Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

  David Cumin of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, a key driving force in the targeting of academics critical of Israel Zionist Extremism and the Threat to Academic Freedom in Aotearoa New Zealand In the landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand's higher education, the university is legally mandated to serve as the "critic and conscience" of society. This role is not merely a professional privilege; it is a democratic necessity. However, this mandate is increasingly under siege by external political actors who seek to weaponize inflammatory rhetoric to police the boundaries of scholarly inquiry. A recent public statement by David Cumin of the Israel Institute of New Zealand—calling me a "terror justifier" and demanding an apology for my appointment to the National Counter Extremism Research Centre—offers a visceral case study in what I consider to be the rise of Zionist extremism as a direct threat to academic freedom. The Context: Why This Centre Exists and Why My A...

In this picture, my great grand uncle, Sir J C Ghosh, scientist and the founding Director of my alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, the first IIT. Also the place where my dad worked for half a decade. So did two of my uncles. Two of my cousins preceeded me in studying here and two of my cousins, women engineers, went to study here after me. Seated (L to R): Meghnad Saha (Astrophysicist) Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (Biologist & Physicist) Sir Jnan Chandra Ghosh (Chemistry Electrolysis and lonization) Standing (L to R): Snehamoy Dutta (Physicist) Satyendranath Bose (Bose Einestein theory) Debendra Mohan Bose (Physicist) NR Sen (Physicist & Mathematician) Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee (Chemistry, Colloid Chemistry) NC Nag (Biologist) In the telemetry room of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Bengaluru headquarters, screens pulse with real-time data from a lunar orbiter navigating the Moon’s shadowed craters. Algorithms, refined in Indian laboratories, guide autonomous corrections with pre...