MUMBAI — Amina Wadud, an American scholar who has spoken widely on women’s role in Islam, has said that lectures she was scheduled to give last week to students and faculty at the University of Madras, in Chennai, were canceled after the organizer said the police were concerned about maintaining law and order.

Dr. Wadud said on Thursday in a telephone interview from the southern Indian city of Kozhikode, where she is staying, that P.K. Abdul Rahiman, an assistant professor at the university’s Center for Islamic Studies, the event’s organizer, had told her that “some development” with the police would prevent the lectures.

Mr. Rahiman confirmed that the police had contacted him to say they were “anticipating a law and order problem” if Dr. Wadud spoke. Mr. Rahiman said he had subsequently received a text message from the authorities saying that the “police can not allow this considering law and order. Plz take action to suspend/cancel the program.”

The police said a previous appearance by Dr. Wadud had led to an “incident” in Tamil Nadu, the state where the university is located, though Dr. Wadud said she had not visited the area before.