Alarming times for free expression in India: Rushdie.
By Raif Karerat
Booker Prize winning novelist Salman Rushdie has lent his vocal support to a cabal of writers who decided to return their Sahitya Akademi literary awards in protest of the Indian government’s stymieing of free expression.
A sizeable plethora of authors have announced their decision to return their awards with some warning that minorities in the country today feel “unsafe and threatened,” reported the Press Trust of India.
“I support Nayantara Sahgal and the many other writers protesting to the Sahitya Akademi. Alarming times for free expression in India,” Rushdie tweeted.
The Indian-born writer was talking about writer Nayantara Sahgal’s decision last week to return her award to express her solidarity with “all Indians who uphold the right to dissentâ€.
The 88-year-old niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sahgal, lodged her protest against the Akademi’s silence over repeated attacks on writers and rationalists who were raising their voice of dissent, according to Indian publication Tehelka.
In their joint statement protesting the “silence” of the Akademi over the murder of Indian author Kalburgi, who was slain by a mob over rumors of eating beef, writers Mangalesh Dabral and Rajesh Joshi stated: “For the past one 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, which is not acceptable.
“The Sahitya Akademi remains silent about the Kalburgi murder so many dangers our democracy is facing, the very fabric of democracy is under threat,” they attested. “It was the duty of the Akademi to condemn the atmosphere in the country,” they continued.
The Hindustan Times reported the number of authors who have returned awards to the Sahitya Akademi may number at 16. Eminent poet K. Satchidanandan has also quit from his positions at the Akademi, to protest Kalburgi’s murder. Aside from Sahgal, Dabral, and Joshi, those who have been confirmed include:
- Ghulam Nabi Khayal
- Rahman Abbas
- Srinath D.N.
- Rahman Abbas
- Uday Prakash
- N. Devy
- Aman Sethi
- Ashok Vajpyei
- Waryam Sandhu
- N. Ranganatha Rao