Statement of Stella James on 23rd December 2013

It has been widely reported in the news today that former Justice A.K. Ganguly has written a letter to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India. Several questions have been raised in the past few weeks, and I think it is appropriate at this stage, for me to answer some of them:

Timing and Intent of the Blog

After the incident, when I returned to college, NUJS Kolkata, I spoke to some of my faculty about the incident at different times. Since the incident occurred during an internship, and the University did not have a policy against sexual harassment of women students during internship, it was indicated to me that any action would be ineffective. I was also informed that the only route for me was to file a complaint with the police, which I was reluctant to do. However, I felt it was important to warn young law students that status and position should not be confused for standards of morality and ethics. Hence I chose to do so via a blog post.

2. Deposing Before the three-member Committee

I did not question the jurisdiction or intent of the Hon’ble Three-member Judges’ Committee at any point, and had full faith that they would establish the truth of my statements. I sought confidentiality of proceedings keeping in mind the gravity of the situation, as well as the privacy of everyone involved.

The Committee acted with great discretion given the delicate nature of the case, and I appreciate that. The prima facie finding of three-Judge committee is well known to all.

3. Putting the details of my statement in public domain

Please find below the following timeline for clarity:

18th November 2013 – I appeared in person before the Hon’ble three-Judge Committee, and gave oral statement before the Committee. I also submitted written statement to the Committee, signed by me before them in person.

29th November 2013 – I sent an affidavit, signed and sworn on the same day, to Ms Indira Jaising, Additional Solicitor General of India, disclosing to her the details of my sexual harassment, and requested her to seek appropriate action. The contents of the affidavit are substantially the same as the statements made by me before the Committee.

Even after the operative portion of the report of the Committee, was made public, many eminent citizens and legal luminaries continued to deride the Committee’s findings, and malign me. Hence, I found it necessary to clarify the details of my statement to preserve my own dignity as well as that of the Supreme Court. Therefore, I authorized Ms Indira Jaising, the Additional Solicitor General of India to make my statement public.

At this stage, I believe that anyone claiming that my statements are false is showing disrespect not just to me, but also to the Supreme Court of India.

4. Police Complaint

I request that it be acknowledged that I have the discernment to pursue appropriate proceedings at appropriate times. I ask that my autonomy be respected fully.

Again, I would like to state that I have acted with utmost responsibility throughout, keeping in mind the seriousness of this situation. Those who have been spreading rumours and politicizing the issue, are doing so out of prejudice and malice to obfuscate the issue and escape scrutiny and accountability.

Stella James

http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/

Statement of Stella James [SC Judge Sexual Harassment Case]

november 13, 2013 1 comment

Statement of Stella James. First published on JILS here.

At around 2.30 pm today, a friend who practices in the Supreme Court called me up to inform that the Chief Justice has formed a committee to look into the issues raised in myblog post.
Since yesterday, a lot of media persons have tried to contact me – either directly or through the journal. Since the committee has now been constituted, I will depose before the Hon’ble judges. Thus, it won’t be appropriate for me to speak to members of the media anymore. Moreover, I have nothing more to say than whatever I have already said in my blog post and the interview I gave to Legally India. I hope all of you will understand my need for privacy.
I thank everyone who have been sending me supportive messages. In times like this, words of wisdom from seniors and good luck messages from friends help a lot. I was particularly touched by the numerous messages which I received from girls who have been at the receiving end of sexual harassment themselves.

filed under: personal blogs

http://www.lawctopus.com/statement-of-stell-james/

Statement of Stella James – 21.11.2013

Posted on November 21, 2013by jilsblognujs

On the 12th of November 2013, the Chief Justice of India set up a three-member Committee to look into a matter of sexual harassment that I had faced by a former Supreme Court Judge.

As requested by the Committee, I appeared before them on the 18th of November. During the meeting, I presented all the details of the case to the Committee. I am confident that the Committee will follow all the different lines of enquiry, and will establish the truth of my statements.

The Committee has assured me complete confidentiality. Some media reports are violating the confidentiality of testimony given by the Committee. They have been distorting facts, and misreporting my statements. Such pernicious and mala fide reporting must cease immediately. I would like to request the media to stop speculating on my communications with the Committee, and continue to respect my privacy.

