Professor in Prison: The Curious Case of Hany Babu

Hany Babu MT. Image Credit: Twitter

‘The Indian language policy is informed by a pull

towards unilingual identity, inspired by the European

model of nation state that is predicated on the

homogeneity of its people.’

Hany Babu MT, Economic and Political weekly, 10 June 2017

Hany Babu MT has a PhD in Linguistics and is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at India’s premier, the University of Delhi.

Babu was arrested on July 2020 by India’s dreaded National Investigation Agency (NIA). He has been detained on charges that a speech he delivered on 31 December 2017 inflamed violence the following day. The riot on 1 January led to one death and a small number of injuries. The local police made several arrests soon after, including lawyers, journalists and activists, and the octogenarian poet VV Rao.

In fact, Babu had delivered no speech on that day, nor had he been at the the Shaniwarwada Elgar Parishad meeting. His wife and fellow academic in English, Jenny Rowena, says, ‘When the police first came to search our house, we did not even know what Elgar Parishad was!’

In mid-2019, roughly six months after the event, Hany Babu’s house was searched, and his papers and computer seized. But notably, he was arrested some two and half years after the violent events of Bhima Koregaon and several months after the investigation of the case was transferred from the local police to the NIA.

The definition of what constitutes not just the national language, but even the mother tongue, has always been central to Indian politics. These debates resurfaced as a point of tension, particularly from 2019 as the draft of the 2020 National Education Policy (the previous NEP was from 1986), entered the public domain.

As an academic linguist, Hany Babu has been systematically critical of what he calls the ‘four-tiered hierarchy of languages’, which prioritises a small number of Indian languages while excluding hundreds of spoken tongues, particularly tribal and ‘Dalit’ (lower caste groups) languages. He has documented how these national and provincial government policies militate against the academic success of Dalit and tribal students broadly.

Many of his fellow academics, both in India and globally, regard the arrest of Professor Babu MT as a violation of academic freedom by the Indian government. His supporters believe that he has been imprisoned on trumped-up charges of ‘inciting violence’ but in reality because his work as an academic tells inconvenient truths.

As a group of Indian scholars calling for the release of all Elgar Parishad case detainees have said: ‘When academics are sent to jail for asking difficult questions, and for defending the rights of the disenfranchised, then society cannot be called free.’ Hany Babu has been detained, pending trial, for over 18 months. He has been seriously ill with COVID-19 and with an eye infection. His family and his lawyer have struggled to ensure adequate health care for him.

In her latest public statement provided to PEN Perth, Babu’s wife, Jenny Rowena, says:

‘Hany Babu MT is a first-generation academic who came into the elite Central University through affirmative action policies. He has always been a socially conscious teacher who worked tirelessly to make the elite university space a more egalitarian one. An excellent teacher, he taught about linguistics and Indian language policy to crowded classrooms and was able to connect pedagogy to the real lives of his students. Such a person has been thrown into prison now, using draconian UAPA provisions, which make bail almost impossible to obtain, in a baseless and senseless case. This is a clear suppression of a powerful academic voice from a marginalised (Muslim) community, and it shows how afraid this government is of dissenting voices.’

International rights organisations have urged action to secure the immediate release of Professor Hany Babu, with PEN International prioritising his case this year. PEN Perth takes a special interest in writers in the India-Pacific and we urge you to write to:

Ambassador Manpreet Vohra 

Indian High Commissioner to Australia

3-5 Moonah Place

Yarralumla ACT 2600

expressing concern for Hany Babu’s health and condemning his arrest and continued incarceration.

You can also send a message of support to Professor Babu on Twitter @HanyBabu or through studentsofprofhany@gmail.com.

—Krishna Sen, Writers in Prison Coordinator for PEN Perth