To,
Professor Jan Thomas,
Vice Chancellor,
Massey University

Cc: New Zealand Human Rights Commission

We, the undersigned, write to express our strong intellectual solidarity and support for the Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) at your esteemed institution. In its relatively short existence, CARE, under the able leadership of Dr. Mohan J. Dutta, has produced a body of courageous and methodologically groundbreaking work that has benefitted not just thousands of social sciences and humanities scholars and students across the world, but also a general audience of journalists, social activists, and citizens. CARE has promoted tolerance, peace, constructive political action, and democratic values against the forces of terror, illiberalism, and religious and ethnocentric bigotry. It is vitally important, both for Massey University as well as the civic world in general that CARE’s academic freedom be defended strongly when it is attacked.

It comes as no surprise to us that CARE has been attacked, and attacked by the votaries of Hindu Nationalism (Hindutva). Hindutva is a chauvinistic right-wing ideology that is barely a century old, while Hinduism is a faith-conglomerate that has been in existence for thousands of years. However, in recent times, with its political rise in India, Hindutva has been declaring itself to be synonymous with Hinduism. That is, even though it is controlled primarily by a Brahminical upper-caste elite with a strong North-Indian, Hindi speaking bias. In claiming to speak for Hinduism and India/Indians in toto, the Hindutva ideology, in effect, disenfranchises not just Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities, but also millions of Dalit (lower caste) citizens, women in general, and people from Southern and Eastern India in relative or absolute terms. Hindutva targets India’s Indigenous peoples with a colonial ideology that threatens the pluralism of India’s diverse Indigenous cultures while co-opting Indigeneity to propagate hate. In our times, this narrow template of identity has been made global, having gained a large support base in the Indian diaspora. Recent global Hindutva propaganda has been based on the false premise that any criticism directed against it is automatically an affront to India and Hinduism.

Over the decades, the Hindutva ideology has been consolidated through the work of political outfits, cultural, pedagogic, and charitable missions, and a formidable propaganda machinery adept in spreading fake news and false narratives through thousands of employed trolls and through ‘bots’. This multi-pronged mechanism has been at work to demand that California history textbooks are made ‘Hindu friendly’ (that is, conform to the false Hindutva historical narrative and push unpleasant matters like caste discrimination under the carpet), to shut down or zoom bomb academic conferences, vandalize museums or exhibitions, and orchestrate book burnings and ad hominem attacks on scholars across the world like Wendy Doniger, Sheldon Pollock, or Audrey Truschke in America, or Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib or Amartya Sen in India. The same mechanism has been operational in instigating communal riots across India, in abetting and covering up for dozens of summary lynchings of Muslims, burning of churches or attacks on priests, macabre rapes and killings of poor and Dalit women, and diurnal assaults on the safety and dignity of disempowered citizens. As per a report published in 2018 by the National Crime Records Bureau of India, a Dalit becomes a target of crime every fifteen minutes.

It is the task of scholars to speak truth to power. Recently, the Supreme Court of India, noting the climate of fear, violence, and intimidation, has urged intellectuals to do precisely that. CARE, under the leadership of Dr. Dutta, has been performing that task fearlessly. Its scholarship on the communication infrastructures of Hindutva, the digital campaigns of hate mobilized by Hindutva, and the effects of Islamophobia on Muslims are vital to documenting the pernicious effects of Hindutva and to building community-led solutions for peace and social cohesion. Importantly, the #EndTheHate Lecture Series and community dialogues organized by CARE create vital spaces for the voices of academics, anti-racist activists, and communities at the margins that have been targeted with hate. The work the Center is doing in bringing to attention the forces of Hindutva at work in New Zealand in propagating Islamophobia is imminently necessary in the backdrop of the Christchurch terror attack that was propelled by Islamophobia. The white papers, policy briefs, and reports CARE produces are reflective of the high quality of social science work carried out by CARE, and offer robust empirical bases for addressing Islamophobia, racism, and threats to social cohesion in multicultural societies. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019 underscores the salience of countering Islamophobia, and CARE’s work directly responds to that call.    

