By:
Sohail Parwaz
Under
the banner of extremism with Shiv Sena as the advance guard and Narendra Modi
as the flag bearer, the so-called biggest democracy of the world is heading for
the destination named ‘Disaster’. Not that the extremism did not exist in the
‘realm’ earlier. In fact it was there and since from the days of Muslims ruling
the Subcontinent this hate, bitterness and odium is still on hand. The verity
has been proved again and again at several occasions. May that was the arrival
of East India Company, Emperor Akbar’s court and counted ones, Shaheed Titu Mir
of Bengal’s war against the colonialism or Shaheed Tipu Sultan’s freedom
struggle against the British Raj, the Hindu conspirators never spared any
moment to malign or let down the Muslims of India. Nevertheless, with Narendra
Modi in the premier’s chair the hate race has picked up the pace. No one has to
take pain for travelling to far in the history. The early nineties are enough
to prove about the abhorrence that Modi keeps in his heart for the Muslims of
India and of elsewhere in the world. The grimy and grubby tale of Babari
Masjid’s dismembering and the heinous and tragic killing of the Muslims of
Ahmadabad and Sabarmati express are still fresh in every human mind. During the
early days of Modi’s premiership the radical Hindus were encouraged not only to
harass and harm the Muslims but to forcefully convert those untouchable poor
back to Hinduism who after being subjugated to Hindu class system, reverted to
Islam. These gory tales were still talk of the town when recently two very
significant but shameful incidents took place thus brought a bad name to India.
The
first incident took place on Sunday, August 30, 2015 when during the early
hours of the morning few youngsters entered a renowned and aged Kannada writer
Dr. MM Kalburgi’s house and killed him from a point blank range allegedly for
his views on idol worship and Hindu rituals. Initial reports suggest that
right-wing activists might be involved. People and political elite of Dharwad,
the literary capital of Karnataka that has produced the highest number of
Jnanpith awardees in Kannada, went in to a state of shock and disgust since
kind of cold-blooded murder targeting litterateurs was unheard of Karnataka
till date. Dr. Kalburgi was not an ordinary writer. Dr Kalburgi, a Vijayapura
(Bijapur) district born of 1938, studied Kannada literature and taught at one
of the oldest universities in Karnataka. He had authored over 100 books
in Kannada and was an innate orator too. An important fact is that last
year, the police had filed a case against him for allegedly hurting the sentiments
of Hindus after he criticised idol worship quoting a literary work of another
celebrated writer and Jnanpith awardee late Dr UR Ananthamurthy. Not to be
cowed down by such bullying, Dr Kalburgi continued his crusade against idol
worship and Brahman rituals and ultimately paid the price.
The
other disgusting tragedy took place almost a month after Kalburgi’s killing on
September 28, 2015 when the family of a 52-year old Muslim Mohammad Akhlaq
Saifi of village Bisara near Dadri, UP, India was attacked by an angry and
furious mob after an announcement was made through the public address system of
a local temple by two unknown youngsters that Akhlaq’s family had killed a cow
and consumed its meat on Eid ul Adha. The family had been living in the village
for about 70 years; however the mob carrying batons, swords and pistols didn’t
care for it and arrived at Mohammad Akhlaq’s house at around 10:30pm. The
family had finished dinner and was going to sleep. The mob accused them of
consuming beef. They found some meat in the refrigerator and seized it. But the
family insisted it was mutton. The mob dragged the family outside. Akhlaq and
Danish were repeatedly kicked, hit with bricks and stabbed. Akhlaq’s elderly
mother and wife were also attacked. As some good people exist in the society
everywhere, so the Hindu neighbours here, also tried to stop the mob but could
not succeed. The police were called and they arrived an hour later. By then,
Akhlaq was dead and Danish was badly injured. According to the police investigation
this mob lynching case of Dadri took place due to rumour spreading.
Unfortunately, the inopportune Muhammad Akhlaq before being lynched by the
angry mob, made a desperate call to none other than his childhood friend
Manoj Sisodia for help, ”Manoj, we are in danger. Please call up the police and
ask them to send a force”, was the last SOS message sent by him. The friend did
his best but the efforts proved to be futile.
A
frightening and shocking state of affairs is purposely being created throughout
India in all spheres of life after the Modi government came to power. The
religious concord and secularism of the country is unprecedentedly under
threat. Three writers had already been killed; however, the Centre had done
nothing to drive out the growing panic and dismay among writers, activists and
people from the other walks of society. After the Dadri lynching, the Urdu
writing community has been quite dejected. Joining a growing protest against
‘rising intolerance’ in the backdrop of murder of noted rationalists and Dadri
lynching incident, eminent Malayalam writer Sarah Joseph and Urdu novelist
Rehman Abbas announced to return the Sahitya Akademi award and the Maharashtra
State Urdu Sahitya Academy award respectively. English author Keki N Daruwalla
sent a letter of protest to Akademi Chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari over
the literary body’s apologetic stance on Kalburgi’s killing. Another prominent
writer Sara Joseph, who won the prestigious honour for her novel ‘Aalahayude
Penmakkal’ (Daughters of God the Father), also confirmed that she would be
returning the cash prize and plaque to the Akademi soon. The announcement came
on a day when noted Malayalam writers K Satchidanandan, PK Parakkadavu and KS
Ravikumar quit their posts in the Akademi as disapproval to the murder of
Kannada writer and rationalist MM Kalburgi in Dharwad. Parakkadavu also said he
would also resign from his Akademi membership.
The
writers/intellectuals of India are disappointed to note that the Akademi has
failed in its duty to stand with the writers and to uphold the freedom of
expression guaranteed by the Constitution that seems to be getting violated
every day. Observing that the Sahitya Akademi was the “conscience keeper of the
writing community”, they said that literary body should actively condemn the
killing of Kalburgi. Earlier this week, eminent writer Nayantara
Sahgal and former Lalit Kala Akademi chairman Ashok Vajpeyi had
returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards to protest against the “assault on right
to freedom of both life and expression” amid “growing intolerance” in the
country. Noted Hindi writer Uday Prakash was the first to return his Sahitya
Akademi award to protest Kalburgi’s murder.
The
irony is that the ruling party’s responsible ministers are not taking this
sensitive issue seriously and not showing any sign of even slightest
responsibility. The culture minister Mahesh Sharma who was expected to defuse
the situation by issuing a sympathetic and consoling statement after Sahitya
Akademi awardees’ surrendering their award or resigning from the organisation,
rather insisted that the act was the “personal choice” of the writers.
Arun
Jaitley, the Union finance minister cynically remarked about the return of
Sahitya Akademi awards by several writers following the Dadri lynching incident
as a “manufactured paper rebellion” against the government “in the wake of a
manufactured crisis”. He asked the writers sarcastically whether their protest
was “real or manufactured” and if it was “a case of ideological intolerance”.
The
religious intolerance, radicalism and fanaticism are taking away the peace of
India aka so-called biggest secular and democratic country of the world. Almost
a decade back there was a lot of hue and cry when the renowned Indian writer
and intellectual Khushwant Singh’s book, “The End of India” flooded the
markets, nevertheless today when the fate of India is in the hands of the
Hindutva’s followers, it looks as if that ‘END’ is on the horizon.
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