More people are sending in their endorsements as we release this. The Indian Cultural Forum will publish updates every day, and keep count of those who speak against the silencing of citizens’ voices.
An FIR has been lodged against forty-nine of our colleagues in the cultural community, simply because they performed their duty as respected members of civil society. They wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, expressing concern about mob lynching in our country.
Can this be called an act of sedition? Or is harassment by misusing the courts a ploy to silence citizens’ voices?
All of us, as members of the Indian cultural community, as citizens of conscience, condemn such harassment. We do more: we endorse every word of the letter our colleagues wrote to the Prime Minister. This is why we share their letter here once again, and appeal to the cultural, academic and legal communities to do the same. This is why more of us will speak every day. Against mob lynching. Against the silencing of people’s voices. Against the misuse of courts to harass citizens.
Text of open letter written to Prime Minister Modi on 23 July 2019 by 49 eminent citizens, including Aparna Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap, Ashis Nandy and Ramachandra Guha:
We, as peace loving and proud Indians, are deeply concerned about a number of tragic events that have been happening in recent times in our beloved country.
Our Constitution describes India as a secular socialist democratic republic where citizens of all religions, ethnicities, gender and castes are equal. Hence, to ensure that every citizen enjoys the rights given to her/him by the Constitution, our submission is:
1. The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) reports that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions.
Further, 254 religious identity-based hate crimes were reported between January 1, 2009, and October 29, 2018, where at least 91 persons were killed and 579 were injured (FactChecker.in database, October 30, 2018). The Citizen’s Religious Hate-Crime Watch recorded that Muslims, (14% of India’s population) were the victims in 62% for cases, and Christians (2% of the population), in 14% cases. About 90% of these attacks were reported after May 2014, when your Government assumed power nationally.
You have criticized such lynchings in Parliament Mr. Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators? We strongly feel that such offences should be declared non-bailable, and that exemplary punishment should be meted out swiftly and surely. If life imprisonment without parole can be the sentence in cases of murder, why not for lynchings, which are even more heinous? No citizen should have to live in fear in his/her own country!
Regrettably “Jai Sri Ram” has become a provocative ‘war-cry’ today that leads to law and order problems, and many lynchings take place in its name. It is shocking to see so much violence perpetrated in the name of religion! These are not the Middle Ages! The name of Ram is sacred to many in the majority community of India. As the highest Executive of this country, you must put a stop to the name of Ram being defiled in this manner.
2. There is no democracy without dissent. People should not be branded ‘anti-national’ or ‘urban Naxal’ and incarcerated because of dissent against the Government. Article 19 of the Constitution of India protects freedom of speech and expression of which dissent is an integral part.
Criticising the ruling party does not imply criticising the nation. No ruling party is synonymous with the country where it is in power. It is only one of the political parties of that country. Hence anti-government stands cannot be equated with anti-national sentiments. An open environment where dissent is not crushed, only makes for a stronger nation.
We hope our suggestions will be taken in the spirit that they are meant – as Indians genuinely concerned with, and anxious about, the fate of our nation.
Read the statement in Urdu here.
Read the statement in Tamil here.
