Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

The limits of White liberalism are embodied in the hypocrisies and double standards in White articulations of liberty and freedom. The rhetoric of this version of liberalism is emboldened in its double standards. As the father of liberalism, John Stuart Mill, was eschewing the virtues of liberty, he was justifying the English occupation of India. The recent New York Times Editorial on " Modi's Dangerous Silence " is another reflection of this double standard. As I have noted elsewhere, the ascendance of the Hindu Right in India needs to be critiqued with vigor and full force to secure the space of multifaith syncretism that forms an integral part of an Indian articulation of nationhood. However, for the New York Times   to criticize the Hindu Right's efforts of mass conversion as dangerous reflects the kind of double standard that is integral to White liberalism. Mass conversions after all are the mantra of the White-Western way of life. From the Chris...

The President of the University of Illinois Campus Faculty Association President Professor Bruce Rosenstock shared today his email exchange with Chancellor Phyllis Wise, requesting the Chancellor to respect the recommendations offered by the CAFT report prepared by the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure (CAFT) at the University of Illinois. The email exchange, carried out between the dates of January 29, 2015 and February 5, 2015, once again is a reminder of the large gap between the rhetoric of civility performed by the Illinois administration as a justification for the decision of the University to de-hire Professor Salaita and the actual practices of incivility reflected in the behaviors of the University administration. The exchange read in full also depicts the paradoxically closed nature of the University administration and its decision-making processes, scripted in cryptic messages from the Chancellor that stand in stark contrast to the performance of her avowed comm...