Subramanian Swamy
An Indian professor at Harvard University has incurred the wrath of the politically-correct university crowd for an article he penned in an Indian newspaper in the wake of the July terrorist attack in Mumbai that killed twenty-three people. In the article, Professor Subramanian Swamy, a Hindu, laid down suggestions for how the citizenship and voting rights of Muslims in India should be treated. A petition is being gathered among the Harvard community asking the university to fire Swamy. The below article from the Daily Caller contains a link to the offending article as well as the petition.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/01/harvard-instructor-under-fire-for-anti-terrorism-op-ed-attacking-muslims/
Far be it from me to comment on Indian laws regarding citizenship or anything connected to the Hindu faith. Nor can I comment on what the Indian laws regarding free speech are. I do know that there are problems in India between Hindus and Muslims. Mumbai has twice been hit by Islamic terrorist attacks in recent years. As a matter of fact, it was the divide between Muslims and Hindus that led to the partition of India and the creation of Muslim Pakistan back when India gained its independence from Great Britain. The two countries have lived close to war ever since, largely over the dispute over Kashmir.
It seems to me that whatever Swami is saying about what should be done in India should be viewed through an Indian lens, not American. That aside, Swamy does have his right to express his views. Were Harvard to fire him for this, then free speech is dead in Cambridge.
Of course, all that is lost on the politically-correct crowd at Harvard. As the saying goes, "Free speech for me, but not for thee."
I would probably indulge in a pointed critique of this character's proposition, if I had time to devote to it, but he definitely has the right to publish it, as did Lawrence Summers when he suggested maybe not all that many women want to be engineers anyway.
ReplyDeleteIf he is saying that India's Muslims (who are NOT the perpetrators of the terror attacks referenced, are generally better off than Pakistani Muslims, but are subject to occasional mob violence by Hindus) should be deprived of civil rights, he deserves sharp condemnation and rejection, but no reason to fire him.
On the other hand, maybe he makes this the basis of all his classes, and grades students on their political correctness. Then he should be fired, right Gary?
The debased condition of Pakistan is the direct result of the partition of India into artificial "Muslim" and "Hindu" spheres, and the necessity to make a virtue of Islam, since it was the definition of national identity. The British muddle everything.