When the noted Hindi writer Uday Prakash returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award late last month to protest the silence of the government and the Akademi following the broad daylight murder of eminent Kannada litterateur and intellectual M.M. Kalburgi, himself a winner of the award, and prior to that the similarly executed killing of rationalist activists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar by Hindu Right fanatics, it appeared to be a one-off gesture — the hurt response of a sensitive literary figure.
Since then relinquishing the major Indian literary prize has become a trend, and this is shredding the image of the government in a manner that few protests by Opposition politicians can. Important writers who are on the Akademi council have quit their positions. Salman Rushdie has chipped in, announcing his support for Indian writers and their cause. If the protest of the creative community gains an international dimension, India’s image as a democracy could be badly dented.
Regrettably, the Modi government has not even begun to understand what’s at stake. Culture minister Mahesh Sharma’s far from enlightened comment on Monday was that if writers feel they cannot write in the present atmosphere, they should first stop writing — “then we will see!” Is he making it a clash of wills as writers in languages from across the country are stepping forward to denounce the rising graph of intolerance toward those who do not conform? Each of them is a stalwart figure, although Nayantara Sehgal, niece of Jawaharlal Nehru who had opposed the Emergency, immediately caught attention.
Protesters have also sought to highlight the case of a Muslim ironmonger at Dadri, near Delhi, who was killed by a mob following the evidently pre-planned spread of the rumour that he had slaughtered a calf. The protest of the creative folk is clearly against the indifference of the present regime to the goings-on, perpetrated by the religious Right in the country, who appear to be a pretty well organised set.
The spirit of protest was summed up by theatre artist Maya Krishna Rao, who returned her Sangeet Natak Akademi award on Monday. She noted that “in spite of reminders, the government had done little to stand up for the right of people to express their ideas and live the way they choose in a free country”. From the highest levels of government there needs to be empathy and a recognition of the larger issues being flagged.