Issued on 21.11.2013 at 4.45pm

https://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/statement-of-stella-james-21-11-2013-2/

Sexual abuse of Law Student by the Judge of Supreme Court now retired

Posted by: srinivas Mohanty November 12, 2013in FEATURED STORIES, NATIONAL Leave a comment

Sexual abuse of Law Student by the Judge of Supreme Court now retired.Stella James, who graduated from NUJS Kolkata this year and now works at the NGO Natural Justice, Lawyers for Communities and the Environment, wrote about an alleged incident of physical, sexual assault by an unnamed, retired Supreme Court judge in late 2012.

She made a narration of her experience of 24 December 2012, Christmas Eve, ironically against the backdrop of the then-ongoing Delhi gang rape protests:

“In Delhi at that time, interning during the winter vacations of my final year in University, I dodged police barricades and fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme Court judge whom I was working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed diligence, I was rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless violating) from a man old enough to be my grandfather. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that long after I’d left the room, the memory remained, in fact, still remains, with me.”

Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam on Tuesday constituted a three-judge committee headed by Justice R.M. Lodha to probe the allegation of a woman law intern that she was sexually harassed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court in 2012.

The committee, which includes Justices H.L. Dattu and Ranjana Desai, held a meeting and discussed the modalities of conducting the probe.

In the morning, advocate Manoharlal Sharma drew the attention of the CJI to a report published in an English newspaper under the title ‘intern alleges sexual harassment by Supreme Court judge’ and sought suo motu action. The CJI told him that he had seen the report and was aware of it.

In the afternoon, Attorney General (AG) G.E. Vahanvati told a Bench comprising the CJI and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh that he was filing a writ petition based on the newspaper report, which was based on a blog written by the intern on November 9 in the Journal of Indian Law and Society.

The AG said: “sexual harassment is an extremely serious matter and the court must look into it. The report gave rise to speculation amongst the members of the Bar and the public and the truth of the allegations must be probed.”

The CJI told the AG, “As the head of the institution [judiciary], I am also concerned about it. I am anxious whether the statement is true or not. In the cases of sexual harassment, we cannot take it lightly. We are taking steps. The matter was also mentioned at 10.30 a.m. by Mr. Sharma and during the lunch recess, I discussed this with other judges. I have constituted a committee comprising three judges. The committee will go into the whole affair and find out the facts and prepare the report and from today [Tuesday] evening they are going to start their work.”

The CJI said, “First, the committee will find out the correctness of the statement. There are records about interns or advocates who are associated with judges. Further entries are made about persons coming to the Supreme Court and the committee will go into all aspects. We have already framed guidelines.”

In his petition, the AG said: “allegations of sexual harassment are an extremely serious matter, more so when it concerns the highest judicial institution in the country and must receive prompt and immediate action. The matter should be properly investigated and the person who has made these allegations should be required to name the person and the matter be carried to its logical conclusion if the allegations are found to be correct. Equally if the allegations are unsubstantiated, then the law must take its course.”

The CJI told the AG that he was adjourning hearing on the petition by two weeks to await the outcome of the probe report.

http://odishabulletin.com/sexual-abuse-of-law-student-by-the-judge-of-supreme-court-now-retired/

Justice Ganguly named by law intern in sexual harassment case

New Delhi, Nov 29, 2013 (PTI)

Justice A K Ganguly, former judge of the Supreme Court, believed to have been accused by a law intern of sexual harassment, has recorded a statement before the three-judge committee, which has submitted its report.

The Committee headed by Justice R M Lodha submitted the report yesterday after recording the statement of Justice Ganguly, who is now heading the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, an apex court official said today.

Ganguly demitted office as Supreme Court judge on February 3, 2012.

"The committee constituted to inquire into the allegations of sexual harassment levelled by the law intern against a former SC judge held its meetings on November 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26 and 27.

"The statement of law intern was recorded. She had also submitted three affidavits. The statement of Mr. Justice (retired) A K Ganguly has also been recorded by the committee. The committee has submitted its report to the CJI on November 28," the official said in a statement.

Officials, however, did not give any further details of the findings of the committee comprising also Justices H L Dattu, and Ranjana Prakash Desai, which was constituted by the CJI on November 12.

The intern had earlier this month told a legal news portal that a "recently retired" judge with whom she was working earlier had sexually harassed.

Hit by the allegation, the Supreme Court constituted the three-judge committee to go into the charge of the intern.

