Anthropologist Osella, expert on Kerala's religious reforms, asked to leave upon arrival; no reasons given

Renowned anthropologist and social scientist Filippo Osella who arrived in Thiruvananthapuram from the UK on Thursday morning was asked to return the moment he landed at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.

Osella, who was the head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sussex and was celebrated for his thorough understanding of Kerala's cultural and religious trends, flew down to Thiruvananthapuram to attend a three-day conference on livelihood issues related to the coastal communities in Kerala. Those with whom Osella had been in touch told Onmanorama that Osella was given no specific reason for this ban on his entry.

"He told us that the immigration officials had put him through the usual checks and after ascertaining his identity was told that he was not supposed to enter India. Osella had all the valid documents. Osella was told that they were acting on the instructions of the India government," an academic who was part of the conference said. Osella was supposed to present his studies on the community-level adaptation of coastal communities.

An Emirates flight official was at the Airport to facilitate his return to the UK through Dubai. Osella has a one-year research visa that is valid till the end of April.

Though it is not clear what prompted Osella's sudden India ban, Osella's studies of Muslim reform movement in Kerala were at odds with the Hindutva argument.

Here is what Osella states in his seminal study 'Islamism and Social Reform in Kerala, South India': "We perceive strong academic trends of frank distaste for reformism, which is then inaccurately - and dangerously buttressing Hindutva rhetoric - branded as going against the grain of South Asian society. This often goes along with the inaccurate branding of all reformism as 'foreign inspired' or wah'habi."