New Delhi/Chandigarh: Five eminent writers on Sunday announced that they were returning their Sahitya Akademi awards, while Kannada writer Aravind Malagatti resigned from the body's general council, joining the growing protest by litterateurs over "rising intolerance" and "communal" atmosphere.
With the writers' protest over its "silence" on rationalist MM Kalburgi's murder growing louder, Sahitya Akademi chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari came out with a statement saying the apex literary body stands for freedom of expression and condemns attack on any writer or artist anywhere. It asserted its commitment to the "core secular values" enshrined in the Constitution and the "right to life of all".
Eminent writers Gurbachan Bhullar, Ajmer Singh Aulakh and Atamjit Singh, on Sunday announced that they were returning their Sahitya Akademi awards like several other authors including Nayantara Sehgal, Sara Joseph, Uday Prakash and Ashok Vajpeyi demanding that the Akademi speak out against the killing of its member Kalburgi and other rationalists and the "communal" atmosphere in the backdrop of the Dadri lynching incident.
Just hours later, Vadodara based writer Ganesh Devy and famous scribe and author Aman Sethi too returned their Sahitya Akademi Award to express solidarity with the writers, who have given up their awards to condemn the "shrinking space for free expression and growing intolerance towards differences of opinion" in the country.
Gurbachan Bhullar said he was perturbed by the attempts to "disrupt the social fabric of the country"
"During recent past, the attempts at disrupting the social fabric of the country, targeting particularly the area of literature and culture, under an orchestrated plan of action, has been perturbing me," he said.
The 78-year-old author born in Bathinda in Punjab had been awarded the Sahitya Akademi for his 2005 book of short stories "Agni-Kalas".
A renowned Punjabi playwright, Aulakh said he was very pained by the attacks on "progressive writers, leaders of the rational movement and the forcible saffronisation of education and culture".
He said he was "very upset over the communal atmosphere being created in the country and the central government was not performing its duty as the representative of a secular and democratic country".
Punjabi theatre personality Atamjit Singh said he was returning his Akademi Award as he "is very upset over the incidents communal hatred in the country for the last some months".
Read:
Dr Malagatti resigns from Sahitya Akademi’s general council
Eminent poet and writer Satchidanandan quits Sahitya Akademi posts
After Nayantara Sehgal, Ashok Vajpeyi returns Sahitya Akademi Award
Nayantara Sehgal returns Sahitya Akademi award to protest intolerance
In more embarrassment for the Akademi, Aravind Malagatti resigned from its General Council, condemning its 'silence' over the killing of progressive thinker and scholar Kalburgi.
"Killing of personalities like Kalburgi, (Govind) Pansare and incidents like Dadri lynching are an attack on the Constitutional rights in this country. They are highly condemnable," Malagatti said.
Malagatti is among 20 representatives from various Universities in the General Council of the Sahitya Akademi.
Recently literary figures like Shashi Deshpande, K Satchidanandan, P K Parakkadavu had resigned from their posts in the Akademi, citing similar reasons.
A federation of Kashmiri scholars, Adbee Markaz Kamraz, too expressed solidarity with the eminent writers for their decision to return Sahitya Akademi awards, asking the top literary body to break its silence over the increasing "communal frenzy".
Poet and critic Adil Jussawalla, who won the Sahitya Akademi honour for his 2014 work, also urged the literary body to condemn the "unacceptable censoring" of writers by "violentaly intolerant groups."
Jussawalla said he has written to chairperson of Sahitya Akademi.