| Aarti Aney | Kamal Vora | Ronodeb Paul |
| Abadan Khan Amitava | Kanad Sinha | Roop Rekha Verma |
| Abeer Chakravarty | Kanti Mohan Soj | Roshmi Goswami |
| Abha Bhaiya | Karen Gabriel | Rosinka Chaudhuri |
| Abhay Kumar | Karthika Nair | Rupa Chinaif |
| Abhijit Roy | Karuna Jha | S Irfan Habib |
| Abhijit Sengupta | Kausik Mukhopadhyay | Sabby Nanu |
| Aditi Banerjee | Kavita Singh | Sabyasachi Chatterjee |
| Aditi Rajeev | KB Garg | Sachidanand Sinha |
| Aditya Nigam | KE Radhakrishna | Sachin Desai |
| AI Khan | Ketaki Dutt | Sadia Wahidi |
| Aimee Wadia | Keval Arora | Sameer Chib |
| Ajai Singh | Khalid Alvi | Sameera Iyengar |
| Ajas Hyzer | Khalid Ashraf | Sameera Jain |
| Ajay Kumar | Kiran Singh | Samir Khurana |
| Ajayan Adat | Kirity Roy | Sanal Kumar Sasidharan |
| Albeena Shakil | Kirtana Kumar | Sandeep Meel |
| Ali Imam Khan | Kirti Jain | Sandhya Srinivasan |
| Alok Bajpai | Kirty Roy | Sangeetha Mathew |
| Amandeep Sandhu | KM Shrimali | Sanghita Sen |
| Amarjeet Kaur | KM Srinivasa Gowda | Sangita Gairola |
| Ambar Shrivasatava | Komita Dhanda | Sanjay Kumar Sinha |
| Ambika Devi | Kopparthy Venkata Ramana Murthy | Sanjay Madhav |
| Ambika Tandon | KP Sasi | Sanjna Kapoor |
| Amit Rai | Krishnaraj Chonat | Sanjoop KP |
| Amita Chatterjee | Krishnaswamy S | Sankar Varma |
| Amita Joseph | Kristine Michael | Santanu Mandal |
| Amitabh Pandey | Kumar Ketkar | Santhi Vakulabharanam |
| Amitabha Basu | Kumar Prashant | Santosh Jha |
| Amiti Sen | Kumkum Roy | Sara Rai |
| Amman Madan | Kundan Tuteja | Saroop Dhruv |
| Amrit Rajkhowa | L Ramdas | Saswati Sengupta |
| Anand K Sahay | Lalit Vachani | Sathya S |
| Anand Mathew | Lalita Ramdas | Satish Chand Abbi |
| Anand Swarup Verma | Lara Jaydha | Satyajit Rath |
| Anil Bhatti | Lata Singh | Satyendra Kumar |
| Anil Gangal | Lavanya | Saumya Baijal |
| Anil Kumar Singh | Laxmi Murthy | Saumyajit Bhattacharya |
| Anil Roy | Laxminarayan Ramdas | Saurabh Bajpai |
| Anirudh Nair | Lillete Dubey | Saurabh Naruka |
| Anit Maria Joseph | Lima Kanungo | Savita Tripathy |
| Anita Cherian | Lubna Sarwath | Savithri Singh |
| Anita Dighe | M Mohanty | Sebastian Joseph |
| Anita Dube | M Sathyam | Seetharama B |
| Anita Rampal | Maansi Shah | Sehba Farooqui |
| Anita Vachharajani | Madan Lal Hind | Sethumadhavan |
| Anjali Mathur | Madhavi Menon | Shabari Rao |
| Anjali Purohit | Madhu Bhushan | Shabnam Hashmi |
| Anju Dodiya | Madhuchhanda Karlekar | Shah Alam Khan |
| Anmol Vellani | Mahendra Ved | Shai Heredia |
| Anna Dani | Mahesh Darpan | Shaibani Azam |
| Annie Koshi | Mahesh Kumar | Shailendra Asthana |
| Anshul Sharma | Maimoona Mollah | Shaili Sathyu |
| Antara Dev Sen | Makarand Sathe | Shakun Doundiyakhed |
| Antony Thomas | Malasree Dasgupta | Shalinee Tripathi |
