Ko Kyaw Myo
အိႏိၵယရဲ ့အဂၤလိပ္ဘာသာနဲ ့စာေရးၿပီး နာမည္လည္းေက်ာ္တဲ့ စာေရးဆရာမႀကီး နယန္တာရာ ဆာဂယ္ဟာ သူမကို ခ်ီးျမွင့္ထားတဲ့ ႏိုင္ငံရဲ ့အျမင့္ဆံုးစာေပဆု ဆိဟစ္တယအကယ္ဒမီဆုကို မၾကာမီက အစိုးရကို ျပန္အပ္လိုက္တယ္ ။
ဘာ့ေၾကာင့္လဲလို ့ဆရာမႀကီးက အေၾကာင္းျပတာကေတာ့ ႏိုင္ငံမွာ ကြဲျပားျခားနားမႈအတြက္ ေန
ရာမရွိေတာ့သေလာက္ျဖစ္လာေနၿပီး လူေတြဟာ လႊမ္းမိုးႀကီးစိုးဆဲ အိုင္ဒီယိုလိုဂ်ီကို သေဘာမတူတဲ့အေၾကာင္းရင္းေလာက္နဲ ့သတ္ျဖတ္ခံလာေနရတယ္ ။ ႏိုင္ငံဟာ ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့ ၁၅ လအတြင္း ပိုဆိုးရြားလာတယ္လို ့ဆိုခဲ့တယ္ ။
မစၥဆာဂယ္အပါအဝင္ အိႏိၵယရဲ ့နာမည္ေက်ာ္ စာေပပညာရွင္ေတြ ၊ ရုပ္ရွင္ဒါရိုက္တာေတြ ၊ မင္းသားေတြဟာ အခုတေလာမွာ သူတို ့ကို ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္က ခ်ီးျမွင့္ထားခဲ့တဲ့ ဆု တံဆိပ္ ၊ ဂုဏ္ထူးေဆာင္
ဘြဲ ့အသီးသီးကို ျပန္အပ္ေနၾကပါၿပီ ။ ဘာ့ေၾကာင့္လဲဆိုေတာ့ သူတို ့အျမင္က ဟိႏၵဴဘာသာဝင္အမ်ားစုရွိတဲ့ႏိုင္ငံမွာ အမဲသားစားျခင္း ၊
အမဲသားထုတ္လုပ္ျခင္းတို ့ကို ျပည္နယ္ေတာ္ေတာ္မ်ားမ်ားမွာ ဥပေဒျပဳတားျမစ္လာတာ ၊ လူနည္းစု မူစလင္
တစ္ဦးကို မၾကာမီက အမဲသားခိုးစားတယ္ဆိုတဲ့စြဲခ်က္နဲ ့လူအုပ္လိုက္ အိမ္ကိုဝင္ေရာက္ဖ်က္ဆီး သတ္ျဖတ္မႈတစ္ခုျဖစ္ခဲ့တာ ၊ ေနာက္ထပ္ ခရစ္ယန္ေတြအေပၚတိုက္ခိုက္္မႈတခ်ိဳ ့ရွိခဲ့တာ ၊ လူနည္းစုေတြြအေပၚ ခြဲျခားဖိႏွိပ္မႈေတြ မ်ားလာတာေတြဟာ ဒီႏွစ္အတြင္း သတင္း
ေတြမွာ ေတာ္ေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား တက္လာေနခဲ့ၿပီး ဒါကခြဲျခားဖိႏွိပ္မႈျပယုဂ္ျဖစ္တယ္ ယူၾကလို႔ပဲ ။
ဗမာပရိသတ္ေတြႀကိဳက္ၾကတဲ့ အိႏိၵယမင္းသား အမီရာခန္း
ကိုယ္တိုင္ကလည္း quit India ( အိႏိၵယက ထြက္မွပဲ ) ဆိုတဲ့မွတ္ခ်က္ကို မၾကာမီက ထုတ္ေဖၚခဲ့ရတယ္ ။ ဘာ့ေၾကာင့္လဲဆိုေတာ့ ခန္းက သူ ့ဇနီးကိုယ္ႏႈိက္ကိုက ႏုိင္ငံမွာ လူနည္းစုေတြအေနနဲ ့လံုၿခံဳမႈမရွိေတာ့သလို ခံစားရလာလို ့ျဖစ္တယ္လို ့ဆိုပါတယ္ ။ အိႏိၵယမွာ ဝန္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္မိုဒီရဲ ့အမ်ိဳးသားေရးဝါဒီပါတီ ဘီေဂ်ပီအာဏာရလာတဲ့
ေနာက္ပိုင္း ဒီျပသနာေတြျဖစ္လာတာလို ့စြပ္စြဲမႈေတြ အက်ယ္အျပန္ ့ရွိပါတယ္ ။ ႏိုင္ငံတြင္းမွာ ဘာသာေရးအရလူနည္းစုျဖစ္တဲ့ ခရစ္ယန္ ၊ မြတ္စလင္စသျဖင့္ လူနည္းစုေတြဟာ အခု မလံုၿခံဴဘူးျဖစ္ေနတာ တကယ္လား ။ လူနည္းစုေတြဟာ စနစ္တက်နဲ ့ကို ပစ္မွတ္ထားတိုက္ခိုက္ခံေနရ ၊ အပယ္ခံျဖစ္ေနရပါၿပီလား ။ “မတူညီမႈေတြ
ကို သည္းမခံႏိုင္ျခင္းဆိုတာ ဒ႑ာရီ the-myth-of-intolerant လား ၊ တကယ္ျဖစ္ေနတာတဲ့လား ။
ဘာပဲေျပာေျပာ ပညာရွင္ေတြ ၊ ပညာတတ္ေတြဟာ “သည္းမခံႏိုင္မႈ ဆန္ ့က်င္ေရးလႈပ္ရွားမႈ” ကို က်ယ္က်ယ္ျပန္ ့ျပန္ ့
လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနၾကပါၿပီ ။ ဒီလိုနဲ ့အထက္က ဆိုခဲ့သလို ဆရာမႀကီး နယန္တာရာ ဆာဂယ္လိုမ်ိဳူးပဲ ဥာဏ္ႀကီးတဲ့
အိႏိၵယပညာတတ္ေတြ ၊ ပညာသည္ေတြ ၊ ထိပ္တန္းသိပၸံပညာရွင္ေတြဟာ ကိုယ္ရထားတဲ့ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္က ခ်ီးျမွင့္တဲ့ ဘြဲ ့တံဆိပ္ေတြကို ျပန္အပ္ၿပီး
ႏိုင္ငံတြင္း “အျမင္မတူသူမ်ားအေပၚ သည္းမခံႏိုင္မႈေတြ တိုးတက္
လာျခင္း ” ကို(‘climate of intolerance’ …raising intolerance စသျဖင့္သံုးၾက) ကို ကန္ ့ကြက္တဲ့လႈပ္ရွားမႈ ျဖစ္ေပၚလာေတာ့တယ္ ။ သိပ္ေကာင္းတဲ့လႈပ္ရွားမႈျဖစ္ပါတယ္ ။
ပါဝင္သူေတြကလည္း တကယ့္ႏိုင္ငံေက်ာ္
ပုဂၢိဳလ္ေတြျဖစ္ၿပီး စာေရးