Declare criminal cases against Kancha Ilaiah illegal, writer moves Hyd HC

“An idea can be ridiculed by its critics only through the same medium and not through criminal cases," the HC was told.
Declare criminal cases against Kancha Ilaiah illegal, writer moves Hyd HC
Declare criminal cases against Kancha Ilaiah illegal, writer moves Hyd HC
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The Hyderabad High Court on Monday adjourned a petition filed by social scientist and writer Kancha Ilaiah, seeking to quash criminal cases registered against him.

Appearing for Kancha, senior counsel A Satya Prasad informed the court that there were three criminal cases filed against the writer even though the Supreme Court refused to ban his book Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution.

“An idea or a thought process can be ridiculed by its critics only through the same medium and not through physical attacks and criminal cases. You cannot put together some scattered statements from a book to make out a case against the professor,” Kancha Ilaiah’s counsel was quoted as saying.

Last month, the writer faced massive protests from Arya Vysya groups across Telangana and Andhra, for describing the trading community as social smugglers in his Telugu booklet "Samaajika smugglerlu komatollu", which was an excerpt from his book.

Arya Vysya communities sought a ban on the book and the arrest of the writer for hurting their sentiments.

The Supreme Court on October 15 refused to ban the book.

Ilaiah has alleged that the governments of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were trying to suppress freedom of expression.

Kancha has defended his book, telling reporters earlier, "Social Smuggling is a phrase. It is the economic process of exploitation, which means earning in business but not investing back into society."

In an interview, he also said, “It is a sociological book about each caste’s sociological, psychological and economic character. In this book, the Vysyas figured as one chapter. They think that nobody should write about them, whatever culture they have is great. Whatever the culture, Sociology has to analyse it and Anthropology has to examine.”

“I have examined their sociological nature and some of the anthropological data was brought into it. If they say nobody should write on us, then how does it work? The Social Sciences have to study every caste and every community,” he added.

He was a professor from the political science department from Osmania University and is currently the Director, Center for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) in Hyderabad.

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