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Students at the Humanities and Social Science (HSS) department at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay Tuesday submitted a set of testimonials from those who attended the screening of the 2004 documentary film “Arna’s Children” during a lecture by Prof Sharmishtha Saha.
The lecture has come under the spotlight following allegations of glorification of terrorism by the guest speaker who was invited for the lecture.
At the backdrop of the institute administration’s decision to form a fact-finding committee, a set of students from the HSS department have taken a stand in support of Prof Saha and submitted a letter to the Director, titled “statement against curtailing of academic freedom” along with testimonials from those who attended the November 6 lecture by Saha.
Students have demanded that these testimonials be included in the consideration of events and concerns regarding screening of the film.
Referring to the director’s email from last week informing students about formation of the fact-finding committee, the students in the letter said, “While we welcome the move checking the disruption of class as well as the aspersions cast on the academic integrity of Prof. Saha, we are also mindful of the tremendous effort which will be required to conduct the investigation given the role it would play in guaranteeing to us our rightful freedom of critical social science engagement with the world. Therefore, we present to you a combination of testimonials from the day of screening of the film.”
The letter is attached with testimonials collated via forms filled individually by those present at the screening.
The testimonials asked individual attendees whether those who attended had been students of the course “Performance Theory and Practices” or they were merely attending the screening.
They were also asked for the accounts of the event in a detailed manner.
“As concerned students of IIT Bombay and as upholders of critical enquiry; we present to you a compilation of testimonials from those who had attended Prof. Saha’s screening of the film “Arna’s Children” – as part of the course – “Performance Theory and Praxis”.
A documentary about a children’s theatre established by Arna Mer Khamis, and Israeli theatre activist in Jenin, “Arna’s children” was introduced by Sudhanva Deshpande, of Naja Natya Manch (JANAM), New Delhi, who had collaborated with Freedom Theatre in 2015-16 and travelled across India and Jenin, with their collaborative performances,” states the letter by the students.
The faculty forum of IIT Bombay too has issued a statement in support of Prof. Saha.
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The faculty forum, which is the formal body of the institute representing faculty, in the statement, said, “We are distressed with the tarnishing of the reputation and physical threats to one of their colleagues via anonymous phone calls, and social media posts.”
According to the statement of, during a regular class of the course, a student, who was not part of the course, started recording the lecture session on his mobile device, despite the course instructor warning against it.
“During the entire session, our colleague neither expressed any opinion about terrorism nor did she express any opinion about Hamas. She was not able to respond either to the film or to the comments made by Deshpande because of the intimidating atmosphere prevailing in the class,” read the statement by Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant, president of the faculty forum.
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