Jawaharlal Nehru University on Sunday stated that it had cancelled an event scheduled for August 10 to discuss jailed activist Umar Khalid’s book Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power.
The university’s School of Social Sciences had granted permission for the event, which was to be held on the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
Khalid’s book is based on his doctoral thesis on the history of adivasis in the Singhbhum region of Jharkhand. The thesis was submitted at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Historical Studies in July 2018. The book was published in June.
Professors Prabhu Mahapatra and Uma Chakravarti, artist Shuddhabrata Sengupta, author and activist Harsh Mander, and researcher and Khalid’s partner Banojyotsana Lahiri were to speak at the now-cancelled event.
On Sunday, the university said it had taken the decision due to “non-disclosure of the full facts about the program”.
“JNU is a democratic and decentralised institution,” the university said in a social media post. “The permission was given by the dean, SSS [School of Social Sciences], who has taken action as well in cancelling the event.”
Khalid has been in jail since September 2020 for his alleged involvement in the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.
The police have claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was planned by those who organised the protests against the amended Citizenship Act.
Khalid is facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.
He has spent nearly six years in jail, without trial. His petitions for regular bail have been rejected repeatedly.
On January 5, the Supreme Court denied bail to Khalid and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam in the case. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria had, however, granted bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed and Muhammad Saleem Khan.
On May 18, another bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan criticised the January order, observing that “bail is the rule and jail is an exception” even in prosecutions under the anti-terror law.
Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Sneha.
Also read:
- ‘Fractured Communities’ by Umar Khalid: Scholarship meets commitment to marginalised lives
- Umar Khalid book excerpt: Exploring the history of Singhbhum’s tribal societies in British India
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