking him for his support , thanking him for reading drafts and giving comments. Here’s something else - Sudhir works with younger scholars far more than any other person I know his age- but there’s never been a credible allegation of improper behaviour or of plagiarism etc. in fact year or year Sudhir writes many recommendation letters supporting students who want to study further - clearly all those students have managed to be on his right side, they have managed to meet his standards , and think of him as approachable enough to ask him this. What’s more - he’s grown NLSIUs faculty multiple fold in the last few years. Mostly by hiring young people. Surely if Sudhir was this awful person all these young faculty would be reluctant to work with him ? Surely if he was an awful arrogant egotistical person - other scholars his age would hesitate to work with him ? He would be a man with no friends in academia yes ? But look - many scholars his age do like him enormously. They do want to work with him. He has many many friends.

I don’t think that all of this would happen if he was this awful person. Surely something must be askew no ? Which version of Sudhir do we believe ? The one anonymous Internet trolls who defend violent mobs repeatedly talk about ? Or the one many many established scholars have thanked and praised under their own name ? One where many people have worked under his mentorship ? One that established professionals in his field see ?

Is it possible that the man isn’t devoid of empathy or arrogant or rude , but that he is simply nice to people who are nice to him. And rude to people who are rude to him ? Could we ask any human being to erase themselves so much so that they were nice to people who were physically harming them ? Is that fair ? Is it fair to criticise him for leaving a place where his safety was at risk ? Is that really loyalty or are we asking for him to humiliate himself ?

This is not just about Sudhir K. Sudhir K is an example of how good scholars are hounded out of academia by entitled violent students who are never told that they could be wrong. Or that they will have to be nice to their professor if they want nice treatment. That basic adulthood stuff we all manage to do.

To everyone commenting here both in favour of and against Sudhir, maybe you should consider the fact that all of your experiences could have been valid to some extent. He should not be portrayed as a person who can do no wrong, nor someone with malicious intent. The incidents at NUJS took place almost 14-15 years back. Sudhir was a much younger person back then with less experience. He is a human being who makes mistakes and learns from those. That's how good professionals evolve into better ones, by taking lessons from their own experience. Maybe that's exactly what he has done too and is a better teacher and administrator now because of that. At the same time, the students who pulled off such a stunt are all professionals now themselves. If you ask them about it today, chances are that they would all feel regret about what was clearly a juvenile and immature prank that has been embellished and exaggerated since. Please give the bickering a rest, since the people who were actually involved have long since done the same.