Sahitya Akademi has acted finally. End protest
It may have come late, but the Sahitya Akademi’s resolution condemning the murder of writer and rationalist MM Kalburgi and its call to the Union Government to take steps to “prevent such incidents in the future”, must be welcomed. The Akademi is an independent body of writers and it must remain so. Unfortunately, some writers have exploited the occasion for politics when they used the failure of the literary organisation to promptly condemn Kalburgi’s killing, then stretched their dissent to encompass ‘growing intolerance’ in the country, and thereafter added the ‘threat to freedom of speech’ to their revolt — expressed by the return of their awards.
While not all those who had given up their awards did so out of politics, a large number of them were clearly motivated by political ideologies. It remains to be seen if they will see reason and take back the awards they returned — or announce they would no longer be returning them, depending on the situation. If they still insist on not taking back their protest, then it will be clear that the failure of the Akademi to condemn the Kalburgi killing was only an excuse for them; their target was and remains the Narendra Modi Government. Indeed, there is a division among the literary community; while there are authors insistent on not taking back their awards, there are others who point to the futility of being recalcitrant after the Akademi’s gesture.
The problem with the ‘hardliners’ within the writers’ community is that they see themselves as something of a saviour of the country’s ethos of free speech and tolerance. While a writer must discharge his or her responsibility to society and fight for the freedom of speech and expression, this becomes a show of farce when it is selectively applied. For instance, many writers who have returned their awards (some even their cash prize) were silent when large-scale massacre of Sikhs took place in 1984 or when Kashmiri Pandits were terrorised in Kashmir and forced to flee their homes for good.
They were also not moved by the Government’s failure and its attempt to shield the guilty in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. In fact, one eminent author who returned the award some days ago, is reported by the media to have remarked: What has the Akademi award got to do with the Bhopal tragedyIJ Indeed, what has it got to do with the Dadri incident or those others of recent and not-so-recent origin — all of which the protesting writers knitted together to support their claimIJ
But it’s time to move on. Now that the Sahitya Akademi has atoned for its earlier failure, the episode must be brought to an end. Authors who protested have made their point, even if not all of those points were valid. Rather than allow the schism in the literary community to deepen, writers must join hands to strengthen the Akademi. Those who wish to play politics must not hide behind the shield of literature.