On September 5, 2017, Parshuram Waghmare, a member of Sri Ram Sene and Miskin who was allegedly serving as a back-up gun man arrived outside Lankesh’s home on a black motorcycle. Waghmare allegedly shot at Lankesh four times and the duo fled the scene. He was arrested by the Karnataka CID in connection with the Kalburgi case in 2018 after it emerged that he was connected to both cases.

MM Kalburgi a well-known rationalist was allegedly murdered in cold blood on August 30, 2015, by two men, Miskin and Praveen Prakash Chatur. One of them rang the doorbell and Uma Devi answered. He asked for Kalburgi and shot him dead as soon as he came to the door. Other witnesses had earlier identified Chatur as a rider waiting on a motorcycle.

It is also noteworthy that the weapon used in the Kalburgi case is the same as that was used to kill another eminent intellectual and rationalist Goving Pansare. Also, three of the accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case are also linked to the plot to kill anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar. Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013. The same weapon was used in both crimes according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
 

The post Gunman in Kalburgi murder case also Gauri Lankesh murder accused? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
About a year ago, Uma Kalburgi wife of the slain academic had filed a petition concerned with the slow pace of investigation in the killing of her husband. During a hearing of the matter in December 2018, the SC had raised the issue of whether the matter should be handed over to the CBI and more, whether all four investigations should be clubbed and looked into by one agency. Before Kalburgi, Govind Pansare the senior CPI leader and writer had been shot dead on his morning walk on February 20, 2015. On August 20, 2013, rationalist and founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Andolan Nirmoolan Samiti, Narendra Dabholkar had been similarly killed. The four murders had generated widespread condemnation.
 
Concerned that any adverse verdict may affect the investigation into her sister’s murder, filmmaker , Kavitha Lankesh had intervened in the matter.The intervention application number 811/2019 was filed in Writ Petition (Criminal) Nos 212/2017, filed by the Uma Kalburgi, wife of Kannada academic MM Kalburgi who was similarly gunned down in August 2015, two years before Ms Gauri Lankesh. The petition of the Kalburgi’s has prayed for a Court monitored investigation and not for a clubbing of investigations.
 
 

Uma Kalburgi, in her petition had prayed for

a)   Issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other Writ, Order or Direction in the nature of Mandamus appointing Independent person retired Judge of Supreme Court or High Court and of directing Respondent No. 2 Government of Karnataka to appoint dedicated Special Investigation Team led by the Additional Director of General of Police, Karnataka, and comprising of expert officers of impeccable credentials to conduct an investigation into the conspiracy and gruesome murder of Professor M. M. Kalburgi on 30/08/2015 and to take all necessary consequential steps/actions pertaining thereto and direction to provide such Team necessary facilities as well as support. The directions also should include reporting to Hon’ble Supreme Court and no change in the team without permission of the Hon’ble Court;
b)   Direct the State of Maharashtra and the State of Goa to nominate particular police officer to provide all support and information to Special Investigating Team constituted under prayer-clause (a) immediately and share details of investigation in murder of Dr. Dabholkar and Comrade Pansare;
c)   Seek immediate report from all the Respondent States involved and especially from the National Investigation Agency seeking efforts made by them to apprehend the accused named in the said crime and accused involved in Professor Kalburgi murder case along with reports from State of Maharashtra and C.B.I.;
d)   Formulate appropriate policy for investigation of inter-state crimes and the support of agency like the N.I.A. and the C.B.I. to various State agencies whenever and wherever it is required. The said policy should mandate appointment of Nodal officer holding rank of Inspector General of Police in every State. The policy should also provide for timeframe for sharing information and coram of meetings;
e)   Monitor the investigation to be carried out by the Special Investigation Team sought to be constituted through the present Petition, till the time such investigation is reached to its logical conclusion;
f)   During the pendency of the hearing of the present petition, this Hon’ble Court be pleased to direct the Respondent to submit the periodic status report as to the progress made in the investigation in the case of murder of Professor  M. M. Kalburgi”
 
Ms Lankesh, in her intervention application had made a strong case for arguing that, “the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Inspector General of Police (Karnataka) has been conducting the Investigation with great speed and urgency and moreover the entire Investigation has been committed to a Court though not yet completed.The  SIT Investigation is being carried out with great pace and from January 2018 till date, 16 accused persons have been arrested and incriminating evidences have been unearthed by the SIT. Following this, even the preliminary and subsequent Charge Sheets have been filed.” Moreover she has stated that “ if at this advanced stage of the Investigation into the matter of the cold blooded murder of the sister of the Applicant, any change is made or the Investigation is shifted to any other agency, the entire process would be de-railed.”
 
Background of Ms Gauri Lankesh Murder:
The incident of the cold blood killing of the sister of the Applicant, Ms. Gauri Lankesh took place on September 5, 2017, between 8:00 pm and 8:30 pm, at her residence No. 473/A, 14^th Cross, Ideal Homes Extension, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, when unidentified assailants committed the murder of senior journalist and activist, Gauri Lankesh by shooting seven shots in cold blood. The said incident came under the jurisdiction of Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station of Bangalore City and on the same day an FIR was registered under Sections 302, 120(B), 114, 118, 109, 201, 203, 204, 35 of I.P.C. and Sections 25(1), 25(1B), 27(1) of the Indian Arms Act, 1959 and Sessions 3(1)(i), 3(2), 3(3) and 3(4) of the COCA Act, 2000 ( Order No.C.R.M./01/158/BC/2017-18 dated 06-09-2017 of the  D.G. and I.G.P.) as Crime No. 221/2017. Gauri lankesh’s sister, Kavitha Lankesh is the first informant in the case.
 
The Karnataka State Government announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was constituted the day after the ghastly incident itself. Since then the Investigation has been carried on by the said SIT. Kavitha Lankesh also states that “through the numbing shock of her sister’s brute assassination, she and her family were also compelled in the interests of justice and truth-telling to participate in the process to identify the killers of this dastardly act. Through this process, despite the national and international attention on the case, it is the applicant’s humble and most considered experience that the SIT constituted by the Karnataka government and police, went about its job methodically to the best extent possible gathering evidence crucial to the investigation.” Detailed reports of the investigation have shown that under the aegis of the SIT that links and connections to the other cases and murders committed before the killing of the applicant’s sister, Gauri Lankesh have been and are being made. Accused hitherto linked and connected to other crimes even outside the killings of the four rationalists along with the applicant’s sister have been unearthed through the investigations of the SIT, Karnataka.

