Intolerance On #Awardwapsi
By Adfar Shah
05 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Dozens of writers followed Nayantara Sehgal and still continue to return their awards or are quitting their posts, opening a plethora of perspectives, political discourses and as usual the blame game. The irony is that the politicians and even some media quarters feel that they have all the rights to censor conscience of these public intellectuals and question them over their returning awards and brand their protest as a political agenda. Even a politician goes on to say that it calls for an investigation and some others castigate these writers as worthless or congress puppets, etc,.
Writers are returning their awards or posts as a mark of their protest and instead of condemning the increasing communal atmosphere, unaccounted killing of writers like Prof. Kalburgi, Dadri lynching case, etc, people blindly castigate these writers on their decision and brand it a selective conscience by giving vague examples of the past violent instances and question the conscience of these writers in the past. If some writers fall in line with Nayantara and return their awards or give up posts by listening to their conscience why is this treated less as a significant protest and more as political agenda rather than taken as sheer disappointment of an intellectual class of this country who have been protesting for every crisis in the past as well.
Writers as their protest can either write against the communal frenzy and later get killed like Prof. Kalburgi or return their cherished and hard earned awards, which remains their only choice given the scenario prevailing in the country today. Instead of lamenting upon and seriously pondering over the disturbing communal trend, people and media today more discuss writers and the politics of their returning awards rather than respecting their way of protest and their remorse over the dwindling idea of a plural India and idea of free speech.
Our TV anchors have horribly found a new investigation mechanism in everything and blind relationism for everything. We the citizens of this nation have become habitual of politicizing everything be that brutal lynching, backwardness or poverty of any minority community, terrorism, growing radicalism and fanaticism, etc, thus discuss any issue for a few days, forget it and get ready for another one to harp on in TV debates with a selective agenda. We all must respect the conscience of these writers who feel for the fading pluralistic ethos of this country rather than finding faults even with it and must acknowledge their voices of protests in the past as well which reached its peak now resulting in the retuning of awards. Before we manipulate or start our coloured commentaries on their protest we need to realize that giving up or returning the honour is the serious protest by any individual or intellectual that he/she can express.
Today when fanatic voices against free speech are increasing day by day, a public intellectual, a poet, a writer, an actor or any other public figure feels a disgust or wants to protest his/her way, why is such an intolerance shown towards writers and artists now. Do we expect such figures to protest the way mobs act, or call for a band, or go on a hunger strike or fight the state in streets, the fellow countrymen or our media needs not to find faults even with their choice of protest and label it something political or unwise or political agenda, etc,.
Is this award returning trend a political one and are these writers really not well grounded with the vexed issues of socio-political discrimination of people at different levels even in the past, needs to be pondered? The Kalburgi’s murder took place long back and Dadri one now; this has a different context and locale than the previous one, and therefore cannot be taken as a, manufactured crisis .However the political agenda is the same for all including these writers and artists and that is a life of dignity and freedom of speech, freedom of living one’s life without any intervention, etc,. Many believe that writers are also not beyond political agenda and also feel why they have not reacted at the time of first incident.
The answer lies in the history and the changing nature of protests and growing spirit for free speech in India. Their silence in terms of not using their power of pen also matters but things have reached its peak and it has not happened overnight but is a result of decades of silent oppression and intolerance? Why this method adopted and why now, perhaps writers in India have begun to care for the freedom and society more than their awards. People blindly. Instead of discovering conspiracy theories and political agendas of writers, let the state return the power to each community to live with their identity with all safety, pride and honour. Let the issues of identity, freedom and dignified life be actualized in our country, only then a writer or an artist will feel pride in receiving an award.
The question that remains is that is it going to change the attitude/mindset of hard core fundamentalists or will be reinforcing more hardliner fanaticism in the country, only the time will tell? As our honourable Prime Minister rightly put it in his Mann ki Baat that India’s diversity was its pride and harmony and unity are must for development. Let us make our diversity the real pride of India.
(Adfar Shah is a New Delhi based Sociologist and Associate editor at Eurasia Review. Mail at [email protected])
[The article originally appeared in The Pioneer.]