THREAD: Did you know that a student filed a complaint against Hindu professors at @dartmouth just bc they were Hindu?
Didn’t hear about it? Our team investigated the biggest Hinduphobic scandal in Dartmouth’s history. First and foremost, while we recognize that the details of the case are sensitive and centered around sexual harassment, this will not be the focus of the thread. So, what happened?
Maha Hasan Alshawi was a graduate student at Dartmouth College. In February 2020, Alshawi met with Dartmouth’s Deputy Title IX Coordinator Gary Sund and Title IX Coordinator Kristi Clemens to report an alleged incident of sexual harassment. She had reported that her research advisor, Professor Li, “touched his private area inappropriately” for 20 to 30 seconds. The professor denied the allegations and maintained that at the time of the alleged incident he was in Macau, China and Washington, D.C. for conferences.
Alshawi was also one of Professor Prasad Jayanti’s TAs for an undergraduate course, CS 31. In March 2020, Alshawi sought permission from Professor Jayanti, to enroll in CS 231, an advanced graduate course, based on having served as a TA for CS 31. Since the semester had elapsed already, Prof Jayanti offered to administer the course’s final exam to “assess [Alshawi’s] own readiness to take CS 231.” Based on her performance, Prof Jayanti advised that Alshawi take CS 31 for credit before attempting the graduate course. Alshawi disputed Prof Jayanti’s assessment & alleged that he had prevented her from taking CS 231 as retaliation for the investigation she had launched against her colleague.
Alshawi further alleged that such actions were made on the basis of her religion and thus constituted discrimination. She also made allegations against two other computer science faculty members, Professors Amit Chakrabarti and Deeparnab Chakrabarty. On April 9, Alshawi submitted an official complaint to Dean Kull with her concerns about Professors Jayanti & Chakrabarti. On June 9, Alshawi made a Facebook post alleging “abuse of power” by Jayanti wherein he had “unfairly failed her on an CS 31 exam”.
On June 16, she filed a complaint with Dartmouth’s Institutional Diversity and Equity Office (IDE) through its director, Antonio Ferrantino. Dartmouth first conducted an internal inquiry into these– among other– allegations and found that the professors had not “violated any professional obligation or Dartmouth policy.”
When presented with the findings on June 28, Alshawi disputed that the investigation was fair and began a hunger strike on July 14 demanding a second investigation. Following intense public pressure, Dartmouth College Registrar & Assistant Dean for the Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies, Gary Hutchins, began an e-mail correspondence with Alshawi in which he offered an external investigation into her claims of misconduct.
Bizzare claims
So, what were Maha’s claims?
- In her interview with Dartmouth’s IDE director Antonio Ferrantino, Alshawi revealed that “she believed that Hindus like seeing Muslims tortured” and she therefore believed the Hindu faculty members were “abusing” her.
Because Alshawi never presented any specific allegations against Professor Deeparnab Chakrabarty, Ferrantino prompted Alshawi to divulge the particular allegations she was making against him. Alshawi responded, in an e-mail dated 30 June 2020, “As I said before, Professor Jayanti, Professor Amit [Chakrabarti], Professor Deeparnab [Chakrabarty], and Student 3 all belong to the same religion, and they are all friends and colleagues.” Same religion = Hindu
Ferrantino concluded, “[Alshawi] believes she was abused and harassed because she was Muslim and he was Hindu, but she didn’t provide specifics.” Thus, her basis for complaining against at least one of the faculty members, Professor Chakrabarty, was merely that he also happened to be Hindu and a colleague of Professor Jayanti. Alshawi reported, “I have been told that Prof. Prasad Jayanti belongs to an Anti Muslim organization called RSS, and he also failed me in his course as a retaliation of reporting a sexual harassment incident [against Li].” As Ferrantino recounts, “The allegation that was investigated is very specific— she believes Student 3 was working as Prasad [Jayanti]’s agent and was directed to ask about her religion. She believes Prasad was a member of a Hindu group [the RSS].”
On June 29, a University investigator concluded that “IDE had jurisdiction to inquire on the following:
- That Professor Jayanti is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and he had an animus towards Ms. Hasan, for being a Muslim.
- That Professor Jayanti had instructed Student 3, his graduate student, to speak with Ms. Hasan and inquir[e] about her religion.
Alshawi claimed she “was told this and found out by someone from India.” However, she did not share who told her this, merely that like Professor Jayanti, they were from India. Alshawi also linked reduced communication with Professor Jayanti’s daughter (also a computer science graduate student) and Student 3, his graduate student, following her various complaints to the professor’s attempts to isolate her within the department because she was Muslim.
Later written notes taken by Ferrantino show that on July 10, 2020, Professor Jayanti was asked to discuss his religious affiliation as part of the investigation. He replied that he was Hindu. In a later interview with Cozen O’Connor, he also recounted as part of his biographical details that he had served as the faculty advisor for Dartmouth’s Hindu student organization, Shanti, and thereby was also the Hindu minister on Dartmouth’s United Campus Ministries (UCM). Prof Jayanti denied being a member of the RSS. He stated that even if he had been, he still “would have continued to treat Maha fairly, regardless of her religion.” He denied asking any students to speak with Alshawi about her religion; Student 3 also denied being approached by Jayanti for any such undertaking or doing it on their own.
A post on Twitter made in response to @justice4mahahasan went so far as to call Professor Jayanti, “abusive Hindutva scum.” (see below) On July 26, Prof Jayanti sent communication from unknown persons speaking on Alshawi’s behalf via e-mail and Twitter that he considered to be threatening in nature, to the Hanover Police Department.
A summary of the situation
A student filed a complaint against a Hindu professor for no other reason other than “Hindus love to see Muslims tortured” and that he came from an Indian background. This cascaded into a witch hunt of Hindu professors and students who were harassed, intimidated and threatened with violence.
Dartmouth college’s campus atmosphere is hostile towards Hindus. In March 2020, @Students_A_H held a Holi Against Hindutva protest at Dartmouth College. Well… only 5 students showed up (😂) We are sure that’s a huge success lmaooo 😉
We call on Dartmouth to end its witch hunt of Hindu students and professors.