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An international writers’ forum has expressed solidarity with about 50 Indian authors who recently returned their awards in protest against the “silencing of independent voices”.
John Ralston Saul, President, PEN International, which is holding its 81st Congress in Quebec City in Canada, has written to the President and Prime Minister of India and the President of the Sahitya Akademi, expressing grave concern over the crisis following the murder of noted scholar and intellectual, M.M. Kalburgi and the protest by writers.
He said the Congress, which had delegates from 73 countries, had asked him, as President of PEN International, “to share with you our strongly-held view that the Indian Government takes immediate steps to protect the rights of everyone, including writers and artists, in the finest traditions of Indian society and culture, and indeed, the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution.”
Noting that India was the world’s largest democracy, yet there was a climate of “growing intolerance in India where those who challenge orthodoxy or fundamentalism have become increasingly vulnerable”, the writers’ urged the Indian government to reassure the community of writers and artists that its ministers were tolerant of diverse views. “Also, it must ensure that the investigations into the murders of M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare are conducted fairly and expediently and their killers are brought to justice.”
PEN International also said it was “disturbing that India’s Minister of Culture Mahesh Sharma has reacted to these tragic developments by saying, “If they (the writers) say they are unable to write, let them first stop writing. We will then see.”
Saluting the protesting writers, “who represent the breadth, diversity and excellence of Indian literature,” the forum said it expected India to live up to the high ideals of its Constitution so that every Indian can live in a land where “the mind is without fear and the head is held high.”
An advocate of human rights and freedom of expression, PEN International was founded by Catharine Amy Dawson-Scott in London in 1921 and had noted playwright John Galsworthy as its first President, according to its website. It is now active in 100 countries and holds special consultative status at the United Nations.
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