MSC Satya Sai, From the SAHMAT exhibition on The Making of India, 2004, Image courtesy SAHMAT, http://www.sahmat.org/themakingofindia11.html
On October 14, 2015, a hundred Bengali writers, academics and performers wrote a joint letter to the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, to express their deep concern about the rising intolerance in India today, and the growing threats to Indian plurality. Since then, another sixty three have added their names to the letter.
Describing the assassination of rationalists such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi as a “well-planned conspiracy to endanger Indian democracy”, they urged the President to “take firm and immediate steps” to combat this threat to the basic freedoms all citizens of India share.
Here is the full text of their letter:
October 14, 2015
To Sri Pranab Mukherjee
The President of India
Your Excellency,
As citizens of a democratic country, we are deeply concerned about the growing culture of murderous intolerance and the brazen assault on the fundamental right to life of those who maintain the core values of diversity, plurality and tolerance of which you yourself have recently reminded us. The targeting of innocents like the recent killing of Muhammad Akhlaq in Dadri and the series of attacks against rationalists and freethinkers including the gruesomely casual killing of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi has made us strangers in our own country. We are horrified at the callous lack of support and apathy of the state in finding and bringing the culprits to justice. The stifling atmosphere of fear and uncertainty is fatal to the freedom of expression that is at the heart of our shared lives, and it is for the restoration of this common fabric that we urge you to intervene.
On behalf of the freethinking, creative minds of India – indeed, on behalf of every citizen of India – we urge you, the guardian of the Constitution of India, to ensure that those who have infringed upon this founding document of the State with impunity, whether overtly or by silent complicity, be brought to justice. Throttling the right to free thought and expression threatens the very existence of our plural society. We demand your active intervention in protecting the basic freedom which is the right of all Indian citizens without discrimination by religion, caste, class or gender. We appeal to you to take firm and immediate steps to combat this well-planned conspiracy to endanger Indian democracy.
From the creative and academic community of West Bengal,
- Nabaneeta Dev Sen
- Nirendranath Chakraborty
- Ashok Mitra
- Shankha Ghosh
- Alokranjan Dasgupta
- Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
- Pabitra Sarkar
- Ipshita Chanda
- Samaresh Majumder
- Amiya Bagchi
- Bibhash Chakraborty
- Rudraprasad Sengupta
- Swatilekha Sengupta
- Bani Basu
- Subodh Sarkar
- Antara Dev Sen
- Pratik Kanjilal
- Nandana Dev Sen
- Wasim Kapoor
- Dipali Bhattacharya
- Srijato
- Sohini Sengupta
- Emanul Haque
- Bikashranjan Bhattacharya
- Chitra Sen
- Kaushik Sen
- Reshmi Sen
- Srikanta Acharya
- Bijaya Mukhopadhyay