“The Investigation has also apparently unearthed details of arms trainings and trainings in killings and violent acts that point to a broader based organizational set up that goes beyond the killing of the Applicant’s sister, Ms Gauri Lankesh. That details of these criminal acts and trainings appear to be taking place in both Karnataka and Maharashtra and Goa at the very least”

She had further stated that, if at all therefore any investigations have to be clubbed or transferred it ought to be to this body constituted of the senior echelons of the Karnataka police.”
 
Details of Ms Kavitha Lankesh’s intervention application can be read here.
 
Ms Uma Kalburgi’s petition may be read here.
 

The post SC Directs Kalburgi Investigation to be Conducted by SIT, Karnataka appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Texts Lived by Basava and Kalburgi

 
Basava, Kalburgi. Neither was an atheist; but both believed in, and practised, a radical form of religion. Their words—indeed, their lives—were texts that challenged the powerful status quo.

If the reformer and poet Basava were alive today, we would call him an activist, or even a radical. Back in the twelfth century, when he spearheaded a movement in Karnataka, this is how he described the plethora of demanding gods who keep common people in their thrall:

Certain gods
always stand watch
at the doors of people.
Some will not go if you ask them to go.
Worse than dogs, some others.
What can they give,
these gods,
who live off the charity of people
O lord of the meeting rivers?
(Speaking of Siva, 83)
It was not just the gods who “lived off the charity of people” or were, sometimes, “worse than dogs”. There were also the places where these gods lived―the temples―and more important, the men who ruled this temple culture, fattening themselves in the name of religion. The rich temples that allowed priests to be powerful doorkeepers of orthodoxy kept people in their miserable places. Basava’s ideas and words criticised both temple and priest, the entire conservative and exploitative system, as “static”. And he insisted that there was a “dynamic” alternative:
The rich
will make temples for Siva.
What shall I,
a poor man,
do?
My legs are pillars,
the body the shrine,
the head a cupola
of gold.
Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,
things standing shall fall,
but the moving ever shall stay.
(Speaking of Siva, 19)

Basava went further than a just path to spiritual salvation. Why, he asked, can’t reason and spirit co-exist? Why should spiritual experience be devoid of reason? Basava scorned the irrational ritual:

They plunge
wherever they see water.
They circumambulate
every tree they see.
How can they know you
O Lord
who adore
waters that run dry
trees that wither?
(Speaking of Siva, 85)

Basava took his critique of the establishment to its logical end. Building on reason, on the dynamic, on the opposition to man-made ritual, priesthood, temples and their gods, Basava issued the most powerful challenge: all men are equal, regardless of caste; and all women are equal to men. When King Bijjala questioned him about the radical inter-caste marriage planned by Basava’s colleagues in the movement, he asked the king, “Are we not all born of the same source, a woman’s womb? No man ever came out of his mother’s ears.”
Basava did not merely mouth platitudes against caste oppression. Just as he ate with the lower castes and welcomed them into his movement, he insinuated himself into the lineage of those considered inferior by the orthodox. Basava may have been born a Brahmin; but he shed the sacred thread, the agrahara culture of the Brahmins, the priests and temple culture. He became a child of butchers, water-carriers, fodder-gatherers. He became a child of the lower castes, of the lowest “untouchables”. This is how he made himself human.
Nimbavve’s my mother: she lives

By fetching water,
Cennayya is my father:
He fetches fodder for the royal stable…
(Basava Vachanajali, 352)

                                       Or:

The son of the slave in Untouchable Channayya’s house,
The daughter of the maid in Butcher Kakkayya’s house.
Those two went to the fields to gather dung
and fell in love.
I’m the son born of these two;
the lord of the meeting rivers is my witness.
(The Lord of the Meeting Rivers)
Was Channayya’s son superior to Kakkayya’s daughter? They are equal in our movement, said Basava. When his men had trouble learning to live this equality, Basava used word and image to remind them of the rational basis of equality. He sang words, for instance, by the weaver poet, Devara Dasimayya:
Suppose you cut a tall bamboo
in two;
make the bottom piece a woman,
the headpiece a man;
rub them together
till they kindle:
tell me now,
the fire that’s born,
is it male or female,
O Ramanatha?
(Speaking of Siva, 110)

Basava’s own poem about men and women used a bisexual image to say that gender equality is only natural:

Look here, dear fellow:
I wear these men’s clothes
only for you.
Sometimes I am man,
sometimes I am woman.
(Speaking of Siva, 87)
So Basava’s text, in its search for a meaningful life, whether of the individual or the community, fore-grounded equality and reason:
How can I feel right
about a god who eats up lacquer and melts,
who wilts when he sees fire?
How can I feel right
about gods you sell in your need,
and gods you bury for fear of thieves?
(Speaking of Siva, 84)

Equality and reason, but also confluence. The dynamic, the ever moving instead of the static and stagnant. It has to be emphasised that even the spiritual in Basava’s philosophy included the social, political and economic aspects of the community. Unlike other Bhakti or devotional movements which put individual salvation first, Basava’s sharana movement, and the Lingayatism he founded, advocated a more egalitarian Bhakti―eschewing traditional temple worship, idol worship, meaningless rituals, and even renunciation. The spiritual was firmly located in people’s lives in the real world of society. Anyone, regardless of caste, gender or community could become a sharana. The movement gave the common people of the Kalyana kingdom a sense of their human value, while moving them from the periphery toward the mainstream. The weapon of the movement was a body of literature: poems called vachanas―“what is said”―in language that connected to the common people.

It didn’t last, of course. The crisis point for the movement came when the sharanas organised an inter-caste marriage. The fathers of the bride and groom were executed, dragged by an elephant. The king of Kalyana was killed; anarchy followed. Basava was forced to leave the city, and his end is shrouded in mystery.

Over the years, the movement which had equality at its heart became another caste. Today, the Lingayats form a considerable number in Karnataka. They are somewhere in the middle of the caste hierarchy, but wield economic and political power. And, in a sad irony, Basava’s legacy has been appropriated by conservative elements supportive of the new right wing in India.

For someone who is inspired by Basava’s text today―his words, his ideas and his life―what is the way forward? How do you combat the distortion of Basava’s ideas and words, the casteism born out of an anti-caste movement? How do you keep his challenges alive today, and challenge both old and new temples, priests and gods? The old inequalities that persist, and the new inequalities that create deeper division?

