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OXFORD University has become embroiled in a human rights row that has hit plans for its first overseas outpost in a new town in wooded hills 125 miles southeast of Mumbai. The Indian developers of the 12,500-acre Lavasa site have been accused of intimidating indigenous farmers into selling their land and of pressing them to accept rock-bottom prices. They have also been accused of worsening deforestation by cutting down millions of trees.
The lakeside land to be covered by Lavasa comprised about 20 villages, farms and forest. An estimated 4,000-5,000 people have so far left, many allegedly under pressure. Oxford plans to offer courses for Indian executives in an education centre in Lavasa, a privately managed city modelled on hill stations built by the British when they ruled India. The Girls' Day Schools Trust, a private education chain, will establish a boarding school there. The controversy highlights the potential pitfalls of the commercial strategy pursued by universities of opening campuses abroad. Lancaster is planning courses in Delhi, and Newcastle is to open a medical school in Malaysia. Nottingham has opened a campus in China.
John Hood, Oxford's outgoing vice-chancellor, has been a strong backer of the Lavasa venture, described by the university as its first overseas campus. Oxford has struck a preliminary deal with Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of the company that controls Lavasa, to endow a chair at the Saïd Business School in Oxford for a reported £7.4m.
Medha Patkar, a human rights activist at the forefront of the villagers' campaign, described Lavasa as a "land grab". She added: "People are threatened... made to feel like criminals. They cannot survive there unless they submit, so they sell their land for the prices offered." She said armed employees of the Lavasa Corporation approached villagers: "They are continually asking them to leave. They say, 'Give away your land, give away your land'."
Lavasa is being built along 37 miles of lakefront in hills between Poona and Mumbai. It is to be home to 200,000 middle-class Indians and include resorts, educational and sports facilities including a golf academy and an 18-hole course designed by Nick Faldo. [For Oxford grandee Michael Beloff's views on the academics of golf, read The Times, 6/10/2004 and related links - Ed.]
The first of Lavasa's four settlements, Dasve, is due to open next year. Oxford will not offer degrees in the planned £15m-£20m education centre, but Rajgopal Nogja, president of Lavasa Corporation, said he hoped 5,000 students would study there in its first five years. He said Lord Patten, Oxford's chancellor, had been enthusiastic about the plan in a visit two years ago. "It's going to be the best building in my city, timeless architecture for the best university in the world," said Nogja. [Brown-brown-brown-nose? - Ed.]
A report in April alleged that illiterate tribal people living on the site had been pushed by fraudulent intermediaries into validating sale documents they did not understand. The land was then sold on to Lavasa. Documents for the sale of one plot were purportedly approved by a villager, Vishnu Navji Shedge, who was 97, blind, and too sick to care for himself. He died three months later. His son Dnyaneshwar, who has had to move to Poona, where he works as a caretaker, said cheques given to his family in compensation had bounced. He added: "When I returned to stop them using bulldozers on my land in April, I was arrested. Sixty families from our village of Mugaon have lost 320 acres to Lavasa but we have not lost hope."
Lavasa described the allegations of fraud and coercion as "fabricated, false and without basis" and said that most of the city land had belonged to absentee landlords. It said it provided housing to displaced people. It also disputed Shedge's account. A spokesman said: "Villagers are experiencing significant benefits through the development," and added that 3 million new trees would be planted.
A spokesman for Amnesty International said: "Medha Patkar is a respected human rights campaigner. Although we have not followed the Lavasa case closely we have worked with Medha in the past and have found her material to be accurate and credible." The Girls' Day School Trust said it would investigate, adding: "These are grave allegations which we take very seriously." Faldo's company said Lavasa had assured it the allegations were unfounded but it would "take any proof very seriously". Oxford would not comment on the claims and said the deal with Lavasa was not finalised.
Additional reporting: Nicola Smith and Tripti Nath