Professor Kalburgi's Assassination

It is with a deep shock that we learned of the assassination on Sunday morning, in Dharwad, Karnataka of Prof. M. M. Kalburgi, the well-known scholar, Kannada writer and rationalist. This is the third assassination of its kind, the earlier two being that of Shri Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in August, 2013 and Com. Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in February 2015. All three had fought against superstition, obscurantism and for building scientific temper in our society. All three were the target of extreme communal elements for their views.

Prof Kalburgi had been threatened by various right-wing organisations. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad had called for his “boycott” for being anti-Hindu. Though they have now distanced themselves from Prof. Kalburgi's murder, there is little doubt that such intemperate attacks have contributed to creating a climate of hate for such figures.

Image Courtesy: en.wikipedia.org

Widespread protests have taken place in Karnataka on the dastardly murder of Prof. Kalburgi. Similar protests are also taking place across the country.

Prof. Kalburgi was a renowned scholar with over 100 books in Kannada, and had won a number of awards. He was an authority on Vachana literature associated with Basava, the 12th-century reformer, who opposed religion, caste and gender discrimination.

What is new in these murders, is the cold-blooded planning and professional supari style killing of figures, who have opposed communalisation in society, and stood for a critical examination of our past and beliefs. Already, writers are talking about whether they now need to practice self-censorship in their writings. Perumal Murugan, the noted Tamil writer, has decided to give up writing after facing such attacks.

The police in Maharashtra have claimed that they have no clues in the earlier murders of Shri Dabholkar and Com. Pansare. All these killings seem to be well-planned and with a similar modus operandi. Not only were all of them the target of the Hindu rightwing groups, they all show the hallmark of professional killings. It is now clear that while there are groups such as VHP and Ram Sene, who create a public campaign against rationalist figures, it is complemented by another set, who plan their assassinations. Are they working together? Or are these elements a more rabid off-shoot of such hate groups? That is the question that the police needs to address. But with both Maharashtra and the centre under the BJP, will somebody have the courage of a Hemant Karkare who was able to crack the Malegaon blasts, when he started looking at Hindu extremist groups such as Abhinav Bharat. Till then, only Muslims had been targeted in the investigations.

Today we have governments in Maharashtra and the Centre, who have ministers who deny that Hindu groups can be terrorists. For them, Abhinav Bharat and its attacks on mosques and the Samjhauta Express are obviously not terror attacks.

Unless, we as citizens of India, are willing to stand up for rational and critical thinking, we will become a nation of thought police and straight jacketed minds. Unless we oppose all terror – whether Hindu or Muslim – we will be complicit in their acts. Whether it is the Bangladesh attacks on bloggers opposing religious fundamentalism, or attacks on rationalists in India, what is under attack is the freedom to think for ourselves. How we respond to such attacks, will determine what kind of a nation India will become. This should be a wake-up call for all of us.