We are artists, filmmakers, writers and scholars. Our work reflects people’s lives, struggles and hopes. We offer our dreams to everyone. But what dream can show us the way in the midst of the present nightmare?
Our vision for this nation demands that we speak up now, in the name of our democracy and the constitution that protects it.
We stand in solidarity with the students and others who are protesting and speaking out against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and against the National Register of Citizens (NRC). We salute their collective cry for upholding the principles of the Constitution of India, with its promise of a plural and diverse society. We are aware that we have not always lived up to that promise, and many of us have too often remained silent in the face of injustice. The gravity of this moment demands that each of us stand for our principles.
The policies and actions of the present government, passed quickly through parliament and without opportunity for public dissent or open discussion, are antithetical to the principle of a secular, inclusive nation.
The soul of the nation is threatened. The livelihoods and statehoods of millions of our fellow Indians are at stake. Under the NRC, anyone unable to produce documentation (which, in many cases, does not exist) to prove their ancestry may be rendered stateless. Those deemed “illegal” through the NRC may be eligible for citizenship under the CAA, unless they are Muslim.
Contrary to the stated objective of the government, this does not appear to be a benign legislation, only meant to shelter persecuted minorities. The list of exclusions seems to indicate otherwise. Why are minorities from other neighbours like Sri Lanka, China and Myanmar excluded? Is it because the ruling powers in these latter countries are not Muslim? It appears that the legislation believes that only Muslim governments can be perpetrators of religious persecution. Why exclude the most persecuted minorities in the region, the Rohingya of Myanmar or the Uighurs of China? This legislation only acknowledges Muslim perpetrators, never Muslim victims. The aim is transparent: Muslims are the unwelcome Other.
This is state-sanctioned religious persecution, and we will not condone it.
In Assam and the Northeast, and in Kashmir, the indigenous identity and livelihood is threatened as never before, and we will not condone it.
The response of the government and law-enforcement agencies to the distress of its citizens has been callous and high-handed. India has seen the most Internet shutdowns of any democracy in the world. Police brutality has left hundreds injured, including many students from Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University. Several citizens have been killed while protesting. Many more have been placed in preventive detention. Section 144 has been imposed in numerous states to curb protests.
We need look no further than Kashmir to see how far this government is willing to go to suppress democratic dissent. Kashmir has suffered the longest Internet shutdown ever imposed by a democratic government.
Enough is enough.
Those of us who have been quiet in the past, our silence ends now. We will be clear-sighted in our dissent. Like our freedom fighters before us, we stand for a secular and inclusive vision of India. We stand with those who bravely oppose anti-Muslim and divisive policies. We stand with those who stand up for democracy. We will be with you on our streets and across all our platforms. We are in solidarity.
