Pal Ahluwalia
Kenyan academic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pal Ahluwalia is a Kenyan academic and the former Vice-Chancellor of University of the South Pacific.[1]
.jpg)
Ahluwalia was born in Nairobi, Kenya,[2] and educated at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and Flinders University in Australia.[3][4] He worked as a professor of politics at the University of Adelaide[4] and then as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of South Australia.[3] In October 2014 he was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Portsmouth.[5] In June 2018, Ahluwalia was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific.[3]
Dispute with Fijian Government
In 2019, Ahluwalia raised concerns about mismanagement and abuse of office at USP under the leadership of the previous Vice-Chancellor, Rajesh Chandra.[6] An investigation by New Zealand accounting firm BDO substantiated the allegations, and the report was subsequently leaked online.[7] In June 2020, a special council meeting led by Pro-Chancellor Winston Thompson suspended Ahluwalia for unspecified "misconduct".[8] Staff protesting the suspension were questioned by Fijian police.[9] On 19 June Ahluwalia was reinstated by a full meeting of the USP council,[10] and the allegations against him were dismissed in September 2020.[11]
The Fijian government refused to accept Ahluwalia's exoneration, and on 24 September 2020 halted all funding to the university.[12] On 4 February 2021, the Fijian government summarily deported Vice-Chancellor Ahluwalia for being "a person who is or has been conducting himself in a manner prejudicial to the peace, defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, security or good government of the Fiji Islands".[13][14][15][16] On 25 May the university's council issued a new three-year contract to Ahluwalia and relocate the Vice-Chancellor's office to the Alafua Campus in Apia, Samoa.[17] In August 2021 the Fijian government announced that it would not fund the university as long as Ahluwalia was vice-chancellor.[18]
Following the 2022 Fijian general election, the new government led by Sitiveni Rabuka revoked the prohibition order on Ahluwalia, allowing him to return to Fiji.[19]
Ahluwalia resigned from USP in September 2025[20]
Publications
- Politics and Post-colonial Theory: African Inflections[21]
- Post-colonialism and the Politics of Kenya
- Plantations and the Politics of Sugar in Uganda[22]
- "Post-structuralism's colonial roots: Michel Foucault". Social Identities (2010)[23]
- Out of Africa: Post-structuralism's colonial roots (Routledge, 2010)