To: Center for the Advanced Study of India -- CASI
We, the undersigned graduate students,
undergraduates, and faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, unequivocally
denounce the invitation of Ram Madhav, spokesperson of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to speak on our campus on October 4, 2004. While we
have immense respect for the work of the Center for the Advanced Study of
India, we object in the strongest possible terms to the welcome it has extended
to a proponent of communal bigotry. The politics of the RSS in India has
sanctioned atrocious forms of violence against minority communities, its
ideology of hatred gravely endangering the fabric of Indian pluralism. This is
not about freedom of expression: by hosting Ram Madhav as a guest speaker, CASI
normalizes and legitimizes the fascist agenda of the RSS. Let our opposition to
such profound irresponsibility be duly noted.