New Delhi: Stepping up the protest against the silence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the murder of noted author M.M. Kalburgi allegedly for his rationalist views, the public lynching of a man over rumours of eating beef and an overall rise of intolerance, several top Indian writers have returned the country’s top literary award.

The key motivation for returning the awards from the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters), the authors said, is its failure to publicly protest the murder of Kalburgi, allegedly by Hindu hardliners, pointing at a growing climate of intolerance that bodes ill for freedom of speech in the nation.

The latest string of protests took to 23 the number of writers who have returned their awards since Hindi writer Uday Prakash began the trend last month.

Writer Nayantara Sahgal, a niece of India’ first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and who returned her award last week, told Gulf News: “Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are going backwards, regressing, narrowing down to Hindutva. There is rising intolerance and lots of Indians are living in fear. Modi is absolutely silent over all these issues. He has uttered no word of condemnation at all.”

The writers — all of whom are stalwarts of regional literature — received support from Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, who tweeted his solidarity in what he said are “alarming times for free expression in India”.

Most of the authors who spoke to Gulf News said they felt the literary and liberal-minded community in India was facing increasing hostility from hard-line Hindus and the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Modi.

Expression of solidarity

Gujarat-based poet Anil Joshi said India’s hardline politicians were spinning completely out of control. “The politicians are saying anything they want and Modi is not stopping them. People who are behind these recent killings do not have any respect for those holding different views and opinions. In that case, they would have killed Bhagat Singh too,” Joshi told Gulf News.

Returning his award, writer and poet Ganesh Devy said his decision was an expression of solidarity with several other writers, who have stated their concerns of “shrinking space for free expression and growing intolerance towards difference of opinion”.

“For the past year or so, basic values of democracy, freedom of expression, freedom to live our lives according to our wishes are under attack by the forces of Hindutva. The climate in the country is such that writers are being killed, the freedom of expression is under threat. We thought that it is high time that we returned the award,” New Delhi-based writer Mangalesh Dabral, who returned his Akademi award, told Gulf News.

Eight poets and writers from Punjab — including Surjit Patar, Jaswinder Singh, Baldev Singh Sadaknama, Gurbachan Bhullar and Waryam Sandhu — have also returned their Award, while Punjabi writer Dalip Kaur Tiwana returned her Padma Shri award.

Former West Bengal governor and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi has hailed writers for returning their awards. He also indicated that if more writers gave up their awards, it would be a powerful protest against the murders of rationalists and threats to free speech.

Mass renunciation

In Goa, too, more than 30 winners of the award are expected to deliberate Wednesday over the issue of mass renunciation.

With several writers returning government awards to protest against curbs on freedom of expression, the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) has appealed to all artistes to return their awards. Meanwhile, a number of writers from Kerala have protested against the attacks against writers and liberal thinkers across the country.

— With additional inputs from Akhel Mathew, Correspondent


Timeline: A brief history of intolerance

Left wing Indian politician of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Govind Pansare was killed by unidentified gunwielding assailants on February 16 this year.

M.M. Kalburgi, a scholar and academic who served as vice chancellor of Kannada University,
was shot dead on August 30 at his residence in Dharwad district of Karnataka by two unidentified men. In 2014, Kalburgi had spoken against idolatry in Hinduism, following which a case was registered on the basis of a complaint by a Hindutva activist against Kalburgi for hurting religious
sentiments.

A 50-year-old man, Mohammad Akhlaq, was beaten to death and his 22-year-old son severely injured last month in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri, allegedly by residents of Bisara village, after
rumours in the area about the family slaughtering a cow and consuming beef. Forensic tests later revealed it was mutton.

The proposed live concert of Pakistani ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali scheduled for October 9 in Mumbai was cancelled last week after Chitrapat Sena, the Shiv Sena’s film wing, met the authorities at the venue of the concert, and handed them a letter asking them to cancel the
event or face protest.

Black paint was sprayed on technocrat-turned-columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni Monday for not bowing to Shiv Sena’s diktat calling for cancellation of a book launch event of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri. A group of Shiv Sainiks intercepted Kulkarni’s car just outside his Matunga home and painted his face black.

Shiv Sena on Monday forced organisers to abandon a show by an Indo-Pak sufi rock band. The
live concert of ‘Mekaal Hasan Band’ was to be held on Tuesday at the premises of CN Vidyalay.
Indian singer Sharmistha Chatterjee is part of the band led by Pakistani guitarist Mekaal
Hasan. After the protest by Shiv Sena activists, the organisers called off the event.

 

Writers who have returned Sahitya Akademi awards:

■ Uday Prakash
■ Nayantara Sahgal
■ Surjit Patar
■ Jaswinder Singh
■ Baldev Singh Sadaknama
■ Darshan Bhuttar
■ Ajmer Singh Aulakh
■ Atamjit Singh
■ Gurbachan Bhullar
■ Waryam Sandhu
■ Anil Joshi
■ Ganesh Devy
■ Ashok Vajpayi
■ Ghulam Nabi Khayal
■ Sara Joseph
■ Rahman Abbas
■ Gurcharan Singh
■ Aman Sethi
■ Srinath DN
■ Mangalesh Dabral
■ Rajesh Joshi
■ N Shivdas