Academic activists Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad released a statement on Friday night expressing regret at the sudden cancellation of a discussion they were scheduled to have at the Tata Literature Live online festival about Chomsky’s new book. Internationalism or extinction.
The event was scheduled for 9 pm on Friday. But at 1pm, Chomsky and Prashad said they “received an email that said, cryptically, ‘I regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to cancel your talk today.’
They added: “Other inquiries informed us to contact the festival director, Anil Dharker. So far no communication has been established with Mr. Dharker … Since we do not know why Tata and Mr. Dharker decided to cancel our session, we can only speculate and simply ask: was it a matter of censorship?
Boycott appeal
The event’s cancellation followed an announcement by Chomsky and Prashad on Thursday that they would begin the event by reading a statement that “makes it very clear how we feel about corporations like Tatas, and Tatas in particular.”
Friday night, Scroll.in sent a message to the event organizers asking for an explanation of the cancellation. This article will be updated if they respond.
Chomsky and Prashad’s decision to read the statement aloud followed a letter to Chomsky from various activists, artists and academics urging him to boycott the festival because the Tata Group was its main sponsor. The corporation, the letter alleged, “has had a long history of forced displacement, human rights violations and environmental looting.”
He added: “Events like the Tata Lit Live are designed to enlist the endorsement of credible intellectuals, activists and authors and counter ‘negative publicity.’
Chomsky, who teaches at the University of Arizona, is a staunch critic of American politics. Prashad is the executive director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and has been involved with left-wing movements in various countries.
They refused to boycott the festival. But in response to the letter that was posted on a site called Countercurrents on Thursday, the two men said they would begin their event with a statement that would put their thoughts on corporations like Tatas in context.
They added: “Then we will continue our conversation about Noam’s book, Internationalism or extinction, making various connections between the general themes of the book and the Tatas. ”
Noam Chomsky and I were going to speak at the Tata Lit festival about Noam’s latest book. Our panel was abruptly canceled a few hours before it went live. Noam and I have written this statement, https://t.co/0UC3hOE6yW
– Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) November 20, 2020
In their statement on Friday after the event’s cancellation, Chomsky and Prashad said: “We wanted to appear on this platform in a spirit of open discussion to keep our dialogue on extinction and internationalism, on the darkest part of our human history and the brightest sparks of hope that shine in our world.
They added that “they will shortly announce a place and a date for our dialogue on the urgent issues of our time.”
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