What Our Voices Can Do, What We Still Need to Do

The Bihar police has closed the FIR against the 49 respected citizens who wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi. The letter expressed their concern about growing instances of mob lynching, continuing caste inequalities, and the misuse of religion. The FIR was dropped subsequent to an order from the Muzaffar SSP, citing lack of substance in the allegations against the signatories of the letter.

We can see this small victory as ours. It helps us remember what we can do, even in dark times, when people’s voices come together.

Over the last few days, individuals and groups across the country have registered their protest against the FIR and its allegations, and endorsed the open letter to the PM. Students have sent a deluge of letters to the PM; there have been protests by cultural organisations. More than 1500 individuals from different parts of the country have signed statements to condemn the harassment of citizens who ask questions about violence, injustice and inequality in our country. They have registered their outrage at the targeting of people on the basis of religion and caste.

Our voices – of reason, outrage, of solidarity with our fellow citizens – were heard this time. But this is only the beginning. Yes, we need to take on the misuse of courts to harass citizens. Yes, we need to take on the use of the colonial law of sedition in this, the 150th year of Gandhi’s birth. And yes, we need to insist on freedom of expression.

But most of all, we need to find new ways of challenging attacks on minorities, of challenging caste inequality. We need to move forward, with full strength, against exclusionary politics.

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 Nyishi here.

Read the statement in Punjabi here.

Read the statement in Telugu here.

Read the statement in Kannada here.

Read the statement in Marathi here.

Read the statement in Gujarati here.