Malleshappa Madivallapa Kalburgi, known as M.M. Kalburgi, was that rare scholar who had multiple personas. There was the folklorist; the teacher; the researcher; the vice-chancellor of a university; the public figure. There was the poet, the playwright, the translator. His research interests ranged from ancient to medieval literature, from grammar to poetics, from inscriptions to cultural studies. There was the prolific scholar; but there was also the outspoken critic of contemporary religious, cultural and political practice. He used his scholarly research and speculation to intervene boldly in matters of contemporary cultural politics, including the distortion of history to gain or maintain political dominance. Vikram Visaji, writing on “the tireless scholar and fearless critic”, quotes Kalburgi:

Of late artificial changes are being introduced instead of genuine ones in society thanks to religious and political leaders. The researcher needs to unravel actual history in order to stop the exploitation caused by such false history. Research is not a purely historical exploration but a struggle with those who invoke false history to profit from the present (Visaji 2016, 74).

What guided Kalburgi in this struggle he speaks of?
Kalburgi knew intimately, through years of work, the extraordinary flowering of people’s literature during a movement against orthodoxy in twelfth-century Karnataka, and the man who led this movement, Basava. Kalburgi’s research and writing were inspired by Basava’s idea of equality, his insistence on putting an end to caste and gender discrimination, and upholding the dignity of labour. Kalburgi was also a leading authority on the vachanas.

Kalburgi was a Lingayat too. But his interpretation of this literature and current Lingayatism, as well as his application of Basava’s ideas to the social and political scenario today, angered the community’s establishment. The struggle of the researcher that Kalburgi spoke of was the need to resist “those who invoke false history to profit from the present”. For Kalburgi, these peddlers of false history included the growing new right wing in India; but first and foremost, the Lingayat establishment that had lost Basava’s radicalism—the essence of the movement he spearheaded.

It was 8:40 in the morning on Sunday, August 30th, 2015, in Dharwad, a place rich in cultural tradition, from literature to music. Seventy-seven-year-old Kalburgi was at home in Kalyan Nagar―an apposite address for a man who read and wrote so much about Basava’s Kalyana. Kalburgi was talking on his cell phone. There was a knock at the door. Kalburgi opened the door; two men shot him at close range; the bullet pierced his head. The men apparently sped away on a motorcycle; there were no eyewitnesses. When the family rushed to the verandah, Kalburgi lay dead on the ground.

There was widespread outrage over the assassination, and citizens from writers to scientists protested the fatal censorship of a scholar and writer. Kalburgi’s murder was an addition to a list: the murder of anti-superstition and anti-caste activist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune, and that of anti-caste and anti-false history activist Govind Pansare. This linked list―which has grown with the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengalaru—is important to those who seek to challenge the offensive against freedom of expression and dissent.

In the case of Kalburgi, there is a clear textual link between his scholarly dissent and his murder. There are specific texts which the conservatives in the Lingayat community objected to. His collection Marga 1, had two articles perceived as “derogatory” of Basava, his wife and sister. On the basis of several vachanas, Kalburgi had concluded in the first article that Basava’s relationship with his second wife Neelambike was platonic. In the second article, he argued that the veerashaiva poet and leader Channabasava could have been the son of Nagalambike, Basava’s sister, and a cobbler poet, Dohara Kakkaya. Such a birth, the product of an inter-caste marriage, said Kalburgi, had been obfuscated by false history.

The Lingayat temple chiefs brought immense pressure to bear on Kalburgi to recant―very much like their counterparts did with Basava centuries back. Kalburgi did recant, saying later that “I did it to save the lives of my family. But I also committed intellectual suicide on that day.” (interview for India Today, quoted in Narayan 2015). It was not just these and similar “controversial” incidents that earned Kalburgi the enmity of the current Lingayat orthodoxy. It was his holding the religious and politically powerful in the community up to the radical standards of Basava’s ideas, and finding them, and their reinvented Basava in contemporary cultural politics, miserably wanting. In a tribute to Kalburgi, Shivanand Kanavi wrote in Outlook Magazine:

In today’s India very few would of course stand Basavanna’s test. This led Prof. Kalburgi to not only take on casteist and conservative forces in general but also some powerful conservatives among Lingayats.[…]
For example a remark he had made about superstitions in a public meeting in Bengaluru which had been organised to discuss the draft Anti-superstition bill prepared by Karnataka Government led to screaming headlines in one of the newspapers leading to death threats and cowardly acts of vandalism at his residence last year.

But he carried on and when I asked him once about such threats he quoted me a vachana by Basavanna himself:

“Let what could happen tomorrow come to us today,
Let what could happen today come to us here and now,
Who is afraid of this?
A person born will also die
Neither Hari nor Brahma can override what my Koodala Sangama Deva has written.”
(Kanavi)

The “contested text” today is the body of Basava’s ideas, his demands for political, economic and social change; combined with the interpretation of Kalburgi and his historical findings based on scholarship. Basava’s movement, and Kalburgi’s internalisation of the ideas and words behind this movement: together they present a challenge to the powers that be, whether the powerful religious institution of the mathas or their friends, or their preferred political ally, the new right wing exemplified by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and the Sri Ram Sene groups. The link between Basava and Kalburgi was apparent to many.

The overarching concern expressed at the Town Hall in Bengaluru was that a culture of lethal violence might overwhelm the hallowed culture of discussion and questioning in Lingayat society. Indeed, one of the first victims of the temptation to violence was Basava himself―martyred at the end of the celebrated period of social reform, when he was thought to have gone too far by marrying a Brahmin girl to a Dalit boy. One protestor on the Town Hall steps had evidently thought of this: “Yesterday Basavanna,” his sign read, “Today Kalburgi”. (Karnad 2015).

Perhaps the text that brings all these strands together is a play by Kalburgi called Kettithu Kalyana, translated into English as “The Fall of Kalyana”. The play is about the struggle led by Basava for caste and class equality. But it also reflects the loss of the gains made by this struggle, centuries later in our times, through “false history”. 

