Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan are among the world's most important contemporary philosophers. Dwivedi and Mohan have developed their thought beyond the “western” concept of philosophy, within a community of friendship with Jean-Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler, Achille Mbembe, and Barbara Cassin.

Their project with Jean-Luc Nancy is to find a new beginning for philosophy beyond the geo-politicised and "racialised" histories of philosophy, while acknowledging the insights of the deconstruction of philosophy undertaken by Heidegger and Derrida. Their research contributions are valuable not just with regard to the discipline of philosophy, but also for sciences and politics.

Their extraordinary commitment to justice, equality, and the political freedom of people everywhere in the world comes at a serious price.

In India, where they reside, they face harassment and death threats on social media on a regular basis. These threats are significant. In recent years, while foreign intellectuals have been denied entry into India, Indian intellectuals have been jailed or assassinated. Last year it was reported in French daily Le Monde that Dwivedi and Mohan faced decapitation threats from the Hindu far-right in India; on that occasion, Nancy wrote of his support for them in daily Libération, when he condemned their situation.

The research contributions of Dwivedi and Mohan on the caste oppression in India—which they called the oldest form of racism and apartheid—is at the root of the animosity towards them from the Hindu far-right in India. As Dwivedi and Mohan have demonstrated several times, caste oppression is often masked as Hindu majoritarianism. While there is widespread awareness about the oppression of religious minorities in India, the world is yet to catch up with the realities of caste oppression.

They have also shown that, in India, postcolonial theory and the decolonial project are both aimed at restoring the upper caste supremacist idea. Their renowned work on M. K. Gandhi,  Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics appeared with a foreword by Jean-Luc Nancy. In this complex work they argue that Gandhi’s contributions towards creating the postcolonial and decolonial projects should be understood to combat new forms of racism and political tendencies.

We express solidarity with the philosophers Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan. We are deeply concerned about the harassments, the highly stressful atmosphere of intimidation, and death threats faced by Dwivedi and Mohan.

You can sign the petition here

Signatories :

Etienne Balibar (philosophie)

Slavoj Žižek (philosophie)

Barbara Cassin (philosophie)

Emily Apter (philosophie)

Stuart Kauffman (sciences)

Antonio Negri (philosophie)

Judith Revel (philosophie)

Hélène Nancy (philosophie)

Augustin Nancy (droit)

Ana Soto (sciences)

Patrice Maniglier (philosophie)

Frédéric Worms (philosophie)

Maël Montévil (philosophie et sciences)

Kamran Baradaran (philosophie et littérature)

Anthony Ballas (philosophie)

Daniel Tutt  (philosophie)

Jean-Claude Monod (philosophie et cinéma)

Mazarine Pingeot (philosophie)

Jacob Rogozinski  (philosophie)

Giuseppe Longo (philosophie et sciences)

Carlos Sonnenschein (sciences)

Aspen Ballas (humanités)

Paul-Antoine Miquel (philosophie)

Céline Flécheux (philosophie)

Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen (littérature)

Ginette Michaud (littérature)

Sophie Wahnich (histoire)

Todd McGowan (philosophie)

Marc Crépon (philosophie)

Robert Beshara (psychologie)

André Bernold (littérature)

Jean-Christophe Bailly (littérature)

Georges Didi-Huberman (philosophie)

Mathieu Potte-Bonneville (philosophie)

Nicholas Bernold (littérature)

Michel Surya (littérature)

Nicolas André (technologie)

Suzanne Doppelt (littérature)

Boyan Manchev (philosophie)

Marcia Cavalcante Schuback (philosophie)

Myriam Revault d’Allonnes (philosophie)

Matteo Mossio (philosophie)

Anne E. Berger (littérature)

Rodolphe Burger (arts)

Olivier Landau (technologie)