We the undersigned express our solidarity with Prof Ashis Nandy, a distinguished scholar and public intellectual. Over the years Ashis Nandy has affirmed the rights of marginalized groups and communities to assert and express themselves in their unique ways. His own method has been to illuminate through anecdote, aphorism and irony. In the context of the discussion at the Jaipur Literary Festival, Nandy was asked to respond on corruption, the marginalized and the state of the Republic. While Nandy’s deliberately ironic remark on corruption in the OBC and SC/ST political elites as a form of equality may not be to the liking of all, we have no doubt that it was meant to question the upper caste-middle class notions of morality rather than denigrate marginalized and subaltern groups. Ashis Nandy has evolved a distinctive and provocative style of making claims, comments and arguments.

In a country where intellectual freedoms are shrinking every day, the right of thinkers like Ashis Nandy to argue and articulate unconventional views must be protected at all costs.