karpitsky

Paul Goble. October 3, 2014

Staunton, October 1 – In yet another indication of the way in which Vladimir Putin is imposing an intellectual straightjacket on the Russian population, a professor from the Yugra State University in Khanty-Mansiisk who specializes on Indian religions appears to have lost his job because he took part in an academic conference on religious issues in Ukraine.

Globalsib.com reported October 1 that Nikolay Karpitsky learned that the university rectorate had reversed its earlier decision to extend his contract and had ended its relationship with him. Karpitsky himself says that he considers what has taken place to be a clear case of discrimination.

In response to his inquiry, the university administration did not provide any reason for his dismissal, but he said one of the deputy rectors had told him that his participation alone – and not anything else that he had said or done — in the Ukrainian conference “cast doubt” on his further role as a professor at Yugra State University.

Karpitsky says that what has happened to him represents an attack not only on his person but on all the instructors of the university because it interferes with their scholarly work which includes “scientific contacts with colleagues from Ukraine.” As a result, he has called on the rectorate to reverse itself or at least explain what other reasons could be involved.

The scholar first attracted public attention three years ago when he testified against an official effort to declare the Bhagavadgita an “extremist” book and when he sought to organize his fellow scholars in Tomsk in defense of this Indian classic.

http://www.interpretermag.com/siberian-professor-fired-after-taking-part-in-conference-in-ukraine/

3 oktober 2014: Nikolai Karpitski is hoogleraar aan de Yugra Staatsuniversiteit in Khanty-Mansiisk en specialist Indiase religie. Hij lijkt zijn baan te hebben verloren omdat hij een conferentie over dit onderwerp in Oekraïne bezocht, zo meldt The Interpreter. Karpitski ziet zijn dreigend ontslag als discriminatie en een teken van een snel verslechterend intellectueel klimaat onder Putin. Zijn onafhankelijke academische opstelling wordt hem kwalijk genomen. In 2012 sprak hij zich uit tegen het als extreem verklaren van de Bhagavad.

The Hindu. March 1, 2012. Vladimir Radyuhin

As the battle over a Russian translation of Bhagavad Gita continues, Russian scholars came out strongly in support of the book and condemned attempts to ban it as extremist literature. Over 60 Russian scholars gathered in the Siberian city of Tomsk for a conference on Bhagavad Gita. It adopted a resolution that voiced alarm over a court trial against the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” and stressed “the enduring historic value” of the ancient Indian scripture.

A court in Tomsk in December rejected a local prosecutor’s petition seeking a ban on “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” on the grounds that it incited “social hatred” and “violence against non-believers”. However, the Tomsk prosecutor has appealed against the verdict and the court is to hear his appeal on March 6. In a new petition the prosecutor is demanding a ban only on the Russian translation of comments in the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”, not the canonical text itself.

Russian scholars welcomed the Tomsk court verdict and said the prosecutor’s appeal was groundless because religious texts cannot be tried for extremism. They accused experts who prepared testimony against Bhagavad Gita of incompetence and bias and called for establishing an independent body of scholars and experts in religion, philosophy and social sciences, who would prepare objective and competent reviews of various texts. The scholars warned of “grave consequences the continuation of the trial may have for our friendly relations with India.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2950886.ece