Should academia back Ashis Nandy instead of targeting him?

Political protests and criticism of political psychologist Ashis Nandy’s statements linking corruption to lower castes weren’t surprising, but is the criticism by the academic community a sign of narrow mindedness?

Vivek Kumar, a sociologist from JNU, said that Nandy cannot get away with making such a statement in a public forum. Speaking to Rajdeep Sardesai on a late night discussion on CNN-IBN, he said, “Where are the facts and figures to back up the claim that he is making?”

Kumar said comments made in public were completely different from comments made in private, where wit, humour and irony can be used to substantiate opinion.

“But he (Nandy) should remember that he is making a comment about 85 percent of the population who have faced discrimination for years who may be further discriminated against,” he said.

However, sociologist Yogendra Yadav said this kind of response from the academic community was not going to serve any good to the social justice movement in the country.

“These communities which are trying to raise their heads need to re-look at the capacity of the leaders who wish to speak for them… (They) cannot see the larger picture,” Yadav said.

One of the reasons Nandy might not have used figures or used just the caste based axis to understand corruption is probably because he wanted to only deal with stereotypes, Yadav said.

“The traditional stereotype attached to the Dalit, STs, SCs and OBCs is that of corruption. Where as in the case of Muslims it is largely a stereotype of criminality and terrorism,” he said.