The play begins with a powerful scene in the Brahmin agrahara of Bagewadi where Basava lived with his parents. It was full moon, and time for Brahmins to change their sacred thread. Fifteen-year-old Basava refused a new thread; in fact, he was about to tear off his old one. Two priests held on to his hand, telling him that being Brahmin meant access to “the prestige of being called gods on earth” (Fall of Kalyana, 2). Basava resisted. His thread snapped, hung loose. “I don’t want this sacred thread which makes me a Brahmin instead of a human being,” he said.

A man becomes a Brahmin as soon as he wears the sacred thread. From that day, he starts classifying society into Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra… the sacred thread divides society… (21).

Basava dashed to the ground the text which exemplifies the traditional practice of division, the Manusmriti. Basava and his family were excommunicated.

(Kalburgi too was threatened, and with more than excommunication. The conservatives among the Lingayats took offense when he suggested that Basava’s nephew, the sharana Channabasava, was a leather tanner. Kalburgi was threatened with death; he was summoned to a Lingayat matha in Dharwad and forced to recant (Narayan)).

From the first setting of Kalburgi’s play―the powerful Brahmin village culture―Basava moved to the second stage of his life, his exploration of temple culture. Basava went to Kudala Sangama, the centre of monasteries and temples, hoping to learn from the “literature of ideas and freedom of expression”. But here too he found the same authoritarian, close-minded priestly culture, empty ritual, the mechanical reading of texts and reciting of mantras. The Shaivas’ intelligence was also tarnished, he found, like the Brahmins, “by the smoke of the sacrificial fire” (Fall of Kalyana, 12). Superstition was pervasive, resulting in irrational, often cruel practices: “barking like dogs after worshipping God Mailara, walking about naked after worshipping God Bhairava, walking on cinders, torturing the body, sacrificing women…” (26) In addition to the wasteful practices of libation, palanquin processions, religious ritual such as grand pujas, the poor ended up borrowing from the rich to offer their devotion to deities, and “pots and bowls, roadside stones and trees enjoy the status of gods” (25). 

(Kalburgi too was critical of the Brahmin-like practices followed by a section of the present day Lingayat community, who pay lip service to Basava as a saint, but turn his ideas on casteless equality upside down. Kalburgi also supported writer U.R. Ananthamurthy’s ridiculing of idol worship. And Kalburgi criticised the Lingayats’ celebration of festivals such as Ganesh Chathurthi (Nayak 2015)).

Basava moved on from Kudala Sangama. In Kalyana, his father-in-law introduced him to King Bijjala and Basava was given a job in the royal treasury. His honesty was so exemplary that he was soon made finance minister. This was when Basava’s idea of equality led to practical action. He cut grants to temples and Brahmins, redirecting resources to the poor and marginalised to whom, he announced, the treasury really belonged.

These days, the kings have been exploiting the subjects; the priests have been exploiting the devotees and the men have been exploiting the women… society has been divided into two streams, the exploiters and the exploited (Fall of Kalyana, 33).

Basava took cognisance of both divisions of class and caste:
The caste differences between the privileged and the underprivileged is born out of “religion” whereas the difference between the poor and the rich is born out of labour (40).
(Basava in Kalburgi’s words: Basava’s ideas and his times meet Kalburgi’s reading and times seamlessly.)

The movement grew; there were followers from all castes, potters, weavers, boatmen, and both men and women. Many sharanas other than Basava became leaders in different ways. All of them had to face, of course, stiff opposition from priests, Brahmins, the rich, and finally the king himself. The crisis came when an inter-caste marriage took place, between the daughter of a Brahmin and the son of a cobbler. Then king, city, Basava, the movement―all collapsed into anarchy. The king was assassinated; Basava driven out of the city. Many sharanas were slaughtered. Vachana manuscripts were seized and burnt.

The status quo crept back over time. The Lingayats became a caste. Basava became a saint, rather than the bearer of a more just world. Many of his “descendants” lost all connection with his legacy. But there were, there are, others who search for it, find it in text, word, idea and action. They bring Basava back to our times, times which see both old and new manifestations of caste, community, gender, ritual, superstition, hypocrisy and unreason. And the same big gap between the powerful and the powerless.

Kalburgi was one such man. He saw the gaps, the hypocrisy, the betrayal of Basava’s rational, egalitarian and rational approach to both social life and the life of the spirit. Kalburgi saw all this. And he was not just a scholar mining old words; he wrote, he spoke, he challenged. He was a practitioner of Basava’s thought. His claim that the Lingayats are not Hindus angered the powerful Lingayats. In addition, his exploration of the positive aspects of Muslim rule in Karnataka, as well as Persian and Urdu texts, antagonised the Hindutva groups in India today. 

Basava, Kalburgi. Neither was an atheist; but both believed in, and practised, a radical form of religion. Their words—indeed, their lives—were texts that challenged the powerful status quo. Basava’s end in exile is shrouded in mystery. Kalburgi’s murder remains an ongoing “case”. 

But Basava’s words remain:
Earth is one and the same
For pariah street
And Shiva temple;
Water is one and the same
For washing shit and ritual cleaning;
All castes are one
For a man with self-knowledge…
(I Keep Vigil of Rudra, 59)
And Kalburgi’s words too, the ones he put into the mouth of an old “untouchable”:

You fear words. Men who fear words exult in human blood. You can silence me, but you cannot silence truth. Truth and fire are ever inextinguishable. They will always keep burning somewhere. One spark is enough to create a conflagration (quoted in Satchidanandan 2015).
Basava and Kalburgi. Their words are sparks that will not die.
 

References
Basava. Speaking of Siva, translated with an Introduction by A.K. Ramanujan, Penguin Classics, 1973.
Basava. The Lord of the Meeting Rivers, Devotional Poems, translated by Kamil V. Zvelebil, Motilal Banarsidass-UNESCO, 1984.
Vikram Visaji, “M.M. Kalburgi, the Tireless Scholar and Fearless Critic”, Words Matter, Writings against Silence, ed. K. Satchidanandan, Penguin Books India 2016, pp. 71-79.
Nayantara Narayan. Interview to India Today, quoted by Nayantara Narayan, “Kalburgi’s scholarship got him into trouble with Lingayats, and with Hindutva forces too”, Scroll, August 31, 2015,
Shivanand Kanavi, “Prof M.M. Kalburgi, A Tireless Researcher”, published first on the author’s blog and also in Outlook Magazine.
Raghu Karnad, “Murder in the Academy: M.M. Kalburgi’s Dangerous Literary Studies”, The Wire, 30/08/2015.
M.M. Kalburgi, The Fall of Kalyana, A Play, translated by Basavaraj Naicker, Basava Samithi, 2003.
N. Dinesh Nayak, “Kannada writer was at the centre of controversies”, The Hindu, August 31, 2015.
I Keep Vigil of Rudra, The Vachanas, Translated by H.S. Shivaprakash, Penguin Classics, 2010.
K. Satchidanandan, “They Feared His Words: A Tribute to M.M. Kalburgi”, Indian Cultural Forum, October 21, 2015.

