A talk by scientist and Urdu poet Gauhar Raza at the Indian Institute of Technology-BHU in Varanasi was on Tuesday cancelled just hours before it was slated to be held.

Raza said in a social media post that when he tried to ascertain the reason for the cancellation, he was told that a faculty member objected to him delivering the talk and put pressure on the organisers.

Raza was informed in an email on Tuesday morning that the lecture had been cancelled “due to unavoidable circumstances”.

Raza was to deliver a virtual lecture on the “Confluence of Literature, Science and Consciousness”. The event was organised by the IIT-BHU Lit Club, a group created by students pursuing literary interests.

“It was essentially a literary discussion – a lecture followed by questions and answers,” Raza told Scroll. “I expected barely 20 to 25 students to attend it. But unfortunately, it turned into a huge controversy.”

Scroll tried to contact Swati Biswas, the chairperson of the press and publicity committee at IIT-BHU, for a comment, but got no response. One of the organisers of the event declined to comment on the matter. This article will be updated if the institution responds.

The scientist and author said that because the organisers were young students rather than political activists, he did not press them for the reasons behind the cancellation. “I did not want to put them in an awkward situation,” he said.

However, Raza added: “If the fundamentalists were involved in stopping this event, then there is no difference between this and what happened in Bengal with [poet-lyricist] Javed Akhtar.”

Earlier this month, the West Bengal Urdu Academy postponed a four-day literary event in Kolkata after Islamic groups objected to Akhtar’s participation.

The Jamiat Ulema Kolkata’s General Secretary Zillur Rehman Arif had warned that protests similar to the ones in 2007 that forced Bangla author Taslima Nasreen to “leave Bengal” could be held if Ahktar were to attend the event.

Commenting on the events in Kolkata, Raza said: “We are pushing our country to a situation where we are becoming a reflection of Pakistan. [In the IIT-BHU case], if it was indeed an administrative intervention because somebody objected, then this is what has been happening in Pakistan.”

Raza was a chief scientist with the National Institute of Science Communication at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology. He is also an Urdu poet and social activist.

Raza directed a documentary on the 1857 war of independence, titled Jung-e-Azadi. He also made a documentary on 2002 riots in Gujarat, titled Evil Stalks the Land.

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