Justice Ganguly was elevated to Supreme Court on December 17, 2008 and demitted office on February 3, 2012.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/371777/justice-ganguly-named-law-intern.html

Statement of Stella James

Posted on November 12, 2013by jilsblognujs

Date – 12.11.2013

Statement of Stella James

At around 2.30 pm today, a friend who practices in the Supreme Court called me up to inform that the Chief Justice has formed a committee to look into the issues raised in myblog post.

Since yesterday, a lot of media persons have tried to contact me – either directly or through the journal. Since the committee has now been constituted, I will depose before the Hon’ble judges. Thus, it won’t be appropriate for me to speak to members of the media anymore. Moreover, I have nothing more to say than whatever I have already said in my blog post and the interview I gave to Legally India. I hope all of you will understand my need for privacy.

I thank everyone who have been sending me supportive messages. In times like this, words of wisdom from seniors and good luck messages from friends help a lot. I was particularly touched by the numerous messages which I received from girls who have been at the receiving end of sexual harassment themselves.

http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/statement-of-stella-james/

Through My Looking Glass

We reproduce the full text of the blogpost by a young lawyer which has led to the Supreme Court appointing a three-member panel to probe sexual harassment charges against a retired judge

STELLA JAMES Nov. 12, 2013

Sometimes the most difficult things to write about are also the most essential. I feel this is especially true when many people, much more scholarly than oneself, have already said and written a lot around the issue, and yet your own experience does not seem to fit into the wide net that they’ve cast. Gandhi once said “I have something far more powerful than arguments, namely, experience”. And it is from these words that I derive what I consider the ‘value’ of this piece – not my experience per se, but from what I feel that my experience can tell us about much discussed issues in the country today.

Last December was momentous for the feminist movement in the country – almost an entire population seemed to rise up spontaneously against the violence on women, and the injustices of a seemingly apathetic government. In the strange irony of situations that our world is replete with, the protests were the backdrop of my own experience. In Delhi at that time, interning during the winter vacations of my final year in University, I dodged police barricades and fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme Court judge whom I was working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed diligence, I was rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless violating) from a man old enough to be my grandfather. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that long after I’d left the room, the memory remained, in fact, still remains, with me.

So what bothered me about this incident? As a conditioned member of the society, I had quickly “gotten over” the incident. But was that what worried me: that I had accepted what was essentially an ‘unacceptable’ situation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the crux of my unease lay in my inability to find a frame in which to talk, or even think, about my experience. While the incident affected me deeply, I felt little anger and almost no rancour towards the man; instead I was shocked and hurt that someone I respected so much would do something like this. My strongest reaction really, was overwhelming sadness. But this sort of response was new to me. That I could understand his actions and forgive him for them, or that I could continue to think of him as an essentially ‘good’ person, seemed a naïve position that were completely at odds with what I had come to accept was the “right” reaction to such incidents.

This emotional response was also completely at odds with the powerful feelings of righteous anger that the protestors in Delhi displayed. I am not trying to say that anger at the violence that women face is not a just or true response, but the polarization of women’s rights debates in India along with their intense emotionality, left me feeling that my only options were to either strongly condemn the judge or to betray my feminist principles. Perhaps this confusion came out of an inadequate understanding of feminist literature, but if so, isn’t then my skewed perception a failing of feminism itself? If the shared experiences of women cannot be easily understood through a feminist lens, then clearly there is a cognitive vacuum that feminism fails to fill. Feminists talk of the guilt a woman faces when sexually harassed, like it is her fault. I felt a similar guilt, except, my guilt wasn’t at being assaulted, but at not reacting more strongly than I did. The very perspective that was meant to help me make sense of my experiences as a woman was the one that obscured the resolution of the problem in my own mind, presumably an effect that feminism does not desire. And if not a result of feminist theory itself, the form that it has taken in India, especially after recent incidents of sexual assault, strengthened the feeling of “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” in a fight that I feel I can no longer take sides in.

