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New Delhi: Earlier this week, the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, decided to initiate a probe into an academic seminar held between January 16 and 18, following a social media uproar from Hindutva supporters against what it believed was a contentious and malevolent comparison between race and caste. The conference, titled ‘Critical Philosophy of Caste and Race (CPCR): Celebrating 25 Years of Durban: Indian Contributions to Combatting Caste and Racism’ was intended to be what most academic seminars are – a gathering of academics, activists, and authors to discuss both similarities and differences between the two forms of discrimination. But, above all, it was a platform that was in its third such edition and intended to bring together scholars who have closely worked with people affected by various forms of discrimination. 

The 2001 Durban Conference’s 25th anniversary provided an ideal window for the organisers to commemorate the United Nations organising the historic global forum against racism.

It is easy to wonder what about this conference could have possibly offended the section of people who raised a hue and cry against it with their social media handles. These social media warriors did not just attack the conference but also its proposed individual speakers, many of whom have been at the forefront of global campaigns against all forms of discrimination. 

None of this was as surprising as the fact that, following the backlash, the premier institution was prompt in initiating an inquiry. A “fact-finding committee” was constituted to note the “serious concerns…over the choice of speakers and content of the conference”. It did not matter that the anti-caste conference was in its third edition, and had been duly greenlit by the institutional authorities and the concerned ministries of the government of India. 

‘Defamation of India’

On social media, several arguments against organising such an anti-discrimination conference were advanced. A few thought that comparing race and caste-based discrimination was a malicious attempt on the part of the organisers to defame India. Others targeted Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan for permitting such a conference that could purportedly lead to great communal disharmony among students. Some even believed that an institution like IIT should concentrate its focus on devising new technological tools only, and not subjects that relate to the social sciences. Many others derided the conference aggressively and said that the IIT was going “fully woke”, or becoming a platform for “radical activists” who “push only a single-sided view of caste”. 

But what possibly made the IIT authorities promise “appropriate action” against “concerned faculty” if found guilty of any wrongdoing was a scathing X post by former interim Central Bureau of Investigation director M. Nageshwara Rao, who is known for voicing his Hindutva beliefs. In his letter to the IIT director, Rangan Banerjee, Rao unhesitatingly labelled the anti-caste conference as “anti-Hindu, deep-state initiative”, and alleged that even Banerjee was a patron of such an effort because he had permitted such a conference. Rao called for an immediate disbandment of the CPCR group and the prevention of any such effort in the future. He likened the CPCR conference to “ongoing anti-national and destabilising activities – reminiscent of ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge’ elements”. 

A gag on critical studies

These criticisms appear to have absolutely........

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