Even before Sahitya Akademi Award Winner Nayantara Sahgal was allowed to make her speech at the 92nd Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, a literature festival she was slated to inaugurate, her invite was revoked after the organisers gave in to the threats of ‘local activists’.
The organisers said on Sunday, 6 January, that their decision to disinvite Sahgal was taken to “avoid any untoward incident and in view of the controversy that has cropped up against her name”.
Here are some excerpts from her full speech, published by The Indian Express.
“NO RESPECT FOR FREEDOM OF THOUGHT”
“As we are writers, let us look at what is happening to our fellow writers and artists in this political atmosphere. We are seeing that the questioning mind, the creative imagination, and freedom of expression have no place in the present political climate, and where there is no respect for freedom of thought or for democratic rights, writing becomes a risky activity.”
“DO WE HAVE THAT SAME PASSION FOR FREEDOM TODAY?”
“Are we worthy of those men and women who have gone before us, some of whom died fighting so that future Indians could live in freedom?”
“I am asking this question because our freedoms are in danger. The dangers to them are so much on my mind that when I was thinking about what I should say to you, I knew I had to talk about all that is happening in India today, because it is affecting every side of our lives: what we eat, whom we marry, what we think and what we write, and, of course, how we worship. Today we have a situation where diversity, and opposition to the ruling ideology, are under fierce attack.”
ON RISING HINDU FANATICISM
“The minorities, and those who don’t support the Hindu rashtra agenda, have become targets for fanatics who roam the streets. We have recently seen five citizens falsely charged with conspiracy and arrested on grounds of sedition. These are men and women who have spent years of their lives working for tribal rights and forest rights, and for justice for the marginalised.”
RISE OF LAWLESSNESS, DIMINISHING JUSTICE
“We are watching all this lawlessness on TV. In Uttar Pradesh, these mob attacks on the cow pretext have become common, while the authorities stand by and look on. When terrorism of this kind becomes official, as it has in Uttar Pradesh, where can we look for justice? Mob violence backed by the state goes on in many places on defenceless people, and the guilty have not been convicted.”
‘WRITERS THREATENED WITH DEATH, FORBIDDEN TO WRITE’
“Three eminent Maharashtrian rationalists, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, have been shot dead for rejecting superstition in favour of reason, and Gauri Lankesh of Bengaluru for her independent views and her opposition to Hindutva. Others have been threatened with death and forbidden to write. We are told, ‘Don’t publish your book or we will burn it. Don’t exhibit your paintings or we will destroy your exhibition.’ Filmmakers are told, ‘Change the dialogue in this scene and cut out the next scene or we will not let your film be shown, and if you show it we will attack the cinema hall. Don’t do anything to hurt our sentiments’.”
“In some cases it is even our duty to hurt sentiments. If we had been forbidden to hurt sentiments, we would still be burning widows, and no reform of any kind would have taken place.”
ON HOW HINDUTVA HAS TRIED TO DISTORT HISTORY
“In some states, large chunks of the past have been distorted or done away with altogether. And this is the work of Hindutva minds who have been specially chosen to rewrite it. If I were to invent a dialogue between an Indian historian and one of these re-writers of Indian history, it would go something like this. The historian says to the re-writer: ‘Akbar won the battle of Haldighati. But in this book, you are saying that he lost it. How come?’ The re-writer replies, ‘He lost it because I have decided that he lost it. History is what we say it is.’”
THE DAMAGE INFLICTED ON EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, DISSENT
“Our public universities, our museums and Akademies are no longer independent institutions. The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in Delhi was an early example of the damage that is being done to our institutions, and Jawaharlal Nehru University is an ongoing target of Hindutva hatred.”
“In this war that has been declared on diversity, dissent and debate, those who care about freedom have not stayed silent.”
“There are marches and rallies against the destruction of our fundamental rights. There are protests by retired civil servants, by students and academics, lawyers, historians and scientists, Dalits and Adivasis, and the farmers’ huge demand for their rights.”
WHAT WRITERS MUST DO NOW
“What can writers do in this situation? The answer is: we can write. Powerful fiction has been the result of writers stepping into controversy and taking sides, but not as polemics or propaganda.”
“Writers don’t live in ivory towers. Through our writing, we take sides between good and evil, right and wrong. Great literature worldwide by writers of many nationalities has done this, and this is the literature that has touched chords in succeeding generations and stays alive. We show where we stand by the subjects we choose, the stories we write, and the way we write them. Whether we are writing about our grandmother’s cooking, or the rain on the roof, or describing the body of our beloved, every word we write makes it clear where we stand.”
ON THE COURAGE OF MAHARASHTRIAN WOMEN WRITERS
“I have to pay a special tribute to Maharashtrian women writers, because of the formidable obstacles that women have to overcome when they put their life experiences into words on a page. They run the risk of offending husband, family, and society, and suffering the consequences. May their courage and their creative energy go from strength to strength.”
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