Read the statement in Hindi here.
Read the statement in Marathi here.
| 1 | Rahman Abbas | 103 | Bharati Jagannathan | 205 | Job Puthenpura |
| 2 | Anvita Abbi | 104 | Jagmani | 206 | K. E. Radhakrishna |
| 3 | Ajayan Adat | 105 | N.D. Jayaprakash | 207 | S. Raghunandana |
| 4 | Ramona Adhikari | 106 | K.P. Jayasankar | 208 | Ram Rahman |
| 5 | Faraz Ahmad | 107 | Pervin Jehangir | 209 | Usha Rai |
| 6 | Anvar Ali | 108 | Dhirendra Jha | 210 | Badri Raina |
| 7 | Zaheer Ali | 109 | Ram Naresh Jha | 211 | Mohan Raj |
| 8 | Lalitha Alilu | 110 | Mary John | 212 | Vinod Raja |
| 9 | Shimit Amin | 111 | Mary Joseph | 213 | Anjum Rajabali |
| 10 | Jyothi Ananthasubbarao | 112 | Rajesh Joshi | 214 | Hiralal Rajasthani |
| 11 | Vidya Das Arora | 113 | Jane K. | 215 | P. P. Ramachandran |
| 12 | Sushila Bahanda | 114 | Sushi Kadanakuppe | 216 | EV Ramakrishnan |
| 13 | Vikas Bajpai | 115 | Srinivas Kakkilaya | 217 | Usha Raman |
| 14 | Ritwik Banerjee | 116 | Vimala Kalagar | 218 | J. Mohan Rao |
| 15 | Sudeshna Banerjee | 117 | Priya Kalapurayil | 219 | M. Govinda Rao |
| 16 | Sumanta Banerjee | 118 | Rina Kamath | 220 | Smriti Rao |
| 17 | Susan Barton | 119 | Kalpana Kannabiran | 221 | Venugopal Rao |
| 18 | Aamir Bashir | 120 | Aman Kanwar | 222 | Vidya Rao |
| 19 | Amit Basole | 121 | Harsh Kapoor | 223 | Girdhar Rathi |
| 20 | Rakhi Basu | 122 | Ram Kapoor | 224 | P. P. Raveendran |
| 21 | Dev Benegal | 123 | Geeta Kapur | 225 | Ajit Kumar Ray |
| 22 | Homi Bhabha | 124 | Manju Kapur | 226 | Soumen Ray |
| 23 | Amit Bhaduri | 125 | Aruni Kashyap | 227 | Gauhar Raza |
| 24 | Madhu Bhaduri | 126 | Suhit Kelkar | 228 | Nadeem Rezavi |
| 25 | Nabakumar Bhattacharyya | 127 | Sonal Kellogg | 229 | Abhijit Roy |
| 26 | Akeel Bilgrami | 128 | Mukul Kesavan | 230 | Dunu Roy |
| 27 | Rani Day Burra | 129 | Faisal Khan | 231 | Kirity Roy |
| 28 | Sundar Burra | 130 | Habib Khan | 232 | Kriti Roy |
| 29 | Meena C. K. | 131 | Shah Alam Khan | 233 | Kumkum Roy |
| 30 | Priya Sarukkai Chabria | 132 | Devaki Khanna | 234 | Krishnaswamy S. |
| 31 | Suresh Chabria | 133 | Ayesha Kidwai | 235 | Yousuf Saeed |
| 32 | Amitabha Chakrabarti | 134 | Santosh Kiro | 236 | Nayantara Sahgal |
| 33 | Pariplab Chakraborty | 135 | K John Koshy | 237 | Ranabir Samaddar |
| 34 | Sudhir Chandra | 136 | Mridula Koshy | 238 | Deepak Sanan |
| 35 | Civic Chandran | 137 | Teresa Kotturan | 239 | Mallika Sarabhai |
| 36 | Indu Chandrasekhar | 138 | Ancilla Kozhipat | 240 | Mahesh Saran |
| 37 | R.K. Chandrika | 139 | Pradip Krishan | 241 | S. Saran |
| 38 | Partha Chatterjee | 140 | Sumi Krishna | 242 | Madhu Sarin |
| 39 | Shoma A. Chatterji | 141 | T.M. Krishna | 243 | Sumit Sarkar |
| 40 | Salil Chaturvedi | 142 | Amitadyuti Kumar | 244 | Tanika Sarkar |
| 41 | Amit Chaudhuri | 143 | Ashutosh Kumar | 245 | Lubna Sarwath |
| 42 | Neel Chaudhuri | 144 | Kirtana Kumar | 246 | K.P. Sasi |
| 43 | Vasundhara Chauhan | 145 | Radha Kumar | 247 | Sanal Kumar Sasidharan |
| 44 | Rajendra Chenni | 146 | Sandhya Kumar | 248 | K. Satchidanandan |
| 45 | Anuradha Chenoy | 147 | Sitanath Lahkar | 249 | Makarand Sathe |
| 46 | Kamal Chenoy | 148 | Basanti Lakra | 250 | Vira Sathidar |
| 47 | Zasha Colah | 149 | Jyotsna Lall | 251 | Gigi Scaria |
| 48 | Naresh Dadhich | 150 | Swapna Liddle | 252 | Rashme Sehgal |
| 49 | Vasudha Dalmia | 151 | Ania Loomba | 253 | Antara Dev Sen |
| 50 | Sumangala Damodaran | 152 | N.S. Madhavan | 254 | Partha Sen |
| 51 | Swati Dandekar | 153 | N. S. Madhavan | 255 | Rukmini Sen |
