Pro-Gaza row: IIT Bombay faculty rally behind speaker

The ongoing controversy surrounding the alleged pro-Hamas lecture and documentary screening at the IIT Bombay earlier this month continues to intensify. Amid a police complaint against IIT Bombay professor, Sharmistha Saha, and guest lecturer, Sudhanva Deshpande, for allegedly glorifying and favouring the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, the Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay has openly expressed support for Saha in a letter by its president, Professor Rajkumar Pant.

In the letter dated November 14, Professor Rajkumar Pant, president of the Faculty Forum of IIT B stated that the forum condemns the spread of misinformation and threats directed at their fellow professor and colleague, Saha.

Pant's letter, which is an official statement on behalf of the Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay, reads, "The Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay is absolutely distressed with the tarnishing of the reputation and physical threats to one of our colleagues via anonymous phone calls and posts on social media platforms. The allegations made on the social media about her supporting HAMAS or terrorist are based on misinformation and false."

The letter further reads, "The Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay states that it firmly expresses its support to our colleague professor Sharmishtha Saha of the Department of humanities and social sciences of IIT Bombay."

Listing down some of the facts about the incident after a discussion with Saha herself, the faculty stated in the letter, "A documentary film titled Arna's children was screened by her as part of an ongoing post graduate course, due to its relevance in the art of healing children who have gone through trauma. This film and the scheduled discussion thereafter had been relevant to the course. Arna's Children is a 2004 documentary film about the freedom theatre founded by two Jewish theatre personalities, Arna Khamis and Israeli actor/filmmaker Juliano Mer Khamis. The film has won several awards at international levels and is also freely available on YouTube.

A previous talk by Achin Vanaik, former head of political science at Delhi University, on the Israel-Palestine conflict was cancelled by IIT Bombay. File pic/Sameer Markande

"Sudhanva Deshpande was invited as a guest speaker for introducing the relevance of the film to the audience, and for the post-screening discussion. He is a theatre personality and is currently associated with Jana Natya Manch (JANAM), which has collaborated in the past with the freedom theatre. 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. The course instructor told him not to record the lecture and to leave the class but he refused to cooperate and instead, spoke to her aggressively. During the entire session, our colleague neither expressed any opinion about terrorism, nor did she express any opinion opinion about HAMAS. She was not able to respond either to the film or to the comments made by Mr Deshpande because of the intimidating atmosphere prevailing in the class.

"The recording (which was made despite her explicit denial) was put up on social media post and was also shown on some TV channels. Further, gathering of people outside, IIT Bombay, main gate was organised on Saturday, November 11, 2023, in which people shouted slogans and carried large holdings containing the name and photographs of our colleague. They shouted slogans, mentioning our colleague as a traitor, issuing death threats to her, and calling for her termination from service at IIT Bombay. The Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay strongly condemns the calls to violence against a colleague, use of her photograph, and name in the hoardings, tarnishing her reputation in print, TV and social media through biased information and false claims that she supports HAMAS and terrorism."

The complaint against Saha and Deshpande was submitted by a student named Omkar Supekar, who urged that an FIR be registered. Supekar alleged that Deshpande glorified former militant Zakaria Zubeidi and Ghassan Kanafani, a deceased Palestinian author and politician, and defended armed rebellion. Regarding Saha, Supekar claims that she "inappropriately used her position to invite Deshpande - a radical leftist" to the screening. The police are conducting an enquiry to determine whether to file an FIR. Following the screening on November 6, protests organised by Vivek Vichar Manch took place outside the institute on November 11.

Previous talk called off

Previously, the IIT Bombay had cancelled a planned talk by Achin Vanaik, the former head of political science at Delhi University, on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Vanaik is known for his activism and unorthodox perspectives. His stance on the Israel-Palestine issue recently attracted criticism, especially in the aftermath of a lecture he delivered at O P Jindal University in Sonipat, Haryana, on November 1, titled ‘The History and Politics of the Palestinian Present'. As per sources at IIT Bombay, Vanaik's talk at the institute was anticipated to cover the historical aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict and its impact on the recent surge in violence. The IIT Bombay has not issued any statement on the matter as yet.

Nov 6
Day of the screening and lecture