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Violence on JNU campus

The ISC is dismayed to learn that Professor Sucharita Sen, a grantee of the International Science Council through the Transformations to Sustainability (T2S) research programme, was seriously injured in mob violence on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi on Sunday evening, 5 January.

Professor Sen, who works at the Centre for Studies of Regional Development at JNU, leads an international project studying the transformation of water management practices in the urban fringes of major Indian cities .

It is understood that an armed mob stormed Jawaharlal Nehru University and attacked students and teachers, injuring more than 30 faculty members and students.

Professor Sen is a member of the Teachers’ Association, which had called for a peace assembly at 4pm on Sunday afternoon to discuss recent outbreaks of violence against students on campus. Professor Sen sustained a head injury and serious lacerations in the attack. Among the others injured was JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh.

The violence was purportedly motivated by student protests against increases in accommodation fees. It comes amid ongoing nationwide unrest and student mobilization against a new citizenship law, which have heightened tensions on university campuses.

The ISC deplores these incidents and strongly defends the right of students and staff to security on campus and to the peaceful pursuit of learning and research.


The Transformations to Sustainability programme is an international programme of the Belmont Forum, the NORFACE network and the International Science Council. The programme supports research into how transformations towards ecologically sustainable and socially just futures can be brought about. Find out more about the programme on the Transformations to Sustainability website.


Read more:

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/jnu-attack-scared-to-go-back-to-jnu-for-the-first-time-professor-sucharita-sen-hurt-in-attack-2159579

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jnu-violence-top-developments/articleshow/73116728.cms

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/06/students-injured-in-india-after-masked-attackers-raid-top-university

Photo: गंगा सहाय मीणा [CC BY-SA] via Wikimedia commons.

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