IIT Bombay has been met with strong criticism on social media after abruptly calling off the planned ‘Cultures of the Political Left in Modern India’ conference which was set to take place on December 12 and 13.
In light of the command from the IIT Bombay director that the conference on ‘Cultures of the Political Left in Modern India’ cannot take place due to unavoidable reasons, we regretfully have to cancel the event. We apologize for the disruption this has caused to all of you, as stated in the official mail shared by a Twitter user.
The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT-Bombay had invited submissions for a conference which sought to bring together researchers who were exploring the cultural backgrounds of India’s modern political left.
The notice stated that the major communist parties in India have been the source of, and have relied on, conversations and activities in the arts and creative world. Theater companies, practitioners, writers, filmmakers, visual artists, and creative producers, along with cultural theorists (whether they are linked to the Communist parties or not), have supplied a significant platform for this.
A Twitter user tagged Shashi Tharoor and expressed disappointment as the “Cultures of the Political Left in Modern India” conference, organized by the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of IIT Bombay, was cancelled due to a directive from the IITB director.
The Legal Rights Observatory has declared they will reach out to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the Ministry of Education to analyze how much money IIT has wasted on planning and from whom reimbursement could be received.
Someone else commented that the renowned esteemed organization was not able to go through with their scheduled conference regarding the left’s political cultures as the Director had prohibited it. The meeting was planned to take place the following day and some of the attendees might have already arrived.
The Indian Government’s Ministry of Education has issued an instruction to cancel the IIT Bombay conference on the cultures of the political left in India. This is a shameful act of academic censorship.