Githa Hariharan is a writer and a Founder Member of the Indian Writers Forum.

This essay was first written for Text Wars, ed. Hilda David & Francis Jarman, 2018.

First Published on Indian Cultural Forum

The post The Spark in Their Words appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The voice of dissent is the biggest fear for the right wing

The post United, the Voice of Dissent Must be Heard: Megha Pansare on Gauri Lankesh’s Murder appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Images sourced from the Deccan Herald and The Hindu respectively; treated by ICF team

The author of Kavirajamarga describes a period in Karnataka which was a time for Janapada – people’s words. We do not know whether the protesters were murdered, and whether, the people who asked questions were humiliated by rubbing coal and dung on their faces. But now, just like the language Kannada, Kannada Janapada is also under attack. A voice that studied the period of the author of Kavirajamarga was forcefully and permanently silenced. 

Yes, M M Kalburgi, 77 years old, was shot dead in Dharwad on 30 August 2015. Kalburgi was “infamous” for his critical and rational views on Hindu-Lingayat-Veerashaiva belief and practices. His subjects of critique also included the gurus of the Veerashaiva mathas. He had accused them of being murderers of Basavanna. He was a rational and truthful researcher of the everyday life of the people of Karnataka. Hence, a critical voice was killed.

Students, who came looking for him, shot him dead. Such attacks and murders were a reality of distant lands, but now, they are also a reality of Karnataka. Kalburgi’s murder has shocked the progressive and the rational population of the state. The literary world and the thinkers of our country came out on the streets to protest. G N Devy, Kannada Champa, six progressive and new poets, Udaya Prakash, a Hindi writer, along with many others, returned their awards and titles. Along with such protests, there were neutral reactions that criticised the attention that the murder was receiving, by calling it “too much”; some also felt uncomfortable by remembering the good relationship Kalburgi had shared with the brahminical mathas, trustees, and organisations. Whatever were their views, people remembered him; they were sad, and angry. 

Blind believers of religion, who had not read a single word that Kalburgi had written, reacted in an obscene way by celebrating the murder in the Karavli region of Karnataka. According to them, they celebrated the murder of an enemy of their religion. Internet was flooded by such comments; and a list of writers and thinkers who are going to be killed next, also published. The list was called the hit list. The publishers of this list were arrested and were later released too. 

A hit list on the internet? Yes. A tour of the internet gives a glimpse of the kind of extreme and fundamentalist reactions that the events in the national and international levels received. Internet now shows the mindset of the youth who know the internet; and also a medium which shows the hidden evil faces behind the masks of goodness. Media and the internet play an important role in creating an intolerant society. India has a community of trolls and its propagators, who attack every word of free thought. Just as any critical analysis of religion, god, caste, nation, and language is met with intolerance in the society, the internet has become a space that generates such intolerant behaviour. This community of trolls doesn’t let any peaceful and healthy discussion take place. Instead, it creates a violent atmosphere where the users are seen violently fighting. 

This is the state in which every country and religion in the word is right now. We have not reached here out of nowhere. The legitimate political position that the religious fundamentalism has received is the reason for this. It has generated a mind that not only romanticises violence, but also accepts violence. It has not only manufactured the murderers of Kalburgi, but also the murderers of the ideas and thoughts of Perumal Murugan, Shirinn Dalvi, Vinayak Sen, Teesta, Sanjeev Bhat and other progressive thinkers. 

It has been two years since Kalburgi was murdered. It was anticipated that he would be killed, as he propagated the dharma of Basavanna and Lingayat Dharma. He was infamous among the Sanatana Samstha, and the matha system. The same religion of Basavanna that he was propagating, has now taken the form of Lingayat, and is struggling for the constitutional recognition as the Lingayat religion. Against this backdrop, we can observe the following: 

1) The murder of Kalburgi is still under investigation. Anyhow, it is an open secret that the advocates of anti-rational thoughts are the culprits. Linganna Satyampet, a contemporary, and a close associate of Kalburgi, who was known for his critique of mathas, was also murdered. Kalburgi was given police protection as he had received a few death threats. He was murdered as soon as he rejected police protection. He was a soft target for the fundamentalists. Even though there are numerous writers, thinkers and activists in Karnataka who have been actively critiquing the fundamentalists, Kalburgi became their target. The fact that Kalburgi was chosen, pushes us to examine the complexity of this case. It is usually the “critical insiders” – who stay within the system, and are critical about the system – who are under threat. The assassination of Gandhi – who claimed to be a Hindu, and was pointing out the loopholes in the religion – by a Hindu fundamentalist, is a good example. The system of violence chooses these “soft target” to generate fear in others.

2) The times we are living in, are not as innocent as we assume them to be. Fundamentalism is successfully butchering rational voices emerging out of free speech and expression, which are also well thought through. Irrespective of age and experience, all of us are discussing freedom of expression; but, we have all failed to understand the mask of culture that the threat to freedom of expression has appropriated; and to recognise various faces of this threat. Even senior thinkers like Kalburgi are not an exception. Some thinkers seem to be more interested in the literature fests sponsored by capitalists. These literature festivals would not have any of the thinkers who are our very own. These festivals are also well known for utilising the names of thinkers participating in them, for their own use.

3) Kalburgi’s murder is being protested and criticised in Dharwad and North-Karnataka regions. This protest in Dharwad is generating pressure on the authorities, demanding a rigorous investigation. Close and dear associates of Kalburgi, concerned with the current events and also assuming the responsibilities for future, have organised themselves and are fighting for justice. At the same time, there are a few nationalist thinkers, who claim that Indians are better off with freedom of expression when compared to other countries; and some also have/are accusing the intelligentsia in the country for constructing the notions of attack on freedom of expression. But, it is only those who propagate modern thoughts who know the reality. 

