Talk:Biju Mathew

By Sachi Anjunkar

Biju Mathew is founder of Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL) and an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Rider University^[1] as of May 2024.

On November 5, 2017, he signed the letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) to the California State Board of Education^[2] where he:

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"^[3]^[4]^[5]
Implied that Christians and Muslims existed in Ancient India, prior to the founding of these religions

In 2016, he signed a letter endorsing a letter submitted by the South Asia Faculty Group^[6]^[7] where it addressed the State Board of Education, California Department of Education, dated May 17, 2016. In this letter they requested removing the word India from textbooks. In addition, they falsely^[8] stated:

"There is no established connection between Hinduism and the Indus Civilization."
"It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."

Publications related to India[edit]

Mathew, Biju. "The Sharing Economy and the Taxi Industry: Neoliberalism After the 2008 Crisis." International Transportation Federation (Road Transport Section) Meeting, London, United Kingdom, March 2015.
Mathew, Biju. "Labor Process Changes and the Loss of Worker Autonomy in the Neoliberal Firm." Arab Revolutions and the New Humanities Conference, University of Tunis El Manar and The National Library, Tunis, Tunisia, October 2014.
Mathew, Biju. "Unions in Neoliberal Times: The Need for a New Paradigm." Conference on Unions in Post-Revolution Tunisia, Tunis, Tunisia, October 2014.
Mathew, Biju. "Three Vectors in a Social Media Whitewash: The Hindu Right in the 2014 Indian General Election." Gujarat: Human Rights Violations, Impunity and the Indian General Elections, Special Public Seminar, London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom, February 2014.
Mathew, Biju. "A Flexible Subsumption of Labor: Transformations in the Labor Process in the NYC Taxi Industry." Urban Revolutions Conference, Tarumanagara University, Jakarta, Indonesia, March 2012.

References[edit]

↑ Biju Mathew University Profile accessed 13 May, 2024
↑ 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"
↑ 5-17 Prof. S. Shankar et al support letter
↑ 5-17 Kamala Visweswaran South Asian Faculty Group
↑ Gupta, S. P. 'The Dawn of Civilization.' In History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization: Volume I: Part 1, edited by G. C. Pandey and D. P. Chattopadhyaya. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations, 1999.

[1] Biju Mathew University Profile accessed 13 May, 2024

[2] 2017 South Asia Faculty Group (SAFG) Letter to the California State Board of Education

[3] 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.

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

[5] 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"

[6] 5-17 Prof. S. Shankar et al support letter

[7] 5-17 Kamala Visweswaran South Asian Faculty Group

[8] Gupta, S. P. 'The Dawn of Civilization.' In History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization: Volume I: Part 1, edited by G. C. Pandey and D. P. Chattopadhyaya. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations, 1999.

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