Thiruvananthapuram: They are young Kannada writers facing fascist threats. His right palm is wrapped in white bandage after he was attacked a few days ago. Her words are about him as much as they are about her. Hachungi Prasad and Chetana Thirthahalli have come here with their hurt and turned it into words emboldening others. The organisers who called them here — likeminded groups of activists — spill their names in the same breath as the three rationalists who got murdered — Kalburgi, Dabholkar and Pansare.
In a fight against communal fascism, writers and activists came together here for an ev-ening to speak out, to express solidarity with the writers.
“What is the crime they did? Dabholkar spoke of atheism and Pansare of history which the right wing fundamentalists didn’t like. Down here in Kerala, M.M. Basheer was threatened because he was a Muslim writing a column on Ramayana. There was no problem when he wrote last year, but this year it is,” noted writer N.S. Madhavan told a crowd in Gandhi Park that refused to go even as the evening rain drenched them.
He looked at the two young writers from Karnataka and worried that the young and the old, every voice would be attacked that speaks against the idea of fake patriotism created by fascist forces.
Thiruvananthapuram:The FTII students have finally withdrawn their strike because of the silence of society,” Madhavan says. “The fascist forces answer every question with another question. If you ask them about the 2002 riots, they ask you about the 1984 riots. If you ask them about Dadri, they ask you about Thodupuzha (hand chopping). This is a technique to divert your attention from what is important, don’t fall for it, never try to balance,” he said.
Chetana thanked the people who came out in solidarity and said, “I have faced threats that they will throw acid on me and rape me.” The threats came when she protested against Dadri lynching, took part in a beef eating rally and wrote in web portals owned by a Muslim. “I didn’t take the threats seriously till the murder of Kalburgi,” she said. She’s complained to the police and stressed that nothing can curb her writing spirit.
Hachungi echoed that spirit in louder words of Kannada, later translated for the crowd. “Fascism has always been there; Shambuka is killed by Rama and Ekalavya loses his thumb for Drona.” He has written about the pain that the Dalit community he was born into went through and there came a case against him for being ‘anti-Hindu.’
Less than a week ago, he was attacked by fascist forces which tried to cut off his fingers to stop him from writing. “They tell me it is because of my sins in the last birth that I was born as a Dalit and that I will be born as a Brahmin if I do well in this birth. But I do not want to be born as a Brahmin and I will keep writing. They can kill one Hachungi, but a hundred other Hachungis will come. They can attack the body but not the spirit,” he said.
