Indian writers protest against government silence on violence


The Indian writers protest against government silence on violence is a wide spread protest in India.
Starting from the beginning of September 2015, disgruntled writers and poets across India have started returning the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award to protest the increasing incidents of communal violence in India. They believe as a climate of rising intolerance in the country under the present central government
Several elite writers and poets have also resigned their posts in the General Council of the country's top literary body, saying that they were shocked at the level of intolerance on freedom of speech and expression. This incident is also referred to as award wapsi.
Hindi writer Uday Prakash was the first to return the prestigious award on September 4, 2015, protesting against the murder of MM Kalburgi. Writer Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi followed Prakash in protesting the murders of rationalists like MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. They also came out against the shocking Dadri incident, in which a mob lynched a Muslim man in Greater Noida over rumours of eating and storing beef.

Sahitya akademi

List of writers who have returned their awards

As of 15 October 2015, more than 40 scholars returned their awards:
S NoAward winner nameTitle
1Uday PrakashHindi writer
2Nayantara SahgalIndian English writer
3Ashok VajpeyiHindi poet
4Sarah JosephMalayalam novelist
5Ghulam Nabi KhayalKashmiri writer
6Rahman AbbasUrdu novelist
7Waryam SandhuPunjabi writer
8Gurbachan Singh BhullarPunjabi writer
9Ajmer Singh AulakhPunjabi writer
10Atamjit SinghPunjabi writer
11GN Ranganatha RaoKannada translator
12Mangalesh DabralHindi writer
13Rajesh JoshiHindi writer
14Ganesh DevyGujarati writer
15Srinath DNKannada translator
16Kumbar VeerabhadrappaKannada novelist
17Rahmat TarikereKannada writer
18Baldev Singh SadaknamaPunjabi novelist
19JaswinderPunjabi poet
20Darshan BattarPunjabi poet
21Surjit PatarPunjabi poet
22Chaman LalPunjabi translator
23Homen BorgohainAssamese journalist
24Mandakranta SenBengali poet
25Keki N DaruwallaIndian English poet
26Nand BhardwajRajasthani Hindi writer

Statements made by writers

List of writers who resigned from Sahitya Akademi posts

NoWriter nameLanguage
1Shashi DeshpandeKannada author
2K SatchidanandanMalayalam poet
3PK ParakkadvuMalayalam writer
4Aravind MalagattiKannada poet

Protests by Tamil writers

Sixteen Sahitya Akademi award-winning Tamil writers have condemned the Akademi for not adequately condemning the killing of Kannada writer M.K. Kalburgi and its failure to bring pressure on the Centre to protect freedom of expression.
The situation has come to such pass that there was no security for the life of a writer not to mention the threat to freedom of expression. The Akademi has not condemned the act in no uncertain terms. On the contrary it has just issued a general statement. It is not adequate and we demand that the Akademi take a stronger stand,

the writers said.
The signatories are, as of October 12, 2015: Indira Parthasarathy, K. Rajanarayanan, Ponneelan, Prabanchan, Ashokamitran, Thoppil Mohamed Meeran, 'Kavikko' Abdul Rahman, Vairamuthu, Erode Tamilanban, Mu. Metha, Melanmai Ponnusamy, Puviarasu, Nanjil Nadan, Su. Venkatesan, D. Selvaraj and Poomani.

Reaction from Academy

The academy's president, Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, countered the writers' claims by saying that they are mistaken in believing that the academy was not responding to intolerance and violence, pointing out that the vice president of the academy presided over a tribute for Mr. Kalburgi in September, where his murder was strongly condemned.

Other award winners

In general all the scholars protests growing intolerance of government supported Hindu right-wing groups against minorities and rationalists.
Particularly
Former Sahitya Akademi president Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari has claimed that he has evidence to prove that the so-called “award wapsi” movement in 2015, when more than 50 writers returned their awards to protest alleged growth in intolerance under the Narendra Modi regime, were part of a politically motivated campaign organised by Marxist writers and Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi to defame the government in the run-up to the Bihar assembly election.