All the talk during that time was of stricter punishment, of baying for the blood of “creepy” men. Five years of law school had taught me to look to the law for all solutions – even where I knew that the law was hopelessly inadequate – and my reluctance to wage a legal battle against the judge left me feeling cowardly. On reflection though, I cannot help but wonder why I should have felt that way. As mentioned earlier, I bore, and still bear, no real ill-will towards the man, and had no desire to put his life’s work and reputation in question. On the other hand, I felt I had a responsibility to ensure that other young girls were not put in a similar situation. But I have been unable to find a solution that allows that. Despite the heated public debates, despite a vast army of feminist vigilantes, despite new criminal laws and sexual harassment laws, I have not found closure. The lack of such an alternative led to my facing a crippling sense of intellectual and moral helplessness.

The incident is now a while behind me, and they say time heals all wounds. But during the most difficult emotional times, what helped me most was the ‘insensitivity’ of a close friend whose light-hearted mocking allowed me to laugh at an incident (and a man) that had caused me so much pain. Allowing myself to feel more than just anger at a man who violated me, something that I had never done before, is liberating! So, I want to ask you to think of one thing alone – when dealing with sexual violence, can we allow ourselves to embrace feelings beyond or besides anger, and to accept the complexity of emotions that we face when dealing with anytraumatic experience?

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288507

WEB | NOV 12, 2013

STATEMENT

'I Hope All Of You Will Understand My Need For Privacy'

I have nothing more to say than whatever I have already said in my blog post and the interview I gave to Legally India'

STELLA JAMES

At around 2.30 pm today, a friend who practices in the Supreme Court called me up to inform that the Chief Justice has formed a committee to look into the issues raised in my blog post.

Since yesterday, a lot of media persons have tried to contact me – either directly or through the journal. Since the committee has now been constituted, I will depose before the Hon’ble judges. Thus, it won’t be appropriate for me to speak to members of the media anymore. Moreover, I have nothing more to say than whatever I have already said in my blog post and the interview I gave to Legally India. I hope all of you will understand my need for privacy.

I thank everyone who have been sending me supportive messages. In times like this, words of wisdom from seniors and good luck messages from friends help a lot. I was particularly touched by the numerous messages which I received from girls who have been at the receiving end of sexual harassment themselves.

1/D-116 NOV 13, 2013 03:11 PM	Malicious Hyper reporting MISOGYNIST CHENNAI, INDIA PERMALINK \| LIKE (1) \| DISLIKE (1) \| REPORT ABUSE
2/D-161 NOV 13, 2013 10:40 PM	It is thanks to malicious hyper reporting like these, that accusations made by any female against a male, sticks MISOGYNIST CHENNAI, INDIA PERMALINK \| LIKE (1) \| DISLIKE (0) \| REPORT ABUSE

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288508

AG Clears Proposal for Prez Reference on A.K.Ganguly

NEW DELHI | DEC 20, 2013

Attorney General G E Vahanvati is today learnt to have endorsed a government proposal for a presidential reference for removal of Justice (Retd) A K Ganguly as head of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in the wake of his indictment by a Supreme Court panel for "unwelcome behaviour" towards a woman law intern.

The Law Ministry and the Home Ministry are already in agreement that prima facie a case can be made out against the former Supreme Court judge, sources said here.

The matter was referred to Attorney General Vahanvati for his view on the government's stand as part of the laid down procedure.

In his opinion, to be forwarded to the Home Ministry soon, the AG is learnt to have said that there was sufficient evidence against the former SC judge and it was a fit case for a Presidential reference.

The stand of the Law Ministry and the AG are based, among other things, on the report of the three-judge SC committee which went into the allegations of the law intern.

The Home Ministry had recently referred the matter to the Law Ministry. The Home Ministry will now take a final view on the issue.

The move came after President Pranab Mukherjee referred to the Home Ministry a letter by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking Ganguly's removal from the high post following a woman law intern's allegation of sexual harassment against the former judge. Justice Ganguly has strongly denied the charge and refused to quit his post.

The Presidential reference to be made to the apex court will have to be cleared by the Union Cabinet before it is sent to the President.

The Protection of Human Rights Act is clear that a Chairperson or member of the NHRC or a state human rights commission can only be removed "by order of the President of India on the grounds of proven misbehaviour or incapacity after the Supreme Court, on reference being made to it by the President, has, on enquiry reported that the Chairperson or the member, as the case may be, ought on any such ground to be removed."

