Alumni of St Xavier's College condemn invitation to Aditya Thackeray as institute launches 150-year anniversary celebrations

The alumni of St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, on Wednesday wrote an open letter to the college’s principal, Dr Rajendra Shinde, opposing an invitation to Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray. The invitation, which was for the press conference on Thursday launching the year-long celebrations as the college completes 150 years, was extended to Thackeray as a ’notable alumni'.

The letter said that Thackeray’s presence would be “antithetical to the principles and values espoused” by the college stating that Thackeray’s “most notable achievement as a student was an act that was openly condemned by former principal Father Frazer Mascarenhas”. The incident referred to in the letter is Thackeray’s successful protest in 2010 against Rohinton Mistry’s Booker Prize-nominated novel Such a Long Journey being included in the Mumbai University syllabus.

The alumni point out that Thackeray had publicly admitted to not having read the book at the time he was protesting. Mistry, who is also an alumnus of the college, had expressed disappointment about the protest. He had said, “Twenty years old, in the final year of a BA in history, at my own alma mater, the beneficiary of a good education, he is about to embark down the Sena’s well-trodden path, to appeal, like those before him, to all that is worst in human nature.”

Former principal, Father Mascarenhas had also condemned the incident. In a letter to the students, he had said, “It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, a political party will not show the maturity to accept criticism and answer it by the evidence of its own actions. Is it not unreasonable, that literature is banned, merely because it dares to critique us? St Xavier’s College regrets that this book, written by an alumnus, and widely acclaimed in the literary world, has been treated in this manner.”

The alumni also observed that the invitation was ‘an unfortunate reflection of the ethical standing and moral integrity of St Xavier’s today’. The letter concludes by saying, “In enabling him, (the administration) is sending out a message that literary freedom and critical thought stand no chance against political pressure tactics. This amnesic attitude towards principles deemed important to our institution is foolish at best and outright dangerous at worst.”