Talk:Abha Sur

By Anirudha patel

Abha Sur is a lecturer in the Program in Women's and Gender Studies and a research associate in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as of July 2023^[1]^[2]. According to her university profile, her research focuses on the history of modern science in India from a subaltern perspective.

In 2021, she along with Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban, co-signed a letter supporting "Dismantling Global Hindutva" Conference, as an academic and scholar and made the allegation

"the current government of India [in 2021] has instituted discriminatory policies including beef bans, restrictions on religious conversion and interfaith weddings, and the introduction of religious discrimination into India’s citizenship laws. The result has been a horrifying rise in religious and caste-based violence, including hate crimes, lynchings, and rapes directed against Muslims, non-conforming Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, adivasis and other dissident Hindus. Women of these communities are especially targeted. Meanwhile, the government has used every tool of harassment and intimidation to muzzle dissent. Dozens of student activists and human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail indefinitely without due process under repressive anti-terrorism laws."^[3]

On November 5, 2017, she signed the letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) to the California State Board of Education^[4] where she:

She misrepresented scholarship stating "Mythological terms substitute for historical ones for example the 'Indus Valley Civilization' (a fact-based geographic term) appears to be replaced with a religiously-motivated and ideologically charged term 'Indus-Saraswati/Sarasvati Civilization'. The Saraswati is a mythical river"^[5]^[6]^[7]
Implied that Christians and Muslims existed in Ancient India, prior to the founding of these religions

Publications Related to India[edit]

India and South Asia[edit]

Sur, Abha. Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India. Navayana Publishing, 2011.
Sur, Abha. Women Scientists in C.V. Raman's Laboratory: The Intersection of Gender, Nationalism, and Science in Modern India. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, 2012, pp. 123-147.
Sur, Abha. Caste and Gender in the Making of Modern Indian Science. Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 47, no. 18, 2013, pp. 45-53

Caste[edit]

Sur, Abha. Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India. Navayana Publishing, 2011.

References[edit]

↑ Abha Sur page on Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) accessed July 2023
↑ Abha Sur page on ResearchGate accessed July 2023
↑ "Letter of Support", Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference website, accessed August 7, 2022
↑ 2017 South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) Letter to the California State Board of Education
↑ Chakrabarti, Dilip, and Sukhdev Saini. The Problem of the Sarasvati River and Notes on the Archaeological Geography of Haryana and Indian Punjab. Aryan Books International, 2009.
↑ Danino, Michel. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati. Penguin Books, 2010.
↑ McIntosh, Jane R. A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2002, p. 24. where she stated "Suddenly it became apparent that the “Indus” Civilization was a misnomer—although the Indus had played a major role in the development of the civilization, the “lost Saraswati” River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity. Many people today refer to this early state as the “Indus-Saraswati Civilization” and continuing references to the “Indus Civilization” should be an abbreviation in which the “Saraswati” is implied. There are some fifty sites known along the Indus whereas the Saraswati has almost 1,000. This is misleading figure because erosion and alluviation has between them destroyed or deeply buried the greater part of settlements in the Indus Valley itself, but there can be no doubt that the Saraswati system did yield a high proportion of the Indus people’s agricultural produce"

[1] Abha Sur page on Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) accessed July 2023

[2] Abha Sur page on ResearchGate accessed July 2023

[3] "Letter of Support", Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference website, accessed August 7, 2022

[4] 2017 South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) Letter to the California State Board of Education

[5] Chakrabarti, Dilip, and Sukhdev Saini. The Problem of the Sarasvati River and Notes on the Archaeological Geography of Haryana and Indian Punjab. Aryan Books International, 2009.

[6] Danino, Michel. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati. Penguin Books, 2010.

[7] McIntosh, Jane R. A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2002, p. 24. where she stated "Suddenly it became apparent that the “Indus” Civilization was a misnomer—although the Indus had played a major role in the development of the civilization, the “lost Saraswati” River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity. Many people today refer to this early state as the “Indus-Saraswati Civilization” and continuing references to the “Indus Civilization” should be an abbreviation in which the “Saraswati” is implied. There are some fifty sites known along the Indus whereas the Saraswati has almost 1,000. This is misleading figure because erosion and alluviation has between them destroyed or deeply buried the greater part of settlements in the Indus Valley itself, but there can be no doubt that the Saraswati system did yield a high proportion of the Indus people’s agricultural produce"

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