4) Irrespective of what government is in power, and irrespective of how grave the crime is, we have seen the way a criminal belonging to the hegemonic community of the majority, is not brought out in light. The sniff dogs of the investigators stop at the city/ town circles, bus stands, and railway stations. It is a vast field of ignorance, confusion, and cluelessness from there onwards. These investigations drop us in the fields with wells, burrows, and caves to look for an ant. It is impossible. It is possible to find the whereabouts of the sharp shooters who killed Kalburgi; it is possible to get to the rowdies who hired the shooters; but it is impossible to get to the roots of these rowdies. Even if we do, it is not possible to take any action against them. It is very common for the investigations to end as soon as they reach a powerful and a famous name. It has been years since, Linganna Satyampet’s half naked body was found in a drain, Narendra Dabholkar was murdered, and Pansare was murdered, but we still have no clue about the whereabouts of the culprits. 
The return of awards and titles by writers and thinkers has been successful in generating a pressure on the ongoing investigation. Most of such investigations are usually unsuccessful. It is only a strong retaliation, an organised and consistent protest that can guide us towards justice. Realising the need for such protest, various communities, irrespective of their differences, have come together to protest through various media. They have been demanding to identify the murderers, get to the root of this system of crime and killings, and pluck this system by its root. 

Thoughts, questions, and opinions should be a response to thinking, questioning and curiosity, and not murder. Kalburgi strived hard in building, and nurturing various oranisations. The saying, “It is only the death of a devotee which introduces a devotee”, is proven by the fact that Kalburgi’s death has made the progressive communities alert and creative. Let no one rejoice the silence of Kalburgi.

***
Human body is not immortal. Language is a part in the chain of life. Death of a writer is not just an absence of human life. It is the death of a conversation in a language. A writer is not just a person, a body, but he is a representative of a community which shares his thoughts. Writing provides words to the dumb, and becomes the sight of the blind.

Valmiki calls Rama a model. A model is the one who can speak for the speechless and who becomes a mouthpiece for the pain of those who are voiceless. Writers too, are models. A researcher stands much ahead of a poet and a writer. A researcher has a responsibility to learn and teach history. Kalburgi was one of such researchers, whose death is a loss of a part of my life.

My salutations to you are gleaned from the essence of life and the path of truth…
 
Read the Kannada original here.

---

H S Anupama is a doctor by profession. She finished her medical degree at Bellary Medical College. She has been running Jalaja General And Maternity Clinic at a small village in coastal Karnataka since 24 years. She works in collaboration with many women’s, dalit and democratic organisations. She runs a publishing house called “Kavi Prakashana” and is an ex-member of Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi Pradhikara. 

Yogesh S is a member of the editorial collective of the Indian Writers’ Forum.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

The post From Kalburgi to Gauri Lankesh: Silencing Rational Voices in Karnataka appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post Aamhi Saare Pansare appeared first on SabrangIndia.

wo years ago, on this day, Govind Pansare, was shot when he was returning after a morning walk with his wife in Kolhapur in the morning. He died four days later, on 20th February, 2013. He was vocal in his support for the rationalist, Narendra  Dabholkar, and, who was killed a year and a half earlier, on 20th August, 2013. On that same day, Pansare had come to pay his final respects. The next day he told the Times of India that the attack was not personal, but ideological. Dabholkar, founder of the Maharastra Andhashraddha Nirman Samiti (Maharashtra Blind Faith Eradication Committee), and Pansare, a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), were both rationalists targeted for their beliefs. A year later, M.M. Kalburgi, would also be killed in Dharwad.After Dabholkar's murder, Avinash Patil, his long time associate, was elected to carry the activities of MANS forward. Patil, currently in Delhi, explains the current status of the investigations in an interview with the Indian Cultural Forum.

The post Why are the Murderers of Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Pansare Still Absconding? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Seventy-seven-year-old renowned rationalist thinker and writer, MM Kalburgi, was shot dead at his home in Dharwad in August 2015.

Soon after this, news regarding the murders of anti-superstition activist, Narendra Dabolkar and CPI leader, Govind Pansare, being connected to Kalburgi’s death, had writers across the country return their awards to the Sahitya Akademi.
A year later, have things changed?

‘No’, says Karnataka’s prominent critic, G Rajasekhar.

On Wednesday, he rejected an award announced by the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi for his work Bahuvachana Bharatha, published in 2016.

The writer said that his decision to reject the award was because two years after the murder of Kalburgi, there has been no adequate investigation into the case.

“The RSS’ influence has seeped into many organisations and the growing intolerance in the country led the writers to return their awards. The situation in our country has worsened. Now we have people telling us what we can and cannot eat. In the name of Indian culture, the RSS is shaming the country further. Now, even the media outlets, known for their liberal view are buying into the RSS propaganda and this is a kind of fascism. The RSS is spreading its wings into every sector of the society. It is not only controlling the government, but is trying to control how the society works as well. Rejecting the award is my way of protesting against this intolerance,” said Rajasekhar.

“It has been two years since the writer died and there has been no progress in the investigation. Also, the Dabolkar and Pansare cases have come to a standstill. It will be absurd to accept an award under such circumstances. The Opposition party in Karnataka pounced at the opportunity to gain political footing after the deaths of police officers but it has not spoken about the death of this prominent writer, which is why I rejected the award,” Rajasekhar added.

The Central Crime Branch had arrested Bhuvith Shetty, the co-convenor of the Bajrang Dal unit in Mangaluru in August 2015 for posting a tweet justifying the murder of Kalburgi and warning that scholar K S Bhagwan, another rationalist free-thinker, would be their next target.

Shetty, who later withdrew his remarks from Twitter, was released on bail.

Cadres of the Sanathan Sanstha, a right-wing Hindutva organisation, had been detained in June 2016 for questioning in connection with the murder of Dabolkar. However, the investigation has been in a limbo since then.

Courtesy: The News Minute

The post Kalburgi murder unsolved, RSS growing: Renowned Kannada writer rejects Sahitya Akademi Award appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On November 19, the inaugural session at Ravindra Bhavan saw Dr Ganesh Devy, Leela Samson, Berzwada Wilson speaking, and there were also discussions (Yogendra Yadav on “India at Crossroads” and one with Raosaheb Kasbe), cultural evenings of poetry reading, singing, and much else. There will be a media session on “Media: Freedom & Promiscuity” with familiar communications and media stalwarts – Amol Palekar, Rajdeep Sardessai, Nikhil Wagle and others.

