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Narendra Modi prepares to address delegates during the India-Africa Forum summit in New Delhi last month. Modi is due to arrive in the UK on 12 November. Photograph: Money Sharma/Getty/AFP
Letters
Wednesday 11 November 2015 18.00 GMTLast modified on Wednesday 11 November 201518.03 GMT
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As UK academics researching development in India, we are deeply concerned about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to the UK from 12-14 November, and call for the human rights abuses on his watch to be questioned in the public domain (Opinion, 10 November). It is important that the growing economic ties between India and the UK, which will no doubt be applauded during this visit, should not mask acknowledgment of the darker sides of what’s happening in India today.
Since Modi came to power in 2014, minorities and women have experienced rising intolerance and intimidation and cultural and academic freedoms have been eroded. Under his leadership as chief minister of Gujarat in 2002, the Gujarat government watched a pogrom of 1,000 people directed against the minority Muslim community.
There has been an escalation of rapes against women and his cabinet includes several ministers against whom criminal cases, including rape, are pending. Modi’s roots and leadership positions in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a belligerent rightwing paramilitary organisation, are well established. The RSS is known for both its misogynist and anti-minority views, and its core Hindu-rule ideology has been publicly endorsed by Modi. Politicians with RSS backgrounds dominate his cabinet and current administration.
Under Modi’s rule, inflammatory hate speech and violent acts against Christian and Muslim minorities have steadily increased. Mr Modi’s silence and delayed response to all these crimes does nothing to stem the violence. Additionally, his administration has intimidated environmental and human rights activists and researchers and sought to control key institutions of learning.
We support the recent statements by eminent scientists, academics, artists and writers in India who seek to draw attention to growing intolerance in India. In the past year, various freedoms have been attacked, including what people may think, eat, wear and whom they choose to love. Three secular critics have been brutally murdered and these crimes are linked to extreme rightwing groups. In reaction to this, over 70 prominent Indian citizens have returned national awards in protest. While violence against women and minorities in India has existed in the past, never before has the ruling party encouraged an atmosphere where the plural and secular fabric of India has been under such attack.
Modi now enjoys immunity as prime minister. What happened in Gujarat in 2002 must not be forgotten and it is important that his official visit to the UK does not give him and his administration a further platform to continue to restrict human rights, tolerance and cultural freedoms in India.
Professor Lyla Mehta
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Dr Jaideep Gupte
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Dr Deepta Chopra
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Dr Anuradha Joshi
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Dr Dolf te Lintelo
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Dr Priya Deshingkar
University of Sussex
Dr Vinita Damodaran
University of Sussex
• Since assuming power in May 2014, Narendra Modi’s government and BJP politicians have created in India an atmosphere of intolerance and hatred that has surpassed the worst expectations of his many critics. There has been an escalation of violence against Dalits, Muslims, Christians and women, including the brutal lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri on suspicion of consuming beef, murders of rationalists and dissenters such as Professor Kalburgi, attacks on tourists, the banning of academic books by Hindu fundamentalists, among many other such incidents. These events represent a direct assault on constitutionally protected freedom of speech and expression, and freedom of religion and belief. Mr Modi’s complicit silence in these horrifying acts bodes ill for the future of India.
Mr Modi tours the world extensively as a forward-looking leader focused on India’s economic growth. This is despite agencies such as Moody’s Analytics and papers such as the New York Times warning Mr Modi to rein in his movement’s politics of hatred and violence. It is in the context of trade that Mr Modi is arriving in the UK on 12 November 2015 to meet with British politicians, businessmen and Indian community members. But there has been a sustained undermining by the Modi government of some 13,000 NGOs, including Greenpeace, Amnesty International, ActionAid, Ford Foundation and others working in the areas of environmental justice and human rights. There has been consistent flouting of environmental and resource regulations to serve the interests of the large business houses that Mr Modi has gathered around himself.
We urge members of the international community to call attention to Mr Modi’s human rights abuses and to hold him accountable for violations of freedom of speech and religion. For those of us who uphold human rights, Mr Modi is not welcome to the UK.