We reject the idea that critiquing Hindutva is in any way harmful to Hindu students and Hindu communities. Hindutva is the most significant threat to Hinduism’s pluralist ethos, as well as to efforts to fight casteism and sexual violence targeting women. Attacks targeting the scholarship on Hindutva strategically portray critiques of Hindutva as attacks on Hinduism to defend Hindutva and silence empirically based critiques.

We urge you to support this intellectual mission of vital importance and to safeguard the academic freedom of CARE in contributing to building peaceful communities.  


[Total number of signatures - 140; to protect the safety of signatories, not all signatures are presented here]

Anustup Basu, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Prof. Ania Loomba, University of Pennsylvania
Sara Baugh, Davidson College
Arathi Sriprakash, Professor, University of Bristol
Nisha Thapliyal, Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle. Australia
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Professor, Linfield University
Kalpana Wilson, Birkbeck, University of London
Radha D'Souza, Professor, University of Westminster
Ambar Basu, Professor, University of South Florida
Mudit Vyas, Graduate Researcher, Monash University
Ian Woolford, Lecturer, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Dr Vikrant Kishore, Deakin University, Australia
Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Dr, Monash University
Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Emeritus Professor of History, Victoria University of Wellington
Bernadette Calafell, Professor, Gonzaga University
Suvir Kaul, A M Rosenthal Professor, University of Pennsylvania
T T Sreekumar, Professor, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
Sudeshna Roy, Stephen F. Austin State University
Raquel Moreira, Assistant Professor, Southwestern University
Cody M. Clemens, Assistant Professor, Marietta College
Amber Johnson, Saint Louis University.
Sarah Gonzalez Noveiri, Assistant Professor, University of Denver
S. Shankar, Professor, University of Hawai`i
Shadee Abdi, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University
Raihan Jamil, Associate Professor, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
Eddah Mutua, Professor, St. Cloud State University
Raju Rajagopal, Cofounder, Hindus for Human rights USA
Lisa Corrigan, Professor, University of Arkansas
Marianne LeGreco, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, UNC-Greensboro
Devika Chawla, Professor, Ohio University
Deepak Joshi, Co-Founder, The Humanism Project (Australia)
Progressive India Collective, USA
Bryan J. McCann, Associate Professor, Louisiana State University
Rebecca de Souza, Professor, University of Minnesota Duluth
Dr. Ritu Parna Roy, Research Fellow, University of Auckland
Srabani, Tricontinental Institute of Social Research
Walid Afifi, Professor, University of California-Santa Barbara
Dr. Monica Carrer, The Everyday Peace Initiative (Australia)
Srivi Ramasubramanian, Newhouse Endowed Professor, Syracuse Univ
Anjali Vats, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Mahuya Pal, Associate Professor, University of South Florida
Leon Salter, Research Fellow, Massey University
Iccha Basnyat, Associate Professor, George Mason University
Rahul Rastogi, Asst. Prof., SUNY Oneonta
Francine Whittfield, Research Assistant, Massey University
Suvir Kaul, A M Rosenthal Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Negin Nematollahi, Community Researcher, Massey University
Suchetana Chattopadhyay, Professor, Jadavpur University
Chirashree Das Gupta, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Deepak Joshi, Co-Founder, The Humanism Project (Australia)
Rasheed Ahmed, Executive Director, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC)
Kakali Mukherjee, Rishi Bankim Chandra College Naihati, India
Cody M. Clemens, Assistant Professor, Marietta College
Kristen C. Blinne, Associate Professor, SUNY Oneonta
Himika Bhattacharya, Associate Professor and Chair, Women's & Gender Studies, Syracuse University
Asha Rathina Pandi, Research Fellow, Maseey University
Negin Nematollahi, Community Researcher, Massey University
Preeti Raghunath, Researcher, India
