Most pasmanda who are not familiar with the caste equations in muslim society often try and emulate Ashraf when they achieve social status through professional achievements.
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I wish to narrate the story of my maternal Grand Father, who came from modest household of a cloth seller. Being prodigious in studies, he rose to become HoD Urdu and Persian Dept, Langat Singh College (Bihar University).
This brought him in close proximity with Ashraf intellectual class and they made every effort to discover his caste but since his name was caste neutral, it helped him conceal his identity.
When he was a fresh appointee, he once travelled to Gorakhpur with senior professors
and entire journey they kept cursing Ansaris. He did not utter a word.
When he finally became Professor and HoD, he was very vocally against Ashraf dominance and didnt cut them any slack. He gave them better than he got in his struggling years.
This earned him great many enemies. It became common parlance that if one sees my Granfather's face in morning that Ashraf wont get two meals a day. (Basically call him manhus) This is something advocated commonly against Pasmanda.
Now the Ashraf started plotting for his downfall. They lobbied and got a new VC from Kashmir University. New VC bifurcated Urdu and Persian Dept without any notice, and provided my grandfather with Persian dept. The politics was such that since Persian Dept had almost no students
they wanted to bury my grandfather, by shutting down Persian dept all together.

My Grandfather went to Patna high court to get himself instated as HoD Urdu dept. The honorable justice advised him to move to sessions court and finally through intervention of Governor,
he was able to win legal fight. Although he was without pay for almost an year.

So when Pasmanda attempts to copy his oppressor, speak his language, dress a certain way or feign medieval Indo Islamic traditions, it makes me laugh.
Truly the pedagogy of the oppressed is to never challenge the status quo, but rather reinforce it.
I for one, reject their language and culture, as I am done playing on Ashraf's pitch.
LS college, Muzaffarpur, Bihar.

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Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

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