Dr Subir Sinha
SOAS, University of London
Dr Rashmi Varma
University of Warwick
Prof Chetan Bhatt
London School of Economics
Prof Gargi Bhattacharya
University of East London
Prof Pablo Mukherjee
University of Warwick
Prof Monojit Chatterjee
University of Cambridge
Prof Shirin Rai
University of Warwick
Prof Patricia Jeffrey
University of Edinburgh
Prof Gilbert Achcar
SOAS, University of London
Prof Sanjay Seth
Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Sumi Madhok
London School of Economics
Prof Joya Chatterji
University of Cambridge
Dr Hugo Gorringe
University of Edinburgh
Maggie Morrison
University of Edinburgh
Dr Amit S Rai
Queen Mary, University of London
Dr Anderson Jeremiah
University of Lancaster
Dr Dibyesh Anand
University of Westminster
Dr Meena Dhanda
University of Wolverhampton
Dr Bishnupriya Gupta
University of Warwick
Dr Paolo Novak
SOAS, University of London
Dr Shakuntala Banaji
London School of Economics
Prof Pritam Singh
Oxford Brookes University
Dr Sundari Anitha
University of Lincoln
Prof Sayantan Ghosal
University of Glasgow
Dr Brenna Bhandar
SOAS, University of London
Dr Sanchari Roy
University of Sussex
Dr Delwar Hussain
University of Edinburgh
Prof Gautam Appa
London School of Economics
Dr Rohit Dasgupta
University of Southampton
Dr Kalpana Wilson
London School of Economics
Dr Murad Banaji
University of Portsmouth
Dr Richard Whitecross
Edinburgh Napier University
Dr Kanchana N Ruwanpura
University of Edinburgh
Dr Goldie Osuri
University of Warwick
Dr Dania Thomas
University of Glasgow
Prof Phiroze Vasunia
University College London
Dr Nitasha Kaul
University of Westminster
Prof John Holmwood
University of Nottingham
Prof Claire Alexander
University of Manchester
Dr Leena Kumarappan
London Metropolitan University
Prof Ben Rogaly
University of Sussex
Prof Stephen Taylor
Northumbria University
Dr Pallavi Roy
SOAS, University of London
Dr Chandana Mathur
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Dr Alessandra Mezzadri
SOAS, University of London
Prof Gurminder Bhambhra
University of Warwick
Lauren Wilks
University of Edinburgh
Dr Caleb Johnston
University of Edinburgh
Dr Eurig Scandrett
Queen Margaret University
Dr Shabnum Tejani
SOAS, University of London
Dr Aditya Sarkar
University of Warwick
Dr Peggy Froerer
Brunel University
Prof Alfredo Saad-Filho
SOAS, University of London
Dr Rachel Harrison
SOAS, University of London
Dr Rajesh Venugopal
London School of Economics
Amrita Lamba
SOAS, University of London
Dr Navtej Purewal
SOAS, University of London
Dr Parvathi Raman
SOAS, University of London
Dr Manali Desai
University of Cambridge
Prof Lynn Welchman
SOAS, University of London
Dr Rahul Rao
SOAS, University of London
Prof Chris Fuller
London School of Economics
Sruthi Herbert
SOAS, University of London
Shreya Sinha
SOAS, University of London
Dr Rajyashree Pandey
Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Feyzi Ismail
SOAS, University of London
Mehroosh Tak
SOAS, University of London
Dr Bhavna Dave
SOAS, University of London
Mary Hanlon
University of Edinburgh
Dr Anandi Ramamurthy
Sheffield Hallam University
Sarah Hodges
University of Warwick
Dr Steve Hughes
SOAS, University of London
Dr Anamik Saha
Goldsmiths, University of London
Lipika Kamra
University of Oxford
Dr Sneha Krishnan
University of Oxford
Kartikeyan Damodaran
University of Edinburgh
Prof Ian Parker
University of Leicester
Dr Debjyoti Ghosh
Central European University
Dr Ayça Çubukçu
London School of Economics
Dr Awol Allo
London School of Economics
Dr Sharad Chari
University of Witwatersrand
Dr Christopher Harding
University of Edinburgh
Dr Rohan Deb Roy
University of Reading
Prof Eleanor Nesbitt
University of Warwick
Mike Cushman
London School of Economics
Dr Marian Mayer
Bournemouth University
Dr Andy Higginbottom
Kingston University
Dr Radha D’Souza