Activists lash out at Sangh Parivar, Sanatan Sanstha

Setting the tone for the three-day national conference of the Dakshinayan Abhiyan that got underway at Margao on Friday, literary scholar and cultural activist Ganesh Devy urged all progressive minds to come together and join “the struggle for the freedom of creative expression that is rooted in tolerance and diversity.”Speaking at a public meeting at Lohia maidan here, Devy hoped that Goa’s immense cultural diversity and its multilingual nature would help realise the objectives of the Abhiyan.Many of the speakers, who addressed the meeting, lashed out at the Sanatan Sanstha and Sangh Parivar for their attempts at disrupting communal harmony in the state in the name of Hindutva. Hameed Dabholkar , son of slain anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar, said that killings of Dabholkar , besides two other rationalists, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi , could have been avoided if the investigating agencies were able to arrest the masterminds of the Margao bomb blast in 2009.

While local social activist Prashant Naik demanded that Sanatan Sanstha be banned, Uttam Parwar from Gujarat said the “the country’s biggest threat came from the Sangh Parivar.”A procession ‘Sankalp Yatra,’ was also held from the Ravindra Bhavan to Lohia Maidan.About 1,000 delegates are participating in the event. Setting the tone for the three-day national conference of the Dakshinayan Abhiyan that got underway at Margao on Friday, literary scholar and cultural activist Ganesh Devy urged all progressive minds to come together and join “the struggle for the freedom of creative expression that is rooted in tolerance and diversity.”Speaking at a public meeting at Lohia maidan here, Devy hoped that Goa’s immense cultural diversity and its multilingual nature would help realise the objectives of the Abhiyan.Many of the speakers, who addressed the meeting, lashed out at the Sanatan Sanstha and Sangh Parivar for their attempts at disrupting communal harmony in the state in the name of Hindutva.

Setting the tone for the three-day national conference of the Dakshinayan Abhiyan that got underway at Margao on Friday, literary scholar and cultural activist Ganesh Devy urged all progressive minds to come together and join “the struggle for the freedom of creative expression that is rooted in tolerance and diversity.”Speaking at a public meeting at Lohia maidan here, Devy hoped that Goa’s immense cultural diversity and its multilingual nature would help realise the objectives of the Abhiyan.Many of the speakers, who addressed the meeting, lashed out at the Sanatan Sanstha and Sangh Parivar for their attempts at disrupting communal harmony in the state in the name of Hindutva. Hameed Dabholkar , son of slain anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar , said that killings of Dabholkar , besides two other rationalists, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi , could have been avoided if the investigating agencies were able to arrest the masterminds of the Margao bomb blast in 2009.While local social activist Prashant Naik demanded that Sanatan Sanstha be banned, Uttam Parwar from Gujarat said the “the country’s biggest threat came from the Sangh Parivar.”A procession ‘Sankalp Yatra,’ was also held from the Ravindra Bhavan to Lohia Maidan.About 1,000 delegates are participating in the event. A formal inauguration of the event will be held on Saturday.. 

Dakshinayan Abhiyan, an initiative taken by Dr Ganesh Devy, is organising a convention to bring rationalist and liberals together to preserve the freedom of speech and thought guaranteed by the constitution. The convenor of the three-day convention starting in Margao, Goa on Friday, November 18 is social activist Datta Nayak. Among the eminent delegates will be the family members of the three rationalists murdered by fundamentalist elements and noted RTI activist Prashant Bushan

ALL is not lost – yet. There are enough people at the top, middle and bottom echelons of our multiracial, multi-religious, multicultural society to warm the heart and keep the flame of democracy alive. Enough regrettable things have happened in recent years to make smart people pause in disquietude, memories of the lessons of history abroad and at home flooding the mind. One stout defender of freedom of speech and equality in pursuit of happiness for all is quiet author and linguistics professor Dr Ganesh Devy.

Dr Devy was in Panjim to contribute towards the final touches of the forthcoming mega conference – Abhivyakti: Dakshinayan Rasthriya Parishad scheduled at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao from November 18-20. It will witness a host of literary and intellectual personalities speaking on coming together in solidarity in the face of political tyranny. Dakshinayan Abhiyan has been formed by various authors and like-minded people in Goa supporting the cause of right to freedom of speech.

Dr Devy, now based in Dharwad, has seen life and times in Gujarat as a professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University. Apart being a linguistics scholar with several books to his credit, he is a critic and activist and founder-director of Bhasha Research & Publications Center, Vadodara. Along with many others, he returned his Sahitya Academy Award last year to protest the cold-blooded killing of intellectuals and rationalists in India.

At a media meet in Panjim recently, Dr Ganesh Devy said that the climate in India has become such that people are living in fear. This does not auger well for the country. Perhaps if like-minded people come together to express their feelings and thoughts it could be a catalyst, a positive force. He rued the fact that those who speak in the late Mahatma Gandhi’s name have actually turned Gujarat into the very antithesis of what Gandhiji valued the most. In his opinion, “Gujarat is no longer Mahatma Gandhi’s Gujarat.” Today’s Gujarat is a ghetto state with large sections living fearfully in “allotted” areas. It is not in the interests of the rest of India to become like Gujarat!

Speaking on the eve of the meet, Devy hoped that the forthcoming Abhivyakti: Dakshinayan Rashtriya Parishad will prove to be an initiative in the right direction, and inculcate genuinely progressive thinking among the young generation. Interestingly, Dr Devy quipped, “We should not want any ‘terrible beauty’ in India,” referring to the infamous Easter 1916 Irish freedom uprising against English tyranny in which millions of young people lost their lives in a civil war of sorts, and inspired William Butler Yeats to write his famous poem Easter, 1916: beginning “I have met them at close of day…” and concluding “A terrible beauty is born.”

Endorsing his sentiments was Goa Dakshinayan Abhiyan convenor Datta Naik. He said the gathering of almost 1,000 people sprang up almost spontaneously. He added, “It is a collective desire to forge a new solidarity between all progressive forces. It is a struggle for the freedom of creative expression that foregrounds tolerance and dialogue. It is an attempt to deepen rational thinking as being pivotal to society that is genuinely equal, just and respectful of diversity.” The event has logged 300 delegates from Goa and other parts of India. It will begin with a sankalp yatra to Lohia Maidan where a public meeting will be addressed by Hameed Dabholkar, Medha Pansare, Vijay Kalburgi, Prashant Naik, Atamjit Singh, K Satchidanandan, Dhanaji Gurav, Uttam Parmar, K Neela, Manan Kumar Mandal and others.