| 52 | Arpita Das | 154 | Amit Malik | 256 | Debjani Sengupta |
| 53 | Nandita Das | 155 | Neeraj Malik | 257 | Saswati Sengupta |
| 54 | Vibha Puri Das | 156 | Ranganathan Manohar | 258 | Ghanshyam Shah |
| 55 | Maya Dayal | 157 | Mercy Margaret | 259 | Naseeruddin Shah |
| 56 | Naina Dayal | 158 | Abdul Bari Masoud | 260 | Ratna Pathak Shah |
| 57 | Deena VJ | 159 | Anand Mathew | 261 | Sunil Shanbag |
| 58 | Anita Desai | 160 | Cynthia Mathew | 262 | Shiva Shankar |
| 59 | Kiran Desai | 161 | Elsa Mathew | 263 | Gajendra Narayan Sharma |
| 60 | Sudhanva Deshpande | 162 | Cyril Mathias | 264 | Neelima Sharma |
| 61 | Meera Devidayal | 163 | Damodar Mauzo | 265 | Shaveta Sharma |
| 62 | J. Devika | 164 | Uday Mehta | 266 | Surabhi Sharma |
| 63 | Asish Dey | 165 | Subhash Mendhapurkar | 267 | Jatin Sheth |
| 64 | Dipak Dholakia | 166 | Aarti Aney Menon | 268 | Mira Shiva |
| 65 | Arundhati Dhuru | 167 | Asma Menon | 269 | Geetanjali Shree |
| 66 | Xavier Dias | 168 | Madhavi Menon | 270 | Dilip Simeon |
| 67 | Anju Dodiya | 169 | Nivedita Menon | 271 | Devika Singh |
| 68 | Atul Dodiya | 170 | Kappen Mercy | 272 | Savithri Singh |
| 69 | Jean Dreze | 171 | Kristine Michael | 273 | Preeti Sinha |
| 70 | Lillete Dubey | 172 | Hafiz Mohamad | 274 | Sachidanand Sinha |
| 71 | Avalokita Dutt | 173 | Anjali Monteiro | 275 | Shantha Sinha |
| 72 | Indranee Dutta | 174 | Sripad Motiram | 276 | Kita Sinku |
| 73 | Walter Fernandes | 175 | Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay | 277 | Jawhar Sircar |
| 74 | Arunima G. | 176 | Jeroo Mulla | 278 | Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak |
| 75 | Karen Gabriel | 177 | Manu Chakravarthy N. | 279 | M. S. Sriram |
| 76 | Ramakrishna Gampalahalli | 178 | Vishnu Nagar | 280 | K. V. Subrahmanyam |
| 77 | Leela Gandhi | 179 | Karthika Nair | 281 | Kadayam Subramanian |
| 78 | Mridula Garg | 180 | Mira Nair | 282 | Sumita |
| 79 | Geetika | 181 | Rukmini Bhaya Nair | 283 | Vivan Sundaram |
| 80 | Amitav Ghosh | 182 | Kavery Nambisan | 284 | Sehba Taban |
| 81 | Jayati Ghosh | 183 | Ashish Nandy | 285 | Deepika Tandon |
| 82 | Persis Ginwalla | 184 | Saeed Naqvi | 286 | Kiran Tandon |
| 83 | Roshmi Goswami | 185 | Ravi Nitesh | 287 | Vikram Tandon |
| 84 | Sheela Gowda | 186 | Veena Oldenberg | 288 | Anand Teltumbde |
| 85 | Srinivasa Gowda | 187 | Vijay Padaki | 289 | Anita Thampi |
| 86 | Meena Gupta | 188 | Reshma Pais | 290 | Romila Thapar |
| 87 | Rajiv Gupta | 189 | Pratishtha Pandya | 291 | P. K. Michael Tharakan |
| 88 | Atul Gurtu | 190 | D. Parthasarathy | 292 | Susie Tharu |
| 89 | Rajan Gurukkal | 191 | Vinay Pathak | 293 | Asha Tirkey |
| 90 | Leela Hansda | 192 | Chandrakant Patil | 294 | Palo Tunti |
| 91 | Saba Hasan | 193 | Biswanath Patra | 295 | Ananya Vajpeyi |
| 92 | Zoya Hasan | 194 | Anand Patwardhan | 296 | Vamsi Vakulabharanam |
| 93 | Sohail Hashmi | 195 | Jayant Pawar | 297 | Achin Vanaik |
| 94 | Shabnam Hashmi | 196 | Jerry Pinto | 298 | Sankar Varma |
| 95 | Vinita Hembrom | 197 | Rita Pinto | 299 | Sushma Varma |
| 96 | Nataraj Honnavalli | 198 | Ismail Poonawala | 300 | Sushma Veerappa |
| 97 | M. G. Husain | 199 | Gyan Prakash | 301 | Prem Verma |
| 98 | Shamsul Islam | 200 | M. Madhava Prasad | 302 | Gauri Vishwanathan |
| 99 | Sameera Iyengar | 201 | Purendra Prasad | 303 | Asha Vombatkere |
| 100 | Vikram Iyengar | 202 | Rohit Prasad | 304 | Sudhir Vombatkere |
| 101 | Jaya Iyer | 203 | M. P. Pratheesh | 305 | Salim Yusufji |
| 102 | Jaaved Jaferi | 204 | Rita Puthenkalam | 306 | Ajit Zacharias |