Westminster University
Dr Kalim Siddiqi
University of Huddersfield
Dr Thomas Marois
SOAS, University of London
Dr Leandro Vergara Camus
SOAS, University of London
Dr Adam Hanieh
SOAS, University of London
Dr Laura Hammond
SOAS, University of London
Dr Cosimo Zene
SOAS, University of London
Dr Tim Pringle
SOAS, University of London
MP Dhaneesh
SOAS, University of London
Dr Lorenza Monaco
SOAS, University of London
Dr Misha Wellthuis
SOAS, University of London
Dr Andy Denis
City University
Prof Patrick Ainley
University of Greenwich
Nithya Natarajan
SOAS, University of London
Dr Jonathan Chu
Kingston University
Prof Heidi Mirza
Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Julian Wells
Kingston University
Dr Rajinder Dudrah
Manchester University
Dr Gurnam Singh
University of Coventry
Dr Erica Wald
Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Ipshita Basu
University of Westminster
Dr Russell Jackson
Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Les Levidow
Open University
Dr Janroj Yilmaz Keles
Middlesex University
Dr Derek Wall
Goldsmiths College
Dr RM Kathik
University of Essex
Dr Trevor Rawnsley
City and Islington College
Dr Dan O’Connor
University of Edinburgh
Dr Sadhvi Dar
Queen Mary, University of London
Dr Shinjini Das
University of Cambridge
Stephen Cross
University of the Arts, London
Dr Susan Daruvala
University of Cambridge
Dr Divinderjit Singh Sivia
University of Oxford
Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley
University of Cambridge
Dr Johanna Riha
University of Cambridge
Dr Pippa Virdee
De Montfort University
Prof Jaswinder Dhillon
University of Worcester
Dr Maan Barua
University of Oxford
Dr Sukhwant Dhaliwal
University of Bedfordshire
Prof Suman Gupta
Open University
Dr Manjeet Ramgotra
SOAS, University of London
Dr Karim Murji
Open University
Prof Nick Potts
Southampton Solent University
Prof William Gould
University of Leeds
Prof Mary Davis
Royal Holloway College
• The past decade of Modi’s career has been tainted with accusations about his role in the appalling Gujarat killings, resulting in the death of more than 2,000 women, men and children from the minority Muslim community. Indeed, this resulted in the implementation of a decade-long major diplomatic boycott of India’s current prime minister – banned from the US, UK and many other western countries.
Since becoming PM, Modi has skilfully projected his “cleaner” image with many soundbites on economic development, prosperity and a “digital India” but the reality is that Modi presides over a violent authoritarian regime that seeks to undermine the secular fabric of India, achieving more success in fuelling regional divisions than delivering the real change that swept his party into power.
The Sikh nation in India is adding its voice to these provincial uprisings. Recent sacrilegious acts against the Sikh religious scriptures, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and the mindless lynching by a Hindu mob of an Indian Muslim citizen rumoured to have eaten beef, have caused widespread outrage. People of faith and none all over India and the globe have united to demand justice against those who are road-blocking the path to freedoms of belief, faith and democracy.
Together, the citizens of the United Kingdom, including British Sikhs, have crafted and promoted our shared values of democracy, individual rights, mutual respect and tolerance. The time is now to put our shared values into action and display our commitment to the history, ideals and vision of the United Kingdom.
Charandeep Singh
General secretary, Glasgow Gurdwara
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
On his UK visit, Narendra Modi must be held accountable for his record on human rights in India | Letters | World news | The Guardian
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