Talk:Akhil Gupta

Akhil Gupta is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles^[1] as of October 2022. According to his university profile, his research interests span across contemporary capitalism, development, postcoloniality, globalization, and the state.

As per his bio, he has published no books, papers or research pertaining to Hindus, rights of Hindus, the impact or relationship between Islam and Hinduism / Hindutva, India or the Indian Government, the Indus Civilization or caste.

In 2021, he 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."^[2]

On November 5, 2017, he signed the letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) to the California State Board of Education^[3], expressing her concern about factual errors and ideologically-influenced content in the history and social science textbooks under review. Specifically, he

Implied that Christians and Muslims existed in Ancient India, prior to the founding of these religions and states that "Non-Hindu populations including Buddhists Christians Muslims and Sikhs are sometimes barely mentioned treated as external invaders or had key aspects erased. South Asian religious histories should be taught in their full diverse complexity with no imposition of 'insider' and 'outside' categories"
Misrepresented scholarship that predates the submission of the letter "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"^[4]^[5]^[6]

Publications related to India[edit]

Journal Publications[edit]

Gupta, Akhil. Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India. Duke University Press, 2012.
Gupta, Akhil, Gordon Chang, and Purnima Mankekar, editors. Caste and Outcast. Stanford University Press, 2002.
Gupta, Akhil.Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India. Duke University Press, 1998.

Volumes edited[edit]

Gupta, Akhil, and K. Sivaramakrishnan, editors. The Indian State After Liberalization. Routledge, 2010.
Gupta, Akhil, and Aradhana Sharma, editors. The Anthropology of the State: A Reader. Blackwell, 2006.
Gupta, Akhil, and James Ferguson, editors. Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology. Duke University Press, 1997.
Gupta, Akhil, and James Ferguson, editors. Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. University of California Press, 1997.

References[edit]

↑ Akhil Gupta page on University of California, Los Angeles accessed October 10, 2022
↑ "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.
- "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] Akhil Gupta page on University of California, Los Angeles accessed October 10, 2022

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

[3] 2017 South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) Letter to the California State Board of Education

[4] 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.

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

[6] McIntosh, Jane R. A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2002, p. 24.
"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.

[7] "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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