FILED ON: DEC 20, 2013 21:28 IST

http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=821798

Published: December 24, 2013 11:43 IST | Updated: December 24, 2013 13:51 IST

Intern hints at filing police complaint against Ganguly

PTI

Members of civil rights group protest against retired Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly, outside the headquaters of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in Kolkata. File photo: Sushanta Patronobish

The HinduMembers of civil rights group protest against retired Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly, outside the headquaters of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in Kolkata. File photo: Sushanta Patronobish

Her comments came a day after Justice Ganguly wrote to the Chief Justice of India saying there was a "concerted move" to tarnish his image.

A former law intern, who had accused the former Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly of sexual harassment, has hit back at him for denying the charges and hinted that she may file a police complaint.

“Those who have been spreading rumours and politicising the issue, are doing so out of prejudice and malice to obfuscate the issue and escape scrutiny and accountability,” the intern wrote on her blog on Legally India.

Her comments came a day after Justice Ganguly had written an eight-page letter to Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, denying that he had sexually harassed the intern and alleging there was a “palpable design” to malign him because of the judgements he had given against “powerful quarters”.

Indicating that she may lodge a police complaint, the intern said, “I request that it be acknowledged that I have the discernment to pursue appropriate proceedings at appropriate times. I ask that my autonomy be respected fully.”

The intern said that any one claiming that her statements were false was showing disrespect not just to her but also to the Supreme Court.

“I would like to state that I have acted with utmost responsibility throughout, keeping in mind the seriousness of this situation,” she said.

Six comments:

This is very dangerous trend in India. If country is not able to go by the due
process to determine the guilt even of Supreme court justice, then there is some
thing wrong. It is not that this young woman telling the truth or not, but how and
who will determine that is the question. Is it not possible some women to wrongly
accuse?. It is not that Ganguly should be protected, but what he seem to be
asking is to have due process, until then he should continue. Imagine if some one
accuses a sitting supreme court justice, or even chief justice, or president. Not that
these guys are not capable of doing such things, but there should be due process,
which should be quick, which should be not in public. If there is no due process,
people will lose faith on such good legal instruments to protect women and their
dignity.

from: B.Gujja

Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 14:13 IST

Why Hon; Supreme Court is shying from acting firmly on the issue so as
the truth is out in open. All the three players are Viz; The victim,
accused and panel are playing safe and media is blowing the news
disproportionately.

from: Pradei

Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 13:54 IST

I agree with the views of the two previous comments. What the media is doing now, is sheer business; no concurrence to the law of the land. If such is the case, anyone can make some comments about anybody in some blog and with sufficient influence or money power, can make the media take up the matter, and cause immense damage to the reputation of anyone. And, imagine the mental condition of justice Ganguly if he is innocent. Can he ever redeem his reputation? What is going on?

from: george varghese

Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 13:43 IST

The way this episode is unraveling, it appears that the lady intern has
been trying to blackmail Justice Ganguly. Let us wait for the CJI's
response.

from: S.A.Krishnan

Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 13:15 IST

Who prevented her from filing a complaint to Police?It is sheer black mailing and that is what required by the accused , culprits and collaborators punished by the Justice.What a tragedy of events and dramas enacted?.All these accusations and counter accusations will lead people lose faith in human decency and law of rule.If you have money and men you can organize any protests, jathas and mudslinging.Beware the Judges handling sensitive cases and scams, the evil spirits are around you and surround you.

from: Dr K V Peter

Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 12:56 IST

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/intern-hints-at-filing-police-complaint-against-ganguly/article5496862.ece

Did the Harappans of Indus Valley Civilization know writing? The question might come as a shock for many of us. The first retort to the question might well be “what then are the numerous Indus inscriptions retrieved from archaeological excavations?” Most of us interested in the subject have just been waiting for a consensus on the decipherment of script but none has ever contemplated the possibility of a “no script” theory. But the importance of this “no script” theory was validated by expectations and anticipations from a research paper published some time back.

A team of researchers led by University of Washington associate professor and computer scientist Rajesh Rao confirmed in a recent study that the Indus script did encode a language. The findings of the paper titled ”Entropic Evidence for Linguistic Structure in the Indus Script”published in the Science journal Vol. 324 Issue 5926, April 24, 2009 and co-authored by Rajesh P. N. Rao, Nisha Yadav, Mayank N. Vahia, Hrishikesh Joglekar, R. Adhikari and Iravatham Mahadevan would have come as a mere statement of the obvious but for the significance the paper assumed in the light of an earlier controversial research paper titled “The Collapse of the Indus Script Thesis: The myth of a literate Harappan civilization” published jointly by Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat and Michael Witzel in the Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies of 02/11/2004.

