Jnana PrAbodhini 

 

From Sabrang/FOIL’s Appendix H of “The Foreign Exchange of Hate”:

 

Jnana Prabodhini  - An unpronounceable name to some people outside India, to be sure, but one which translates roughly to “Knowledge Awakener” – nothing sinister about that, to those literate in Hindi, which most North Indians speak better than English. Jnana Prabodhini receives the R rating in the Sabrang/FOIL scheme of certification. Its main activity is 'e'. That is, “Hinduization/tribal/education”. “R”/ “e” is the worst classification. From Professor Vinay Lal’s declaration above, “people familiar with the …”  would know that this is definitely an organization “charged with” hate-mongering.

What is Jnana Prabodhini?

An organization which runs schools which have earned a reputation for excellence.  Sponsors of Jnana Prabodhini projects [[i]] include a broad spectrum – agencies of the Government of India, major corporations including Kirloskar Co. Ltd., ASHA and AID. Their website is quite an eye-opener for the sheer dynamism of their people and the variety of projects and studies that they undertake. Sandeep Pandey's ASHA, an organization endorsed by FOIL and which works hand-in-glove wit FOIL, funds Jnana Prabodhini!  See [[ii]], the American website of “ASHA”. AID which also funds Jnana Prabodhini is a leading light [[iii]] of the “Narmada Bachao Andolan” (“Save-the-River-Narmada Front”) and is an associate of famous novelist Arundhati Roy, a virulent critic of  the “RSS”.

The following is from a message posted by user Vijh at the Bharat-Rakshak Forum [[iv]] on 25 November 2002:

See [[v]] for the school website.

And what did this supposedly-terrible institution do with IDRF funding? We’ll let the Trustee of their Board explain. This was received by e-mail in response to a direct request from Mr. Vijh.

 

Who wants Jnana Prabodhini closed down as a “hate-mongering” organization?

 

A partial list: Dr. Biju Mathew, Rider U., Dr.Angana Chatterji, CIIS, Vijay Prashad, Trinity College, CT, Dr. Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, UCLA, Jamal Badawi, St. Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University, Deepak Kapur, University of New Mexico, Ayesha Jalal, Tufts University, Tayyab Mahmud, Cleveland State University, Muhammad Umar Memon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Malini J. Schueller, University of Florida, Asma Afsaruddin, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Notre Dame, Bulbul Chakraborty, Professor of Physics, Brandeis University, Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, Frank F. Conlon, Professor Emeritus of History & International Studies, University of Washington, Daisy Rockwell, Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures, Loyola University Chicago, Amitabha Roy, Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Boston College, Anindyo Roy, Associate Professor, English, Colby College, Maine, Vasudha Dalmia, Profesor and Chair, South and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley, E.Valentine Daniel, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, Gautam Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania

Kaushik Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology , Vassar College, Louisa Gilbert, Senior Researcher, Columbia University School of Social Work, William Glover, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Lalitha Gopalan, Associate Professor, Georgetown University

Stewart Gordon, Senior Research Fellow, South Asia Center, University of Michigan. Sumit R. Das, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky and Department of Theoretical Physics Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Kimberly Davis, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Adrian College, Adrian, MI, Samir Dayal, Associate Professor, Department of English, Bentley College Antoinette Burton, Professor of History, University of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign, Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature, Chair, Program in History and Literature, Harvard University, Abha Sur, Lecturer, Science and Technology Studies, MIT, Leti Volpp Associate Professor Washington College of Law, American University, Milind Wakankar, Assistant Professor of English SUNY Stony Brook, Ed Haynes, Associate Professor of History, Winthrop University, Usha Zacharias, Assistant Professor of Communication, Westfield State CollegeCynthia Talbot, Associate Professor of History and South Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Shubha Tewari, Visiting Assistant Professor,Department of Physics, Mount Holyoke College, Senthil Todadri, Assistant Professor, Departmentof Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, T. Robert Travers, Assistant Professor of History, Harvard University, Brian Trinque Lecturer in Economics & Asian Studies, University of Texas,Austin, Jyostna Uppal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Queens College, CUNY, Jyotsna Vaid, Associate Professor, Psychology, Texas A&M University

Rashmi Varma, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Susan Hangen, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Ramapo College

Mary Hancock, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology University of California, Santa Barbara Patrick Heller, Associate Professor, Sociology, Brown University

Syed Akbar Hyder, Assistant Professor, South Asian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University