- Sarat Mukhopadyay
- Gargi Roychoudhury
- Arna Sheel
- Ujjwal Chattopadhyay
- Meghnad Bhattacharya
- Kishor Sengupta
- Subrata Gangopadhyay
- Samir Aich
- Srabasti Basu
- All Members of P.E.N International, India, West Bengal Branch
- Krishna Bose
- Ranjan Gupta
- Shyamal Mukhopadhyay
- Sugata Choudhuri
- Arindam Acharjee
- Barun Chakrabarty
- Krishna Sen
- All Members of SOI, Forum for Creative Women
- Anjali Das
- Jyotsna Karmakar
- Sharmishtha Dasgupta
- Maya Siddhanta
- Dipanwita Roy
- Chitra Lahiri
- Chaitali Chattopadhyay
- Sutapa Bhattacharya
- Sanjukta Bandopadhyay
- Esha De
- Ishita Bhaduri
- Kana Basu Misra
- Susmeli Dutta
- Deepshikha Poddar
- Binata Roychowdhury
- Pritha Bal
- Dipannita Datta
- Bubun Chattopadhyay
- Banani Das
- Swapna Bandopadhyay
- Kasturi Chattopadhyay
- Sanhita Bandopadhyay
- Tanbir Nasreen
- Kamalakkha Gangopadhyay
- Manasij Majumder
- Dhritikanta Lahiri Choudhury
- Shankar Majumder
- Pratibha Mandal
- Bidisha Ghosh Biswas
- Agnimitra Biswas
- K. Biswanath
- Anit Bose
- Paushali Sengupta
- Rangan Sengupta
- Bipasha Raha
- Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta
- Arnab Dutta
- Judhajit Sarkar
- Nabin Mandal
- Sheila Lahiri Chowdhury
- Dipkanta Lahiri Chowdhury
- Debjani Lahiri Chowdhury
- Ridhi Sen
- Pankaj Saha
- Avery Chaurey
- Indira Mukherjee
- Riya Chatterjee
- Kanai Barui
- Bulbul Datta
- S.N. Paul
- Amitabha Mandal
- Jharna Barui
- Neelu Das
- Sukanta Chaudhuri
- Supriya Chaudhuri
- Sounak Chakraborty
- Sebanti Ghosh
- Sudhir Chandra
- Minati Chatterjee
- Jayati Ghosh
- Bikash Mukherjee
- Sudip Nath
- Indira Chakraborty
- Amit Das
- Nandita Kundu
- Jhinuk Roy
- Saumen Mukhopadhyay
- Anish Sengupta
- Mahashweta Samajdar
- Anuttama Banerji
- Soumyajit Paul
- Soma Roychowdhury
- Himanshu Biswas
- Arpita Sikka
- Prabhas Ghosh
- Ayan Majumdar
- Biswajit Bhowmik
- Chaitali Chatterji
- Sharmila Das
- T.K. Mandal
- Abhijit Ghosh
- Yasodhara Roychowdhury
- Upasana Mukherjee
- Biplab Gangopadhyay
- Amit Kr. Pandit
- Gargi Sarkar
- Debu
- Sreyash Sarkar
- Agomani Dasgupta Mukherji
- Roshni Charaborty
- Ajeya Sarkar
- Sreyashi Musafir
- Swapna Chakraborty
- Sremayi Bhatta
- Nilanjana Chatterjee
- Sudakshina Bhagat
- Swastika
- Swapna Dutta
- Sajal Samudra
- Paula Sengupta
- Abhimanyu Mahato
- Pias Majid
- Arvind Deb Sarkar
- Alamgir Haque
- Sharmila Sen
- Pallabi Dey
- Anamika Dutta Sarkar
- Samapan Saha
- Saumitra Polley
- Anjan Achariya
- Anirban Das
- Amlan Chaudhuri
- Md. Inasuddin
- Biplab Kr. Pal
- Swapan Bose
- Ramkumar Acharya
More signatories from Gujarat and Maharashtra –
Gujarat :
1.Mehul Devkala , Vadodara
2.Kanji Patel,Lunavada
3.Paresh Nayak,Ahmedabad
4.Kirit Doodhat,Ahmedabad
5.Yagnesh Dave,Rajkot
6.Vibha Nayak,Ahmedabad
7.Dakshin Chhara,Ahmedabad
8.Sachin Ketkar,Vadodara
9.Rajan Barrett,Vadodara
10.Saroop Dhruv,Ahmedabad
11.Hiren Gandhi,Ahmedabad
12.Bharat Mehta,Vadodara
13.Sagar Shah,Ahmedabad
Maharashtra :
14.Atul Dodiya,Mumbai
15.Nandita Das,Mumbai
16.Sanjay Chhel,Mumbai
17.Prabodh Parikh,Mumbai
18.Anju Dodiya,Mumbai
19.Naushil Mehta,Mumbai
20.Ashok Sahane,Mumbai
21.Hemant Divate,Mumbai
22.Ganesh Visputay,Mumbai
23.Ignatius Dias,Mumbai