The second mentioned research paper would have also gone unnoticed had it not carried the inordinate credence that comes easily with the authority of high positions in prestigious Universities. Steve Farmer holds a Ph. D. in comparative cultural history from Stanford University. His colleague Richard Sproat of University of Illinois and the Beckman Institute is one of the leading computational linguists with a number of publications to his credit. The third of the trio, Prof. Michael Witzel, Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard and editor of the prestigious Harvard Oriental Series needs no introduction amongst scholars or lay readers with the slightest interest in Indology.

However, Farmer and Witzel, besides their scholarship, are also known for their haughty demeanour and aggression in academic circles. Both of them are arduous supporters of Aryan Invasion Theory. Witzel in particular has also become notorious for his consistent anti Hindu rants too. He has remained as much in news for his academics as for championing the cause against “communal” Hindutva forces in India and their “obnoxious” limbs in USA. The political beliefs of authors and the bearings of their convictions on scholarship can be debated but their importance, particularly in the context of Indian History establishment, cannot be denied. The enormous influence these authors carry with our establishment Historians is demonstrated in an instance where Prof. R.S. Sharma, founding chairman of ICHR, lapped upon a mistranslation of a verse from Baudhayana Shrauta Sutra by Prof. Witzel to claim the hitherto missing testimony of an Aryan Invasion from the corpus of Vedic literature. In a major embarrassment to Prof. Sharma and other AIT supporters, Witzel himself was forced to concede the mistake, which he later blamed on a printing error, when confronted by Belgian scholar Koenraad Elst but not before Prof. Sharma had gleefully reproduced it as “the most explicit statement of an immigration into the subcontinent” in his Advent of the Aryans.

Coming to the paper “The Collapse of the Indus Script Thesis”, the trio makes a sensational claim that Harappans of Indus Valley Civilization were illiterates, incapable of encoding language in the form of a script. Whatever Indus Valley inscriptions have been retrieved on clay seals, steatites, pots, potsherds, metal seals, copper plates, terracotta, ivory artefacts, rocks etc., are according to the authors, nothing more than “abstract religious-political signs,” serving the utility of a multilinguistic society. The authors are also convinced that these inscriptions would have been used for invoking magic and depicting sacrificial rituals.

The main contentions of their thesis are one, “the brevity of inscriptions”; second, the absence of archaeological evidence for possibility of writings on perishable materials and third; the “paradox between high sign repetition rates in the Indus corpus against the low sign frequency in individual inscriptions”.

It is a fact that the average length of Indus inscriptions, according to Mahadevan’s concordance arrives at a measly 4.6 signs length. The longest inscription on one surface carries only 17 signs and less than one percent of all catalogued inscriptions have a length of more than 10 signs. In fact the typical briefness of Indus inscriptions is indeed a major impediment in the decipherment of Indus Script. Farmer et al contend that the brevity of Indus inscriptions “is unparalleled in any literate civilization represented by even a fraction of the number of inscriptions in the Indus corpus.”

Contesting their argument, Dr Gunter Dryer, an Egyptologist holds that the mean word length of “comparable” Egyptian texts is 6.94 as against that of the Indus texts which is 7.39 showing no statistical difference. Dryer has also found phonetically readable Egyptian hieroglyphic texts with as few as two symbols. Asko Parpola, Finnish linguist from University of Helsinki with a formidable Corpus of Indus seals to his name is equally convinced that a logo-syllabic (combination of logograms and syllables) script, which many scholars hold the Indus script to be, of Sumerian type with an average sign length in Indus Script is quite sufficient to convey linguistic messages. Parpola says that even single character logo syllabic inscriptions representing composite signs consisting two or more components are enough to convey titles and nouns. Iravatham Mahadevan, the famous Dravidian linguist also dismisses the short inscription argument of Farmer et al. In his words, “seal texts tend to be short universally. Further, the Indus script appears to consist mostly of word signs (logograms). Such a script will have a lesser number of characters and repetitions than a (completely) syllabic script.”

