Full text: ‘A good citizen and true patriot’, say 1,000 scholars in defence of Ashoka professor

More than 1,000 signatories have endorsed a letter of support for Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad who was arrested on Sunday for his social media posts on India’s military strikes that were carried out on May 7.

Khan was arrested under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita that included inciting secession, and insulting religious beliefs based on a complaint filed by a Haryana leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, the Yuva Morcha.

“It is preposterous that we have come to such a pass in India that even praising the army, albeit while criticising those who clamour for war, can now invite such targeted harassment and attempted censorship,” said the letter of support for Khan. The signatories include veteran historians Romila Thapar and Ramachandra Guha and scholars such as Jayati Ghosh, Nivedita Menon and Ram Puniyani.

The letter pointed out that in his posts on Facebook, Khan “analysed how any distinction between the terrorists or non-state actors and the Pakistani military has now collapsed” while the optics of the women officers chosen for India’s media debriefs was “proof that the secular vision of the founders of our Republic is still alive”.

“Far from being misogynist or anti-national, Prof Khan’s posts are driven by a clear moral vision of...

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