| Anu Bal | Manas Ghosh | Shamik Sen Gupta |
| Anuja Ghosalkar | Manasi | Shamim Ahmed |
| Anupama Potluri | Manisha Chaudhry | Shampa Roy |
| Anupama Srinivasan | Manju Kapur | Shamya Dasgupta |
| Anuradha Chenoy | Manmohan | Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri |
| Anuradha Lobo | Manoj Sharma | Shantha Sinha |
| Anvita Abbi | Manorama Sharma | Sharad Raj |
| Aparna Andhare | Mansi Bhatt | Sharada Sathe |
| Apoorva CA | Manthan Samayiki | Sharda Ugra |
| Apurba Baruah | Manu Chakravarthy N | Sharifa Vijaliwala |
| Archana Prasad | Mariam Fatima | Sharmila Joshi |
| Arijit Sen | Maya Joshi | Shaswati Mazumdar |
| Arjumand Ara | Meena Gupta | Shaveta Sharma |
| Arpita Das | Meena Gupta | Shavez Waris |
| Arshia Sattar | Meera Devidayal | Sheeba Chadha |
| Arundhati Roy | Megha Pansare | Sheo Dutt |
| Arunima G | Mehak Talwar | Sherna Gandhy |
| Arunkumar HG | Mercy Kappen | Shernaz Vakil |
| Arya Rajam | Mercy Margaret | Shireen Jungalwala |
| Asghar Wajahat | MG Husain | Shirish Parab |
| Asha Hans | Minakshi Rajdev | Shiv Shankar Mukherjee |
| Asha Mishra | Mithileshwar | Shobha Naresh |
| Ashish Dasgupta | Mohammad Faheem | Shobha Singh |
| Ashlin Mathew | Mohan Rao | Shobhit Mahajan |
| Ashok Rao | Mohd Zubair Idrisi | Shobhna Jain |
| Ashok Salian | Mohini Gulrajani | Shreyasi Dastidar |
| Ashoke Ranjan Thakur | Moses Suchith | Shripad Bhat |
| Ashutosh Kumar | Mridula Mukherjee | Shruti Bijnoria |
| Asma Menon | Mridula Shankar | Shubha |
| Astad Deboo | Mrinal | Shukla Sawant |
| Atul Dodiya | Mrityunjay | Sitanath Lahkar |
| Atul Gurtu | MS Murali Krishna | SK Das |
| Atul Kumar | MS Prakash Babu | SK Pande |
| Atul Pethe | Mukunda Rao | Smriti Kapoor |
| Atul Sood | N S Goswami | Sohail Hashmi |
| Audrey Truschke | Nadeem Rezavi | Somashekarappa Hiriyur Mallaiah |
| Avalokita Dutt | Nalin Ranjan Singh | Sonal Kellogg |
| Avijit Dutt | Namita Singh | Sonia Sarkar |
| Avinash Kumar | Namrata Sen | Souparna Lahiri |
| Ayushya Kaul | Nandana Reddy | Souradeep Roy |
| Bajrang Bihari | Nandini Rao | SP Ambrose |
| Basavaraj Urs | Nandita Basu | Sreedhara Murthy |
| Batul Mukhtiar | Nandita Narain | Srimanjari Ballal |
| BB Choudhary | Nandita Rao | Srinivas Kakkilaya |
| Bharat Singh Meena | Narain Bairath | Sriram MS |
| Bharati Jagannathan | Narbhinder | Sriram Srinivasan |
| Bhaskar Chattopadhyay | Naresh Dadhich | Subba Ghosh |
| Bijayini Satpathy | Naresh Prerna | Subhadra Channa |
| Bina Agarwal | Naresh Saxena | Subhangini Thorat |
| Bose Krishnamachari | Nataraj Honnavalli | Subhash Malik |
| Bratati Pande | Navnita Chadha Behera | Subhro Bandopadhyay |
| BS Prakash | Navsharan Singh | Subir Dey |
| Carol Rao | Nayana Pai | Subodh Bedre |
| Chanchal Chauhan | Neel Chaudhuri | Sucheta Mahajan |
| Chandra Dev Ola | Neelam Gupta | Sudarshan Shetty |
