Aasef Chauhdry
In the recent past the Indian
extremists from Shiv Sena and BJP has made the life of the Muslims and other
minorities miserable. Since many years they have been burning churches, trains,
temples etc but the recent wave of radicalism is unprecedented because this
time it’s none other than their own Hindu intellectuals. In case of Muslims the
hate wave has reached to the far flung areas of peaceful provinces like Uttar
Pradesh, where people had never heard of killing or burning, ever before. The
current shameful conduct of lynching an innocent Muslim Muhammad Akhlaq merely
on the basis of rumours and killing a renowned writer Dr. Kalburgi has not only
made the Indians to bow their heads in shame but have also compelled the
intellectual, moderate and peaceful class of the Indian society known as the
writers to not only raise their voice but have forced them to return their well
deserved awards and affiliated monetary benefits back.
These
two incidents took place during last couple of months. The first one was a cold
blooded murder of Dr. MM Kalburgi an author of about 100 books, on 30 August
2015 and the second one was the lynching of Muhammad Akhlaq, allegedly for
slaughtering a cow. Sadly, both the tragic incidents took place inside the
respective victims’ houses.
Dr MM Kalburgi, 78 was a renowned
Kannada writer, research scholar and rationalist. He was shot dead at point
blank range at his home, allegedly for his views on idol worship and Hindu
rituals. Though no group or persons claimed responsibility for shooting Dr
Kalburgi, however, initial reports suggested that right-wing activists might be
involved.
Born in Vijayapura (Bijapur)
district in 1938, Dr Kalburgi studied Kannada literature and taught at the
Department of Kannada, Karnatak University, Dharwad, one of the oldest
universities in Karnataka. He was also the vice-chancellor of the Kannada
University, Hampi, Ballari (Bellary) district. He had won several important
awards, including those from Central Sahitya Academy, Karnataka Sahitya
Academy, Pampa Award, Nadoja Award and Nrupathunga Award.
He
had authored over 100 books in Kannada and was a natural orator too. He was
considered an authority on Vachana literature (propagated by the 12th
Century philosopher and social reformer Basavanna). In fact, Basavanna was
opposed to religion, religious practices and Brahminical rituals. Followers of
Basavanna are called Lingayats in Karnataka and Dr Kalburgi belonged to the
same community. 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 intimidations, Dr Kalburgi
continued his campaign against idol worship and Brahminical rituals. On Sunday,
30 August 2015 morning, at around 7.40 am, two youths knocked his
door and his unsuspecting wife ushered them in. Introducing themselves as
students of the professor, they entered his room and shot him twice in his
forehead. Before Dr Kalburgi’s wife could come to her senses, the youths had
fled on their motorbike.
The other sad episode is now mostly
known as Dadri mob lynching in which a mob of people attacked a
Muslim family on the night of 28 September 2015 in Bisara village near
Dadri, Uttar Pradesh province of India. The attackers killed 52 year old
Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi and seriously injured his son, 22 year old Danish. On 28
September 2015 evening, two boys used the local temple’s public announcement
system to spread the rumour that the family of Mohammad Akhlaq had killed a cow
and consumed its meat on Eid ul Adha. Eventually, a mob carrying sticks,
swords and pistols arrived at Mohammad Akhlaq’s house at around 10:30pm and
accused them of consuming beef. They dragged the family outside. Akhlaq and
Danish was repeatedly kicked, hit with bricks and stabbed. Akhlaq’s elderly
mother and wife were also attacked. They killed Akhlaq and badly injured
Danish. This happened to a family that was living in that village for about the
70 years.Both the incidents were strongly condemned by the notables from every
walk of Indian society. A renowned Muslim leader Asaduddin Owaisi criticized
the police’s for its bias attitude. He also criticized the ruling party of the
state for inaction and the local BJP leaders for defending the rioters. A few
days after the lynching, author Nayantara Sahgal returned her Sahitya Akademi award
in protest of the growing intolerance in the country. She pointed to the recent
murders of MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Goving Pansare and called Dadri
lynching her last straw. Soon she was followed by Ashok Vajpeyi and Rehman Abbas
who also returned their awards.
This countrywide protest hasn’t
stopped, rather it has picked up the pace and a large number of authors,
writers, researchers and poets are returning their awards/cash prizes, which is
quite alarming. Eminent Malayalam writer Sarah Joseph and Urdu novelist Rehman
Abbas on Saturday announced they will return the Sahitya Akademi award and the
Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy award respectively, joining a growing
protest against ‘rising intolerance’ in the backdrop of murder of noted
rationalists and Dadri lynching incident. The announcement came on a day when
noted Malayalam writers K Satchidanandan, PK Parakkadavu and KS Ravikumar quit
their posts in the Akademi in protest against the murder of Kannada writer and
rationalist MM Kalburgi in Dharwad. English author Keki N Daruwalla wrote a
letter of protest to Akademi chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari over the
literary body’s “soporific stance” to Kalburgi’s killing. Joseph, who won the
prestigious honour for her novel ‘Aalahayude Penmakkal’ (Daughters of God the
Father), said she would soon send the cash prize and plaque to the Akademi by
courier.
Nevertheless, the sad part is the
attitude of the ruling party’s leaders and some of the extremist Hindu leaders.
The culture minister Mahesh Sharma who was supposed to play down a string of
Sahitya Akademi awardees surrendering their award or resigning from the
organisation, rather insisted that it was the writers’ “personal choice”.
Describing 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”, Union
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked the writers tauntingly whether their
protest was “real or manufactured” and if it was “a case of ideological
intolerance”.
Jaitley while targeting the writers
said, “With the Congress showing no signs of revival and an insignificant Left
lacking legislative relevance, the recipients of past patronage are now
resorting to “politics by other means”. The manufactured protest of the writers
is one such case.”
Indian society has visibly divided
into good and bad people, with the devil’s followers certainly ruling the
affairs and calling the shots. The minorities were already upset and were
having certainly the insecure life; however the current extremism wave has
turned the peaceful, moderate and humane Hindus also restless and returning of
their awards as a protest clearly shows how concerned they are for a secular
India. Modi and his followers are doing to India what the enemies couldn’t do
in the decades. The opponents have a reason to consider it as a blessing in
disguise.
No comments:
Post a Comment