By Mohammad Ashraf, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 01 Nov 2015: Civil society Activists, Journalists, Academicians and Artists assembled at Mavlankar Bhawan of the Constitution Club here on Sunday, under the banner of Pratirodh, to mark their protest against growing intolerance in the society. The banner on the wall read the following lines from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, “where the mind is without fear.”
Later a video was played on the screen of the auditorium, where the Bollywood legendry actress Sharmila Tagore recited the same poem as a mark of protest against the growing intolerance in the society, and appealed to people to speak up against it.
Tagore also stressed on the need to read this poem by Rabindranath, since he had also returned the knighthood awarded to him by the British Government when its atrocities against Indian masses was at its peak. She related his act with what the artists and academicians have been doing lately by returning the awards they had received amidst an environment of growing hatred and intolerance.
The hall was jam-packed with audience from different spheres of life and from all parts of the country. The dignitaries who had come to speak against this emerging social intolerance, which resulted in the murder of rationalist voices like Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and recently MM Kalburgi, were pioneers of their field. They included historians like Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar, Journalists like Om Thanvi and a big galaxy of scholars and artists.
The function started with observing one-minute silence in the memory of those killed in the wave of growing intolerance in the society. Just after that, a video message of the daughter and son of late Dabholkar was played for the audience wherein they stressed on the need to unite against forces that are trying to create social intolerance in the society. Later Om Thanvi, who was also anchoring the program, invited the wife of late Pansare to come and release a book that has articles written by rationalists, who have been murdered by the fringe Hindutva groups recently.
Megha Pansare requested those present in the audience to read the works of Pansare, Kalburgi and Dabholkar to understand what led to their martyrdom, as she referred to their killing. She also asserted that the families of the three killed by Hindutva extremists remain united in these difficult times while fighting a legal battle to get justice.
Irfan Habib, the renowned historian from Aligarh Muslim University, was the next one to speak .Irfan’s speech was full of sarcasm that was intended to expose the hollowness of the way the government was handling education and twisting history.
“Historically we have seen that any fascist government in the world has tried to alter true history with myths. We are seeing a similar trend in India too, where our Prime Minister went on to claim that plastic surgery was an ancient Indian invention and so was the first space craft.” He said.
Taunting on the patriotism of the saffron leaders, he questioned where was their patriotism when Britishers were ruling the country? “Their patriotism which started after 1947 has much to do with occupying political power than any love for the country,” he added.
Further taking a jibe at the Hindutva groups’ attempt to co-opt heroes who have ideologically been hostile to RSS he said, “the truth is that the BJP and the RSS do not have any hero of their own so they are forced to pick and choose heroes who were extremely critical of the Sangh Parivar, like Bhagat Singh , Gandhi and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.”
Other speakers present in the gathering spoke more or less on the same length and stressed on the need for progressive forces to unite against the menace of Hatred and intolerance being propagated in the name of religion. Ashok Vajpayee observed that it’s not just scholars who are questioning the social imbalance being created in the society but also businessmen like Narayanmurthy, the founder of Infosys has come forward to criticize it. Retired Justice Rajindar Sachar told the audience that those who are trying to equate India with Hindu Rashtra are contradicting themselves with the basic premises of the constitution that advocates for multiculturalism and plurality.
During his speech, he cited Jayprakash Narayan’s view on cow slaughtering. Jayprakash had said that personally he would not like animals be killed but there is nothing sacred than human life and killing humans in the name of cow protection was a shameful act. Sachar was referring to the lynching of Akhlaq over beef rumours in Ddadri area of Uttar Pradesh recently.
The most invoking and provoking speaker of the day was Romila Thapar, who started her speech announcing that she was not going to talk about history today but will rather talk about the attack by government on the intellectual culture of the country. Talking of her personal experience from last week, she informed the audience that while she was to deliver a lecture in a college in Mumbai, police insisted on her to take adequate security as they feared that someone or the other would throw ink on her face, a culture that has been associated with fringe Hindutva groups.
“It was first time in my life that I had to reluctantly deliver a lecture under police protection, such is the state of affairs in the country today,” she said. She also stressed that this was not the first time people have returned awards as a mark of protest as cited by the government. But on many other occasions scholars have registered similar protest including that during the period of emergency.
“We have protested against the Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie and recently AR Rahman. I personally protested the killing in Nandigram under the CPI(M) regime. So those who accuse us of being silent when other parties were in power should do their homework properly,” she said.
Other prominent speaker of the day was Krishna Sapti who refused to receive Padma Bhushan award during the erstwhile Congress regime.