Farmer et al’s argument concerning the ‘absence of expected archaeological evidence to support the “lost manuscripts thesis” also doesn’t impress many scholars. Farmer et al contend that if any lengthier documents on perishable materials had existed, as suggested by archaeologists and palaeographers to compensate for the short inscriptions on seals etc., some by-products of these Indus artefacts or markers such as writing paraphernalia or representations of scribes etc. should have been found in archaeological excavations. The manuscript tradition of Indus Valley writing, however, has been attested by the appearance of Harappan signs on later Indian pottery dating to 9th century B.C.E. at least. BB Lal discovered that almost 90% of graffiti marks on megalithic red and black ware had affinity to Indus Valley signs. In fact it was this discovery which recommended the reading of Indus Script from right to left, a view later confirmed by Mahadevan. Parpola in his criticism of the paper mentions Yajnavalkya Smriti as well as the testimony of Alexander’s admiral Nearchus to cite the usage of cotton cloth as writing material from 500 B.C.E. onwards at least. He points out that the preserved examples of writing on cotton cloth appear, however, only after thirteenth century C.E. Similarly from the long Asokan inscriptions carved on pillars it can be safely presumed that similar or lengthier writings would have existed on perishable materials also, though no such specimens have ever been discovered.

There is nonetheless an interesting aspect to the argumentum ad absentium employed by scholars such as Farmer and Witzel. They take recourse in it when they find it convenient to promote their pet theories and prejudices as in the above case or as in the touted case of missing Horse seals (enough evidence from excavations at Surkotada-AK Sharma, Lothal-SR Rao, Kalibangan-Sharma, Aravalli Hills-Ghosh etc. has proved the domestication of equus caballus by Harappans ). On the other hand they refuse to consider the complete absence of any archaeological or literary evidence in support of Aryan invasion or migration in India.

In the third contention titled “paradoxical sign frequencies” of the paper which is dealt at quite a length, Farmer et al assert that “the high sign repetition rates in the Indus corpus overall contrast sharply with low sign repetition rates in individual inscriptions, which suggest that little if any sound encoding existed in the system”. The authors also note that a large number of signs in the Indus corpus (27% of Mahadevan’s concordance) occur only once in 13,372 sign occurrences and that 52% in the same concordance show up only five times or less. The authors suggest that in any evolving script the percentage of these singletons should be dropping progressively whereas this percentage, over the time, appears to be rising instead.

Yet again this assertion is contradicted by the observance of a high percentage of signs in Chinese writing system which are rarely ever used in Chinese newspapers. The high number of singletons has also been held by many scholars as representations of derivative signs inserted for the purposes of a clearer understanding of the texts. But it isn’t only the thrilling if not altogether incontrovertible arguments propounded by Farmer et al which merit serious criticism; their curt dismissal of “positional statistical regularities” in individual inscriptions as exaggeration also does injustice to the script theory. In fact “positional statistical regularities” of signs in Indus inscriptions strongly approves of a written script. Further, the authors ignore that the twenty or so high repetition signs in the Indus script are all very simplified signs clearly implying a higher stage of evolution of written script.

Moreover the “illiterate Harappans” model proposed by Farmer, Sproat and Witzel claims a rather asymmetric development of Harappans of Indus Valley Civilization. These Harappans had the best town planning of their times, fairly good knowledge of astronomy, an efficient transportation system as depicted in the terracotta figurines of the times, a wonderful irrigation system of canals, a perfect weights and measure system (the anna and pi) which was being followed till recently and extensive business with its literate Mesopotamian neighbours among various other accomplishments to their credit. But according to the authors, somehow, they neither could develop a written script of their own nor borrow it from their literate Sumerian or Akkadian neighbours.

To their credit the authors do not leave the issue unaddressed. Theorising on the possible reasons which could have forced the ruling Harappan elite (amounting to a rather amazing consensus among the large number of rulers, if the authors are not considering the entire one million square area of the Civilization as one Principality) to consciously oppose writing, they attribute it “to the threats (the writing could have) posed to whatever control the symbols gave them over Indus populations.” The reader is made to wonder if the introduction of written scripts in other ancient civilizations had caused the first “revolutions”!

The aggressive, provocative and sensational style of the paper and the brash conduct of the authors-they have announced an award of $10,000 for anyone finding an Indus inscription longer than 50 signs and termed the paper “Entropic Evidence…” as “…garbage in garbage out”-despite the faltering nature of their own hypothesis begs some explanation.

