HYDERABAD: Eminent Indologist and Sanskrit scholar Audrey Truschke, who was scheduled to deliver a talk on Aurangzeb and other aspects of Indian history in Hyderabad on August 11, has expressed regrets over denial of permission by the police. She was scheduled to talk on “Aurangzeb: The Man and The Myth” among other subjects at BM Birla Science Centre in the city.

Not just Birla Science Centre, even owners of other meeting halls refused to rent out their premises for her talk reportedly on police advice due to threats from right-wing groups. On Wednesday, Truschke took to Twitter and Facebook to officially announce the cancellation of her Hyderabad programme during her current India visit.

She blamed RSS and BJP for the cancellation and described it as a “sad day for the pursuit of knowledge and academic freedom”. “The subject of ‘Unpopular Stories’ proved a bit too true, perhaps, when the Hindu Right protested to the police...,” Truschke, an assistant professor at Rutgers University in Newark, US wrote on her Facebook page, adding that the organisers took the decision after being informed by the Hyderabad police that several individuals had written letters protesting against her appearance.

“I saw only one such letter, and it was from an individual with self-admitted connections to RSS and BJP,” she wrote.