The concluding session will be based on an action plan to fight communalism presided over by Prabhakar Timble with Annad Karandikar, Harsha Badkar and Prashant Bhushan as participants. Entry fee for delegates is `1,000 while students may participate freely on presentation of ID cards. Needless to say, this multidimensional event promises to be the most exciting ever to sow the seeds of new, more progressive ways of thinking, to eventually bear sweeter fruit in a long-term perspective. Anybody who wants to belong and be counted as a progressive force must make time for it!

The post Against the Cult of Fear & Silence: Resistance Meet in Goa appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Writers, artistes and activists from different parts of the country came together in Dharwad for a protest march on August 30th to mark the passing of a year since the assassination of Dr M.M. Kalburgi. The protesters set a deadline of one month for the Karnataka government to arrest the persons involved in the assassination.

Expressing solidarity with the family members of slain thinkers and activists Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, secularists attending the public meeting condemned the Karnataka government’s slow investigation of the case. They also threatened to gherao the upcoming assembly session to be held in Belagavi in November.

In his keynote address, linguistic scholar Ganesh Devy said the event was an answer to the fascist forces taking over the nation that are intolerant to different kinds of thought. Kannada critic Narahalli Balasubrahmanyam termed the convention a historic event.

A rally was taken out from residence of slain scholar Dr M. M. Kalburgi in Kalyan Nagar, Dharwad on Tuesday, in which over 5,000 students and commoners of Karnataka were present.

Filmmaker Anjum Rajabali said the three martyrs continued to remind us of the significance of liberalism and freedom of expression, which were under threat in the current atmosphere. "It is the right time for us to become capable of respecting freedom of expression. We have also gathered here to protect our secularism. Let the rule of law prevail in the nation," he added.

Prof Rajendra Chenni, a writer from Karnataka, said freedom of expression stood threatened in many countries of the world. "Fascist forces are grabbing the rights of farmers, labourers, and selling them to corporate interests. If we don't raise our voices against this trend, we will all become slaves of one thought and religion."

He asserted that Kalburgi had revived truth by capturing facts in his scholarly output of about 4,000 pages in Kannada. "His researches always concentrated on truth and life. However, the government is insulting the scholar by delaying the investigation into his death. It does not have the moral courage to show its face to the martyrs' family members. Having waited one full year, we have lost faith in the government, and are dispirited by its readymade assurances," he lamented.

Linguistic scholar Ganesh Devy and Punjabi writer Atmajit Singh meet Umadevi, widow of slain scholar Dr M. M. Kalburgi on his first death anniversary on Tuesday in Dharwad.

Prof Chandrashekhar Patil, who was a classmate and colleague of Kalburgi's, said Kalburgi, Pansare and Dabholkar were synonymous with a revolution. "Today’s convention is not only about offering condolences, it is a platform of pain, protest. The government should crack the mystery of the murder at the earliest. There is an opinion that communal forces have been a hurdle in expediting the investigation. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should clarify… whether his government has also bowed before fascism," he demanded.

Megha Pansare, daughter-in-law of Govind Pansare, demanded that the conspirators be brought before the people to maintain their faith in the administration. "Though governments have mechanisms like the CBI and CID, they are not doing effective work in cracking these assassination cases. At the other end, different thoughts are being suppressed and silenced using weapons."

Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, demanded to know how Kalburgi was killed even though his residence was located in a posh area of Dharwad, right in the heart of the town. Calling him an asset to the nation, she blamed the Congress- and BJP-led governments for their failure to protect scholars and intellectuals. Goan writer Damodar Manjo echoed her words, adding, however, that he was glad to see fellow Indians fighting against fascists now targeting dalits in Gujarat and other states.

Kalburgi's son Srivijaya said the wounds created after his father's assassination were still fresh. He recounted, "My father used to tell us to work for society and humanity. He always fought for social equality and a healthy society. I feel that it is those who murdered him who are the anti-nationals. They killed an aged person; they are not brave, but cowardly." He concluded that even after their death, Kalburgi, Pansare and Dabholkar were still alive.

Aravind Malagatti, a dalit writer from Karnataka, questioned the state and central governments over the rise of moral policing and vigilante justice. He reminded the gathering of the need for a Gandhi nation, even as fascists attempt to convert India into a Godse nation. Claiming that progressive thinkers were the real patriots, Malagatti suggested that in order to discover the reality of India, the prime minister "should come face to face in a discussion with commoners rather than addressing citizens through his Mann Ki Baat show on the radio." Several speakers questioned the social developments that have led to increasing attacks on secular and rational thought.

Veteran Kannada writer Guruling Kapse noted that Basavanna, a social reformer of the 12th century, and Kalburgi were both from the Vijayapura district of Karnataka. "As a scholar, Kalburgi spread Basavanna’s teachings and revived them with his truth based research," he remarked. Noted scholar of Bhagat Singh's writings Prof Chaman Lal likened Kalburgi’s murder to the murder of the Vachanas ordered by the Sharanas of the 12th century, and placed his work in the tradition of thinkers like Guru Nanak, Kabir and Akkamahadevi.

Marathi writer Anand Karandikar observed that "assassinations of anti-brahminical and anti-caste movement leaders have been common in India." In the same vein, activist K. Neela from the Janwadi Mahila Sangathan, related the struggle against authoritarianism to the growing dalit movement in Gujarat as well as farmers' rights movements in other parts of the country.

Others in attendance included Noor Sridhar, Marathi writer Kumar Ketkar, veteran playwright Siddhaling Pattanseti, senior journalists Siddharth Vardarajan and Antara Dev Sen, economist Jaya Mehta, CPI leader Siddanagouda Patil, and TUCI state president R. Manasayya. Attendees voiced the urgent need to recast public discourse so as to protect India's multi-cultural, multi-linguistic heritage, and called attention to the repressive diktats around food, religion and thought issued during the Modi regime which have led to several incidents of mob violence. Several speakers attested that the struggle would continue until an end was put to atrocities committed on the basis of cultural and ideological differences.
 

The post National Protest Marking One Year since M.M. Kalburgi’s Assassination appeared first on SabrangIndia.