Western Indology with its roots in German nationalism, its concomitant anti Semitism, European Colonialism and Christian Evangelism, from its very inception has invested heavily in the Aryan Invasion Theory. In India it found ready cahoots in Marxist historians who had their own socio-political axes to grind. When the invasion model was found to be completely untenable, a variant called Aryan Migration Theory (more or less on the previous lines) hypothesising the immigration of Indo European Aryans from an unidentified location in Central Asia in small groups around 1500 BCE was mooted. These migrants then despite their low numeric strength, according to the hypothesis, somehow managed to impose their language and prevail culturally over the original inhabitants (Harappans) of Indus Valley. The descendants of these immigrant Aryans then went on to compose Rig-Veda in a language they had brought with them.

A number of bogus arguments such as the missing Horse seals, differences in the religions of Harappan and Vedic culture or the ignorance of iron amongst Harappans as against the knowledge of it and its prolific use by the Vedics have been advanced to create a cleavage between the Harappan age (before 1500 B.C.E.) and the Vedic age (after 1500 B.C.E.). However none of the arguments proffered for even an AMT can be validated. K.D. Sethna, David Frawley, Natwar Jha and N.S. Rajaram have shown that religious practices, rituals and cults of Harappans and Vedics were not unrelated and that the former, in fact, was a progression over the latter, thus completely overturning the carefully crafted chronology by invasionists and immigrationists. This reversed chronology offered by these scholars is supported by the recent multidisciplinary approach in the study of prehistoric India. The missing Horse seal argument stands demolished in the light of Horse skeletons found in various excavations. The argument about iron presents an interesting case study in the kind of expedient speculation peddled as serious research by invasionists. The invasionist in this case is the Harvard Professor himself giving us a glimpse of his shoddy scholarship. For long, iron and its use in making weaponry was projected as an Aryan introduction to India. Recent excavations, however, have discovered iron artefacts at various Harappan sites and substratum. But Prof. Witzel who would not allow some obscure antique pieces to upset the reputations of invasionist Indologists claimed the iron of these artefacts to be of meteoric origin!

The entire Indo European invasion/migration theory is riddled with more of such absurdities and despite the Herculean efforts of committed scholarships the inherent paradoxes in the Harappan- Vedic relation refuse to be contained. One such apparent paradox which has come to be known as Frawley’s paradox points at a fundamental contradiction. David Frawley, Vedic scholar from U.S., points out that Harappans in the Indo European migration/invasion model have a wonderful civilization with sophisticated town planning, international trade, impressive craftsmanship, knowledge of metallurgy and what not but do not show up any literature to their credit. On the other hand Vedic Aryans have a world class and prolific literature without a commensurate civilized Urheimat (a mythical homeland of the Indo European Aryans proposed by scholars obsessed with the Indo European model). The picture becomes clear when we view the two as one. Such a scenario however spells the collapse of AIT/AMT and doom for the upholders of this fantastic theory. Witzel, Farmer and Sproat’s assertion that the Harappans were illiterate is an exercise in reinforcing the delineation between Harappans and Vedic Aryans.

Rao et al’s paper uses the Markov model, a statistical method to estimate the meaning of unknown symbols in the context of known symbols, as a computational tool for investigating ancient scripts. The results of this study confirm that the Indus script signs show some order as well as flexibity. This according to the researchers is a typical feature of spoken languages which fall between the two extremes of strict order for pictorial representations and a random pattern for non-linguistic systems.

Most scholars agree that the paper, beyond its confirmation of a language in the Indus script, may not be much useful in deciphering the script as such. But the challenge to the decipherment comes from the entrenched political biases given to competing Proto Dravidian, Vedic Sanskrit and Proto Munda hypotheses for the Harappan language. Coming around a broad consensus in such a scenario is tough but the task calls for reappraisals of existing decipherments with open minds, arriving at common grounds to pursue further efforts and if needed, altogether fresh approaches rather than yield to the bunk “no script” hypothesis by Farmer, Witzel and Sproat.

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Why Hon; Supreme Court is shying from acting firmly on the issue so as
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accused and panel are playing safe and media is blowing the news
disproportionately.

The way this episode is unraveling, it appears that the lady intern has
been trying to blackmail Justice Ganguly. Let us wait for the CJI's
response.