Dear Indology Members,

     I am forwarding this email from Professor Radhavallabh Tripathi about a Twitter campaign of vilification against Professor Balram Shukla of Delhi University.  If you have any further questions regarding this matter, please contact Professor Tripathi [radhavallabh2002@gmail.com].  With best regards,

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Radhavallabh Tripathi <radhavallabh2002@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2020 at 06:32
Subject:
To: <indology-owner@list.indology.info>


Dear Sir,
Recently a group on twitter used indecent language against Balram Shukla, a well known scholar. I hope you will agree that the fraternity of scholars in Indology should show their solidarity to discourage any kind of hooliganism aimed against real researchers in Indology. This is to request you to put the following statement to be signed by 52 scholars, on your group -  

“Last week, a group of Twitter users, including the anonymous Twitter handle known as True Indology (@TIinExile), launched a series of attacks on Dr. Balram Shukla. Dr. Balram Shukla is a distinguished scholar in the world of Indological studies. With perfect command over Sanskrit, Prakrit, Urdu, Persian, and other languages, he has made remarkable contributions to the studies of literatures and cultures of these languages, broadening the horizons of comparative literature and culture. With fictitious citations and views incorrectly attributed to him, some members of the aforesaid group used improper language against Dr. Shukla. We as scholars, intellectuals, and authors from diverse fields of cultural and intellectual life in this country and beyond would like to condemn the attack on the integrity and intent of Dr. Balram Shukla’s scholarship. We speak both as inheritors and interpreters of the great culture of plurality, debate, and democracy cherished in Indian intellectual traditions. We are equally committed to the democratic values and traditions of our contemporary social and political life.

India has always been a multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. Some groups which have surfaced during the past few decades on social media and other platforms are making vicious attempts at tarnishing its unique cultural mosaic. It is the need of the hour that all sensible persons should stand to resist such moves leading to the erosion of ethics and values, which have been the hallmark of our cultural and intellectual traditions.

 e- Signed by

 

Radhavallabh Tripathi, Rakesh Pandey, Krishna Kant Chaturvedi, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Navjeevan Rastogi, Ashutosh Dayal Mathur, Ramakant Pandey, Rita Rani Paliwal, Jayashri Rajgopalan, Avadhesh Pradhan, Sadanand Shahi, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Anamika, Kaushal Tiwari, Vasant Kumar Bhatta, Neelam Trivedi, Shilpi Mishra, Anil Pratap Giri, Dinesh Kushwah, Brij Ratan Joshi, Sachchidanand Mishra, Alka Tyagi, Shankar Rajaraman, Bajrang Bihari Tiwari, Peeyush Daiya, Rajeev Kumar Shukla, Madhav Hada, Probal Dasgupta, Satyanarayan Hegde, Archana Joshi, Hitendra Patel, Naresh Keerti, Sadashiv Kumar Dwivedi, Pankaj Mishra, Mahesh Champaklal, Rama Shankar Singh, Anand Singh, Bharatendu Mishra, Kshetrabasi Panda, Rajesh Joshi, Ram Prakash Tripathi, Sangita Gundecha, Shankar Nene, Leena Sakkarwal, Hari Prasad Tripathi, Sunil Kumar, Prem Suman Jain, Ashta Bhuja Shukla, Sanandan Kumar Tripathi, Pravin Pandya, Manu Lala Sharma, Krishna Kanta Sharma and Madhava Deshpande.”    

RADHAVALLABH TRIPATHI,
Former Vice Chancellor,
Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi.
Former Professor of Sanskrit,
Dr. Harisingh Gour University, Sagar.
Address: Karnatak Chair of Orientology,
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
812, Shivaji Nagar, Chiplunkar Road,
Near ILS Law College, Pune 411004 (India)
Mb. 9999836088, 9399223097
 

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