Students, faculty sign petition against talk by Ravi Shankar at IISc.

It has been submitted to the Director's office

A signature petition by a section of students and faculty opposing the ‘endorsement’ of an event featuring Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) on October 10 has been submitted to the director’s office.

Earlier this month, the official website of the IISc. posted the announcement of a talk by Mr. Shankar titled ‘Excellence Through Inner Peace’. Opposing students and faculty members said the institute should not be endorsing the events of a person who makes ‘unscientific claims’ and demanded that the event should not be held under the banner of IISc. and in the J.N. Tata Auditorium.

The petitioners said the petition has received over 700 signatories offline and online, including faculty members. Another professor said, “One should not be intolerant towards the opinion of others, and I don’t feel that this event shouldn’t be held inside IISc. It can be conducted by individual groups, but cannot be officially endorsed by the institute. It was a mistake that the event was up on the official website, and that’s why it appears as if the institute endorses it.”

It was submitted to the director’s office on Monday. The announcement of the event was removed from the official website the same day.

The event announcement said it was being hosted by a ‘group of IISc. faculty across all disciplines’. The petition deems this ambiguous and said that it should be clearly mentioned that the IISc. is not organising the event.

Mental health issue

The lecture is a “threat to the state of mental health on our campus”, the petition stated, adding that the institute was already struggling with various issues related to mental health and Mr. Ravi Shankar’s organisation offers “medically baseless, blanket solutions to these problems.” The petitioners have said instead, it would be beneficial to invite practitioners from NIMHANS.

Another section of students, however, said that those who did not want to attend the event should stay away from it. A senior professor, who chose to remain anonymous, said that events like these would help students gain emotional strength and maturity. He added that it would be unfortunate for something like this to not happen as it doesn’t preach religion. “The petitioners have been immature,” he said.

Anurag Kumar, director, IISc., said it did not officially endorse the event and declined to comment further.

A meet with the director, students and faculty is slated to be held on Wednesday to decide the further course of action, according to sources. In 2017, a workshop ‘Astrology as a Scientific Tool for Individual Progress’ organised in IISc. by its alumni association was cancelled after resistance from various quarters.