Author: Sunanda Vashisht
Publication: Myind.net
Date: October 18, 2015
URL: https://www.myind.net/cabal-rises-protest

By now the irony of writers and artists who are protesting about intolerance and growing fascism in India via newspaper columns, primetime television shows and social media is obvious to all. The façade that is playing out in media is a cruel joke in a country which is desperate for jobs, progress, and connectivity and for a rightful place in the global order. The aspirational class that voted Narendra Modi into power is tired of shenanigans that play out in television studios night after night. They do not understand the tantrums these writers and intellectuals are throwing. Hungry for efficiency and economic prosperity, this emerging India watched the litterateurs call the Prime Minister of the country a fascist dictator on prime time news without fear of retribution and laughed. This neo middle class watched the intellectuals confer upon themselves intimidating titles like the ‘Conscience of the nation’ and ‘Public intellectuals’ and wringed their hands in desperation and amazement. It did not escape anyone that self appointed voices of the nation were completely detached from the real people and real issues.

Through the cacophony of noises I was able to decipher two main reasons for the ‘intellectual tantrums’. Sahitya Akademi is spineless and did not condemn the killing of MM Kalburgi who was a Sahitya Akademi winner. Before him two other rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare were shot dead brutally and the Akademi did not speak up for either of them. The second reason was the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq who was killed merely on a rumor that he had either indulged in cow slaughter or eaten beef. Whatever the catalyst for returning the awards, all these Award returnees converge on the present government being instrumental in quelling dissent and free speech.  If an alien were air dropped in India today, he would think before May 2014, India was a land of milk and honey, there were no communal riots, love and harmony was overflowing and we lived in some kind of utopian existence.

The fact is India is no paradise of free speech, communal discord has always been just an argument away and riot is just a mindless violent incident away.  India’s record on free speech is shameful to say the least. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru in fact brought in first amendment of Indian Constitution which ensures that Free speech will always remain a casualty in India. When the constitution itself puts restrictions on absolute free speech it is only natural that erosion will happen with time. It is this first amendment that ensured Satanic Verses was banned even before anyone had read it and banning of books, films, plays on the pretext of hurting religious sentiments became a competitive sport. Sahitya Akademi ideally should be a completely independent body but it is not Modi government that has clipped its wings. It has merely inherited the malaise that was acceptable till Congress party was in power.

Last two weeks have confirmed what I had always suspected. There are no true liberals in India. There are only opportunists and propagandists. Why has not one liberal writer complained about the source of illiberalism in India- The first amendment of Constitution? Why have we seen no protests, no columns, no breast beating about Nehru’s illiberal contribution to the Constitution?

There is nothing to suggest that intolerance has increased in Indian society and there are no facts which corroborate that minorities are under threat. There is no evidence that Modi Government has brought in any legislation that discriminates against minorities. Fault lines have existed in India for a long time. Our history is fraught with incidents that have driven wedges between communities. Politicians of all hues have exacerbated these from time to time. Indian Society has suffered but come out more resilient than ever. Indian democracy has survived a severe bolt of Emergency which is the only time fundamental rights of Indians were suspended. We are a noisy democracy but a vibrant democracy.  A true Liberal would speak up all the time when atrocities are committed. A true liberal would come on streets when poet and author Sarvanand Kaul Premi and his son were kidnapped from his house in Kashmir valley and later found murdered with their eyes gouged out. His crime was that he was a Hindu in a Muslim majority state that is fighting Islamic jihad. This inspite of him having a rare manuscript of Quran in his house kept with much reverence. A true liberal would also record his dissent when TJ Joseph’s hands were chopped in Kerala in glaring act of intolerance and barbarism. There are many voices that have been shut up like this even before Modi Government took over.  I am not even going into the numerous communal riots and State atrocities that India has suffered through under Congress government. This is not an attempt at whataboutery but an attempt to show the hypocrisy of self proclaimed thinking class. The argument that this is the first time intolerance is perpetuated by State is a whole lot of bunk and willful suspension of intellectual honesty.

If a dispassionate analysis is done we would come to the conclusion that technology has made censorship impossible. Nobody can be censored in this age and day. Dissent cannot be quelled in a country like India which has thrived on dissent and debate. Media discussed Dadri lynching for days together and rightly so. Nayantara Sehgal got more coverage that Angela Merkel who was visiting India on a very important visit and at the time when the Indian government was promoting Make in India.  If this government was really in the business of managing headlines and quelling dissent Angela Merkel and not Nayantara Sehgal would be found in the headlines.

India is grappling with the scars of its brutal, violent history. Fault lines, communal discord, are result of what we have inherited after 1947 and before that. It is no different than American society grappling with race issues even in 2015. Ideally the prominent intellectuals, writers, artistes should bridge the differences not exacerbate them. India is the only country where intellectuals run to the television studios to scream censorship, journalists plead government of their choice to impose censorship on Social Media and ordinary people sit home watching this spectacle in the hope that somebody will one day talk about them.

This is not a war about rescuing Indians, it is instead an ideological war with one set of people feeling orphaned by lack of access to corridors of power. This is not a war about freedom of speech; this is a war about allowing only one narrative. This is a not a war between cultural czars and philistines; this is a war between court historians and ordinary chroniclers of time and history. It is time that real chroniclers and not hired chroniclers win the war.