New Delhi, May 18 – The Faculty Association of Ashoka University has strongly condemned the arrest of Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science, on 18 May 2025, on groundless and untenable charges.
The faculty said in a joint statement that it condemns “the calculated harassment to which Pofessor Mahmudabad has been subjected: after being arrested early in the morning from his home in New Delhi, he was taken to Sonipat, not allowed access to necessary medication, and driven around for hours without any communication about his whereabouts.”
“The Faculty Association stands in full support of our colleague: an invaluable member of the university community, a beloved and respected teacher and friend to his students, and a deeply responsible citizen, who brings all his energy and learning to promoting communal harmony and the greater good.“
“Professor Mahmudabad is well-versed in diverse literary and linguistic traditions and is a widely acclaimed expert and scholar of history and political science in South Asia and beyond. In all of his writing, both for academic and wider public fora, he has emphasized the importance of justice, pluralism, and solidarity, and has always advocated a profound respect for Constitutional values and morality.”
“Professor Mahmudabad’s students and colleagues have learnt from him what it truly means to be a good citizen-scholar: rational, critical, yet deeply respectful and generous in their engagement with the world around them. All members of the Ashoka community can attest to his personal kindness, his concern for others, and his tireless commitment to sharing his knowledge and resources.”
“We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Professor Mahmudabad and the dropping of all charges against him.”
Who is Ali Khan Mahmudabad?
By Asad Rehman, Vikas Pathak/Indian Express
New Delh, May 18 – Ashoka University academic Ali Khan Mahmudabad, arrested by the Haryana police on Sunday over his remarks that allegedly “disparaged women officers in the Indian armed forces and promoted communal disharmony” is a political scientist coming from the family of the Raja of Mahmudabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Mahmudabad’s peers see him as a multilingual political scholar. “He is an expert on Muslim political thought in late colonial India, on which he wrote a book. He is multilingual–he knows Hindi, Urdu and English well–which is rare among scholars these days. He also studied at both Cambridge and Damascus in Syria, which offers him a rare depth and cross-cultural understanding,” said a veteran political scientist who knows Mahmudabad and Ashoka University well but did not want to be named.
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Ashoka University, Prof.Mahmudabad, India, Operation Sindoor,
