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 India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

have started returning the prestigious

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

to protest the increasing incidents of communal violence in

. They believe there is a climate of rising intolerance in the country under the present central government (

NDA Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

). 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 Nayantara Sahgal (née Pandit; born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. She was award ...

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 Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

. As of 2020, 26 writers are yet to return their souvenirs after declaring the return of awards. Only 13 writers have returned souvenirs and prize money. To prevent return of awards from taking place again, a Parliamentary committee recommended that the Centre should make recipients of government awards sign an undertaking that they would not return them at any stage as a mark of protest.

Sahitya akademi

List of writers who have returned their awards

As of 15 October 2015, more than 40 scholars returned their awards:

Statements made by writers

List of writers who resigned from Sahitya Akademi posts

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

* Six Kannada writers returned the State literary award on 3 October. * Theater artist Maya Krishna Rao has also returned her Sangeet Natak Akademi award on 12 October. * Shiromani Lekhak award winner Megh Raj Mitter has also announced to return his award.

Communal violence pointed out by the scholars

In general all the scholars have protested the growing intolerance of government supported Hindu right-wing groups against minorities and rationalists. Particularly * Dadri lynching * Murders of rationalists like the Kalburgi murder * Government Silence on Violence

Controversy

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.

Reactions

Union Minister and former Chief of Army Staff V.K. Singh claimed that the return of awards by the writers citing intolerance was a planned conspiracy. The then Union Minister

Maneka Gandhi Maneka Gandhi (also spelled Menaka; ''née'' Anand) (born 26 August 1956) is an Indian politician, animal rights activist, and environmentalist. She served as a member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, and is a member ...

said that the return of awards was an international conspiracy against the Modi Government.

References

{{reflist Protest tactics Violence in India