MIT Suspends Indian-Origin PhD Scholar Over Pro-Palestine Essay, Sparks Debate On Free Speech

PhD scholar of Indian origin Prahlad Iyengar has been suspended from MIT over a pro-Palestine essay for Written Revolution, a multidisciplinary student magazine.

Prahlad Iyengar was pursuing a PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Source : X/@LilPayLoad

An Indian-origin PhD scholar has been barred from entering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after he wrote a pro-Palestine essay for the college magazine last month.  

Prahlad Iyengar was pursuing a PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Iyengar has been suspended till January 2026 which would terminate his five-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

According to The Boston Globe, Iyengar was suspended on December 4 and is appealing the decision to MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles on Wednesday.

The essay On Pacifism by Iyengar Written Revolution is a multidisciplinary student magazine about the pro-Palestinian movement. As per NDTV, it does not explicitly advocate for violent resistance. However, it critically examines pacifist tactics, suggesting they may not be the most effective approach to the Palestinian struggle.

As per reports, the essay featured a logo of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organisation according to the US State Department. However, Iyengar told the news outlet that the terrorism charges against him stem solely from the photos included in the essay, which he claims were not provided by him.

According to The Boston Globe, featured imagery and language that “could be interpreted as a call for more violent or destructive forms of protest at MIT,” an email sent by MIT Dean of Student Life David Warren Randall to the editors of the magazine.

"The administration accuses me of supporting 'terrorism', because the edition in which my article appears includes images of posters from the Popular Front for the Liberation and of containing violent imagery in the publication," his statement said, which was shared by his lawyer Eric Lee on X.

About 100 MIT students and community members gathered in the foyer of City Hall on Monday evening to call for city councillors to intervene and block MIT from issuing suspensions. The “emergency rally” was advertised on social media platforms to protest.

🚨🚨 MIT is effectively expelling PhD student Prahlad Iyengar for Palestine activism on campus. 🚨🚨

EMERGENCY RALLY: Cambridge City Hall, Monday, 12/9 at 5:30pm. Org sign-on to letter: https://t.co/tCOrOLTeNy pic.twitter.com/7cAYrvn5ad

— MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (@mit_caa) December 8, 2024

“The fact that MIT is choosing to threaten student livelihood and careers simply because they don’t agree with what students are speaking up and protesting for is unacceptable,” a rally’s emcee and president of the MIT Graduate Student Union.

The editors faced disciplinary actions, Iyengar said it was a gross violation of free speech. He claimed that the purpose of the magazine was to, "put out in our words, what we were doing, why we were doing it and what was happening on campus",  he said while speaking on a radio show on WBUR.

Iyengar was suspended last year as well for the pro-Palestine demonstrations.

An "extraordinary action" is what he believes his suspension is.

"These extraordinary actions should concern everyone on camp," he says in the statement. "Expelling me and banning Written Revolution from campus as a result of this article would mark an unprecedented attack on the rights of the entire student body and faculty. Consider the precedent MIT has set."