Nayantara Sahgal, Nehru’s niece, a renowned writer has announced that she is to return the award to protest the silence of PM, Narendra Modi and failure of the judiciary in Dadri Mob Killing and murders of other rationalists that have been left unresolved.
Nayantara Sahgal returns her Sahitya Akademi award in support of “Indians who hold the right to dissent”
Nayantara Sehgal who has won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award for her novel “Rich Like Us”(1985) in 1986 has returned the award “in memory of the Indians who have been murdered, in support of all Indians who uphold the right to dissent, and of all dissenters who now live in fear and uncertainty,”. She has released a detailed statement under the name of “The Unmaking of India” explaining all the consequences that led her to this decision in New Delhi.
She mentioned of a recent lecture by Vice- President Hamid Ansari who said “India’s Constitution promises all Indians liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship,” in his lecture. She said “right to dissent is an integral part of this Constitutional guarantee,”.
She protested against the killings of “A distinguished Kannada writer and Sahitya Akademi Award winner, M.M. Kalburgi, and two Maharashtrians, Narendra Dhabolkar and Govind Pansare, both anti-superstition activists,”. She also mentioned the recent lynching of Mohammad Aklaq and the silence of Narendra Modi in these issues and failure of delivering justice to the deceased.
She further added that in protest of Kalburgi’s murder, a Hindi writer, Uday Prakash h as returned his Sahitya Akademi award and six Kannada writers have returned their Awards to the Kannada Sahitya Parishat.
The statement by Nayantara Sehgal as published on indianculturalforum.in
The Unmaking Of India
In a recent lecture, India’s Vice-President, Dr. Hamid Ansari, found it necessary to remind us that India’s Constitution promises all Indians “liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship.”The right to dissent is an integral part of this Constitutional guarantee. He found it necessary to do so because India’s culture of diversity and debate is now under vicious assault. Rationalists who question superstition, anyone who questions any aspect of the ugly and dangerous distortion of Hinduism known as Hindutva – whether in the intellectual or artistic sphere, or whether in terms of food habits and lifestyle – are being marginalized, persecuted, or murdered. A distinguished Kannada writer and Sahitya Akademi Award winner, M.M. Kalburgi, and two Maharashtrians, Narendra Dhabolkar and Govind Pansare, both anti-superstition activists, have all been killed by gun-toting motor-cyclists. Other dissenters have been warned they are next in line. Most recently, a village blacksmith, Mohammed Akhtaq, was dragged out of his home in Bisara village outside Delhi, and brutally lynched, on the supposed suspicion that beef was cooked in his home.
In all these cases, justice drags its feet. The Prime Minister remains silent about this reign of terror. We must assume he dare not alienate evil-doers who support his ideology. It is a matter of sorrow that the Sahitya Akademi remains silent. The Akademis were set up as guardians of the creative imagination, and promoters of its finest products in art and literature, music and theatre. In protest against Kalburgi’s murder, a Hindi writer, Uday Prakash, has returned his Sahitya Akademi Award. Six Kannada writers have returned their Awards to the Kannada Sahitya Parishat.
In memory of the Indians who have been murdered, in support of all Indians who uphold the right to dissent, and of all dissenters who now live in fear and uncertainty, I am returning my Sahitya Akademi Award.