‘Devoted teacher, ISKCON disciple’ — IIT Mandi head in news for linking meat-eating to landslides

Colleagues of Laxmidhar Behera, in news for controversial remarks, admit he was always orthodox in beliefs. He relates every scientific conversation to spirituality, allege students.

Back in October 2021, Laxmidhar Behera, then a professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur’s Department of Electrical Engineering, held an interactive session with students of the premier engineering institute on the Bhagavad Gita, the holy scripture of the Hindus.

Following his nearly hour-long lecture on the virtues of the scripture, the moment Behera threw the floor open for questions, a hand went up.

“Just why and how are we to believe in the concept of God or mythical figures mentioned in our scriptures?” a first-year student asked Behera.

“No, modern science does not know who you are. Modern science cannot explain what consciousness is. You don’t use modern science to select your partner, do you? Do you use modern science to produce offspring? Do you love someone or hate someone using modern science? Modern science is very limited. Can modern science make you immortal?” Behera responded.

Cut to September 2023. Behera, now the Director of IIT Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, made a similar assertion during a lecture series on the Bhagavad Gita at his new campus.

According to a video clip of the session available online, Behera put forth a power-point presentation showing the various stages of development of a human embryo.

“If we accept that sperm and ovum were just chemical substances, then, until now, scientists should have been able to create a new organism, but they haven’t even produced a grass. We know from Vedic literature, the soul is carried by the sperm of a male and gets a body when it mystically unites with the ovum,” read one of the slides in the presentation.

It is, however, Behera’s remarks against non-vegetarianism, made during another lecture as part of the same series, that have recently put him in the spotlight.

“To become good human beings, what do you have to do? (Say) no to meat-eating. Yes or no? Together, say no to meat eating. Himachal Pradesh will have a significant downfall if innocent animals are butchered. You are butchering them. That has a symbiotic relationship in the degradation of the environment as well, which you cannot see now. The mass scale landslide and so many other things, cloudburst, are all effects of this cruelty,” Behera is purportedly heard telling his students in another video clip that surfaced online this month.

The professor, who specialises in robotics and artificial intelligence, had last year courted controversy over his claim that he once chanted holy mantras to rid his friend’s apartment of “evil spirits”.

Speaking to ThePrint, an IIT Kanpur professor, who shared the video clip of Behera’s remarks on the apparent limitations of modern science, said: “His remarks on non-vegetarianism have created a flutter. But for those who have seen him over the years, it does not come as a surprise. He wears his religious beliefs on his sleeve.”

A former IIT Kanpur professor, who is now working for a private university, had similar views. He told ThePrint that the appointment of Behera as IIT Mandi Director had come as a surprise to many.

“Behera was always known as a professor who was orthodox in his beliefs. We had often heard him suggest things to the effect that pooja-path is the solution to every problem. While saying such things in a social setting is a personal choice, promoting such beliefs in academic settings is not acceptable,” the professor said.

Behera turned down requests for an interview from saying that he was currently focusing on the development of IIT Mandi.

IIT Mandi is one among eight newer generation of IITs. The institute became an IIT under The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2011, with the intention to expand the reach and to enhance the quality of technical education in the country.

This year, the institute witnessed a significant drop in the National Institutional Ranking Framework, reportedly falling from the 20th position among engineering institutes in 2022, to the 33rd rank.

‘Sober individual with religious bent of mind’

Behera is known to be a follower of ISKCON, or International Society for Krishna Consciousness also known as the Hare Krishna movement, and was born in Talsara village in Odisha.

After completing school studies, he pursued BSc and MSc engineering degrees at National Institute of Technology in Rourkela, before moving to IIT Delhi where he obtained a PhD in 1997, according to the IIT Mandi website.

It was at IIT Delhi that Behera got drawn towards ISKCON under the influence of P.V. Krishnan, who taught there,

Shortly before meeting Krishnan, Behera had campaigned for social harmony in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (1992) as part of an initiative undertaken by Prof (retd) V.K. Tripathi of the institute.

“I used to spend hours in areas with a large concentration of minorities to support them. We used to distribute pamphlets on religious harmony. I was totally against the BJP then. I felt that they were fundamentalists,” Behera recalled in an interview streamed live on 11 July, 2021, on the YouTube channel Hare Krsna TV.

After earning a PhD degree, Behera obtained a post-doctorate degree in evolutionary computation and multi-agent systems from German National Research Center for Information Technology in Germany.

Before joining IIT Mandi as Director on 19 January, 2022, Behera also served as the Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kanpur and simultaneously served as TCS affiliate faculty, the IIT Mandi website states. Prior to joining IIT Kanpur, Behera had taught at BITS Pilani.

Professor Indranil Manna, who served as the Director of IIT Kanpur from 2012 to 2015,  that Behera was known to him as “a sober individual and dedicated teacher with a strong inclination for doing good research”.

Recalling a particular incident, he said: “He (Behera) had developed a project and wanted to participate in the Amazon Robotics Challenge, and there was some hesitation regarding it. However, I approved his participation. His team ended up securing the third position in the Amazon Robotics Challenge 2017 and was among the top 16 teams. He was also selected as a fellow at Indian National Academy of Engineering, which is no small feat.”

On the row over Behera’s remarks on non-vegetarianism, Manna said: “Prof Behera has always been a devout ISKCON follower and had a religious bent of mind. I believe his comments are being misconstrued because he is in a position of eminence.”

A second IIT Kanpur professor, wishing to remain anonymous, said: “Although Prof Behera has always been a devout ISKCON follower, his views have never been a problem. But it (remarks on non-vegetarianism) may seem like an attempt to please the dispensation.”