Nayantara Sahgal, who had returned her Sahitya Akademi award in 2015 protesting the murders of M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar, and Govind Pansare, says that she is dismayed at the continued attacks on minorities in India. From the murder of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri in 2015 to the murder of Pehlu Khan in Alwar in 2017, we cannot hope for a better situation till the RSS backed BJP is in power. She predicts constitutional ammendments following the BJP victory which will take the country to a situation of Fascism and Hindutva religious majoritarianism. Watch the first part of the interview here:
In the second part of the interview, she speaks of the situation in Kashmir. Sahgal’s mother, Vijaylaxmi Pandit ,was a Kashmiri Pandit, and she says that a historical hurt cannot be an excuse for the attack on Muslim minorities. She also announces that her new novella, When the Moon Shines By Day will be out in September.