| Chandranath Ray | Neelam Jeena | Sudeshna Banerjee |
| Chandrashekhar Phansalkar | Neha Singh | Sudha Chaudhari |
| Chandrika Parmar | Nikhat Reaz | Sudha Nagavarapu |
| Chhaya Datar | Nikhil Jois | Sudhanshi Vasudev |
| Chinki Sinha | Nina Rao | Sudhanshu Mishra |
| CP Chandrasekhar | Nina Rao | Sudhir Singh |
| CP Geevan | Nipun Makkar | Suhit Kelkar |
| CS Chandrika | Nisha Biswas | Sujay Saple |
| Cyril Mathias | Nisshat Sheikh | Sukhmani Riar |
| Dakxin Chhara | Nivedita Menon | Sumanta Banerjee |
| Debabrata Roy Laifungbam | NP Hafiz Mohamad | Sumi Krishna |
| Debjani Sengupta | Nupur Basu | Sunanda Bhat |
| Debmalya Ghosh | Om Saini | Sunanda Mehta |
| Deepak Sanan | Padma Velaskar | Sundar Burra |
| Deepak Sinha | Padmaja Shaw | Suneeta Chaturvedi |
| Deepika | Pali Bhupinder Singh | Sunetra Neogy |
| Deepika Tandon | Pallavi MD | Sunil Shanbag |
| Dev Desai | Pankaj Bist | Sunit Sinha |
| Devashish Makhija | Pankaj Chaturvedi | Sunita Viswanath |
| Devdan Chaudhuri | Parikshit Dalal | Sunitha Kumar Emmart |
| Devika | Pariplab Chakraborty | Sunny Dhiman |
| Devika Singh | Parvathi Menon | Supriya Chaudhuri |
| Dhirendra K Jha | Parvez Ahmad | Supriya Shukla |
| Dimple Oberoi Vahali | Phaniraj K | Surabhi Sharma |
| Dinesh Abrol | Poonam Girdhani | Suresh Babu |
| DN Jha | Poonam Kaushik | Suresh Chabria |
| Dolphy D’souza | Poonam Tushamad | Suresh Korati |
| Dunu Roy | Prabal Agarwal | Suresha B |
| Durga Bhavani S | Prabha Pandey | Surupa Sen |
| Faraz Ahmad | Prabhjot Kaur | Suryanarayana Reddy R |
| Faredoon Bhujwala | Pradeep K Deb | Susan |
| G Hariramamurthi | Pradip Kumar Datta | Susan Barton |
| G Rajashekhar | Prakash Bare | Sushant Shalini |
| G Ramakrishna | Prakash Chaturvedi | Sushi Kadanakuppe |
| Gafoor Karuvannur | Pramod Bagde | Sushma Varma |
| Gajendra Narayan Sharma | Pramod Kale | Sushma Veerappa |
| Gargi Bharadwaj | Pramod Kumar | Sushmit Ghosh |
| Gautam Bhattacharya | Prashant Mukherjee | Svati Shah |
| Gautam Krishnankutty | Pratap Bhanu Mehta | Swapna Liddle |
| Geeta Mahashabde | Pratishtha Pandya | Swarn Kanta |
| Geeta Seshu | Praveer Peter | T Surendra Rao |
| Geetha Mehra | Prem Jha | Tabasheer Zutshi |
| Geetha Thoopal | Prem Kumar Vijayan | Talib Khwaja |
| Geetika Vidya Ohlyan | Pritam Paul | Tani Bhargava |
| Ghanshyam Shah | Prithpal Sehdave | Tanwir Akhtar |
| Ghasi Ram Chaudhry | Priya Sarukkai Chabria | Tara Rao |
| Ghazala Jamil | Priyanka Pathak | Tariq Khan |
| Gigi Scaria | Punam Zutshi | Tasneem Fatima |
| Giitanjali Chiya | Purushothama Bilimale | Tathagata Bhattacharya |
| Giriraj Kishore | Pushpamala N | Tejal Kanitkar |
| Glenissa Pereira | Qaiser Shamim | Thelma Taylor |
| Goddanti Omkarnath | R Nagaraj | Tiny Shah Singh |
| Gopal Menon | R Padmini | TK Rajalakshmi |