Mohummad Kamrul Hassan, PhD, Director (Research), Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), Bangladesh
Ngaire Rae, PhD student, Auckland University of Technology
Banu Subramaniam, Univeristy of Massachusetts Amherst
Sangeeta Kamat, Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Kurt Lindemann, Professor, San Diego State University
Anjum Rahman, Co-Lead, Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono
Balamohan Shingade, University of Auckland
Karin Haberlin, University of Connecticut
Raka Shome, Professor and Harron Family Endowed Chair, Villanova University
Rati Kumar, Associate Professor, Central Connecticut State University
Debashish Munshi, Professor, University of Waikato
Dr. Paromita Pain, University of Nevada, Reno
Alberto Gonzalez, Professor, Bowling Green State University
Anuraj Dhillon, Assistant Professor, California Polytechnic State University
Heather Came, Head of Department Public Health, Auckland University of Technology
Dr. Fatima Junaid, lecturer, Massey Business School
Peter R. Jensen, Assistant Professor, The University of Alabama
Chirashree Das Gupta, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Tanja Dreher, Associate Professor, UNSW
Tenga Iwikau FEILDING PVAG
Sue Bradford, Community educator, Kōtare Research & Education for Social Change in Aotearoa
Priya Kurian, Professor, University of Waikato
Sy Taffel, Senior Lecturer, Massey University
Frank Sligo, Emeritus Professor, Massey Uni.
Stephen Bray Waitaha Iwi
Ajay Bhardwaj, PhD Candidate, UBC, Vancouver
Shiv Ganesh, UT Austin
Anna Burgin, National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago
Chris Stewart
Raja Swamy, Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee
Laura Partain, Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Nayantara Sheoran Appleton, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Science in Society, Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington
Mohd Zuhair, PhD scholar, Monash University
InSAF India (International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India)
Lotika Singha, University of Wolverhampton
Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, Southern Illinois University
Zakiya Shireen, Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Souvik Lal Chakraborty, PhD Candidate, Monash University
J. Daniel Luther, Visiting Research Associate, Kings College London
Suzanne Temwa Gondwe Harris, LSE
Shakuntala Banaji, Professor of Media, Culture and Social Change, LSE
Myria Georgiou, Professor, LSE
Clare Hemmings, Professor, LSE
Kate Meagher, International Development, London School of Economics
Swati Maheshwari, Senior Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University
Dr. Dolores Chew, Marianopolis College, Montreal, Canada
Lee Grieveson, Professor, UCL
Andrea Zorn, Massey University
Wendy Willems, Associate Professor, LSE
Imran Muhammad, Associate Professor, Massey University
Arun K Nair, Senior Clinical Lecturer, College of Medicine, Auckland University
Britta Ohm, University of Bern, Switzerland
Vijay Devadas, Associate Professor, AUT
Deane Galbraith, Lecturer, Religion, University of Otago
Will Sweetman, Professor of Asian Religions and Head, School of Social Sciences, University of Otago
Bala Murali Shingade, Artist
Andrew Nolan, Executive Director, Innovation Research, Health Hub Project New Zealand
Marise Lant Maori Land Researcher & Maori Activist Aotearoa
Mohammed Farash Ali
Gary L. Kreps, University Distinguished Professor, George Mason University
Benjamin R Bates, Schoonover Professor of Health Communication, Ohio University
Karin Wilkins, University of Miami
François Cooren, Professor, Université de Montréal
Heather Zoller, Professor, University of Cincinnati
Kevin Barge, Professor, Texas A&M University
Elaine Hsieh, Professor, University of Oklahoma
Uttaran Dutta, Associate Professor, Arizona State University
Constance Gordon, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University
Debbie S. Dougherty, Professor, University of Missouri
Stacey Connaughton, Professor, Purdue University
Dr Prateek Vadgaonkar, Doctor
Mike Cushman, Research Fellow, London School of Economics (rtd)ol of Economics
Emeritus Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, LSE
Caryline Boreham, Lecturer, Whitecliffe