The 2015 Indian writers protest against alleged government silence on violence was 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 there is a climate of rising intolerance in the country under the present central government (NDA Alliance). 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 M. M. Kalburgi. Writer Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi followed Prakash in protesting the murders of rationalists like M. M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. They also came out against the Dadri incident, in which a mob lynched a Muslim man in Dadri village of Uttar Pradesh over rumours of eating and storing beef. 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:
S.No. Writer Field 1Uday PrakashHindi writer 2Nayantara SahgalEnglish 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 11G. N. Ranganatha RaoKannada translator 12Manglesh DabralHindi writer 13Rajesh JoshiHindi writer 14G. N. DevyGujarati writer 15D. N. SrinathKannada translator 16Kumbar VeerabhadrappaKannada novelist 17Rahamat TarikereKannada writer 18Baldev Singh SadaknamaPunjabi novelist 19JaswinderPunjabi poet 20Darshan ButtarPunjabi poet 21Surjit PatarPunjabi poet 22Chaman LalPunjabi translator 23Homen BorgohainAssamese journalist 24Mandakranta SenBengali poet 25Keki N. DaruwallaEnglish poet 26Nand BhardwajRajasthani writer
Statements made by writers
List of writers who resigned from Sahitya Akademi posts
S.No. Writer Field 1 Shashi Deshpande Kannada author 2 K. Satchidanandan Malayalam poet 3 P. K. Parakkadvu Malayalam writer 4 Aravind Malagatti Kannada 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. M. 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, Prapanchan, Ashokamitran, Thoppil Mohamed Meeran, S. Abdul Rahman, Vairamuthu, Tamilanban, Muhammed Metha, Melanmai Ponnusamy, Puviarasu, Nanjil Nadan, S. 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 Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award 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 M. M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, and Narendra Dabholkar Alleged 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 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election.
Reactions Union Minister and former Chief of Army Staff General V. K. Singh claimed that the return of awards by the writers citing intolerance was a planned conspiracy. The then Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said that the return of awards was an international conspiracy against the Modi Government.
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