| Gopika Nath | Radha Kumar | TK Thomas |
| Govind Ram | Radhika Chadha | TM Thomas |
| Gowreesh Kapani | Radhika Menon | Tony Sequeira |
| Gudavarthy Vijay | Raghu Godavarthi | Udit Yadav |
| Gun Nidhi | Raghvendra Raghav | Ujjwal K Chowdhury |
| Gurjit Singh Cheema | Rahul Chandra | Ullattil Achu |
| Gurpreet Sidhu | Rahul Kumar Ishwar | Upendra Shankar |
| H Pattabhirama Somayaji | Rajan Gurukkal | Usha Rai |
| Habib Khan | Rajani Mani | Utsa Patnaik |
| Harish Khare | Rajat Datta | V Alan Bosco |
| Harsh Kapoor | Rajat Nagpal | Vaasanthi |
| Hemendra Chandaliya | Rajeev Bhargava | Vagish K Jha |
| Himmat Seth | Rajesh Joshi | Vakulabharanam Ramakrishna |
| Hiralal Rajasthani | Rajesh Kumar | Valerie Baliwalla |
| Iliyas Husain | Rajesh Umadevi Srinivas | Vani Subramanian |
| Imrana Khan | Rajiv Gupta | Vani Verma |
| Inder Salim | Rakesh Gupta | Vasudha Dalmia |
| Indira Unninayar | Rakhi Basu | Vasundhara Chauhan |
| Indranee Dutta | Ram Rahman | Veena Hariharan |
| Indrapramit Roy | Ramchandra PN | Veena Naregal |
| Indu Agnihotri | Ramesh Bajaj | Venita Coelho |
| Indu Chandrasekhar | Ramesha | Venugopal Rao |
| Iqbal Niyazi | Ramona Adhikari | Vibha Puri Das |
| Ishrat Syed | Ramsharan Joshi | Vickram Crishna |
| Jahangir Asghar Jani | Ramya Pothukuchi | Vidya Das Arora |
| Jahar Kanungo | Ranabir Samaddar | Vidya Vakulabharanam |
| Jai Arjun Singh | Randhir Singh | Vidyut Gore |
| Jaiwanti Shukla | Rani Day Burra | Vijay Crishna |
| Jamsheed Rizwani | Ranjani Shettar | Vijay Padaki |
| Janarthanan T | Ranjith Shankaran | Vijay Swami |
| Jasleen Randhawa | Rashme Sehgal | Vikas Maniar |
| Jatin Sheth | Rashmi Sawhney | Vikash kumar |
| Jawhar Sircar | Rashmitha Tulabandula Juvvadi | Vikash Narain Rai |
| Jaya Iyer | Rasika Agashe | Vikram Iyengar |
| Jaya Rani | Ratna Raman | Vikram Tandon |
| Jayant Pawar | Ravi Avasthi | Vilasini Kumar |
| Jayaprakash Nd | Ravi Bhushan | Vimala KS |
| Jayati Ghosh | Ravi Nair | Vineet Tiwari |
| Jeevan Singh | Ravi Sidlipura | Vineetabh |
| Jeroo Mulla | Ravi Srivastava | Vineetabh Kumar |
| Jhuma Sen | Ravikumar Kashi | Vinyasa Hegade |
| Joseph Mathai | Ravinder Banyal | Vipin Balguher |
| Joyanti Sen | Rekha Rao | Vipin Negi |
| Jyotsana Asthana | Rekha Verma | Virkein Dhar |
| Jyotsna Lall | Richa Raj | Vishakha Chanchani |
| K John Koshy | Ridhima Mehra | Vishnu Prabhakar |
| K Laxmi Narayana | Rimli Bhattacharya | Wasi Haider |
| Kalpana Chakravarthy | Rina Kamath | Winston Dsouza |
| Kalpana Kannabiran | Rinchin | Yasir Abbasi |
| Kalpana Swaminathan | Rintu Thomas | Zafar Agha |
| Kalyani Chaudhuri | Ritambhara Shastri | Zaheer Ali |
| Kamakshi Balasubramanian | Ritwik Banerjee | Zahoor Siddiqui |
| Kamal Chenoy | Rizio Yohannan | Zasha Colah |
| Kamal Nayan Kabra | Rohan Dsouza |
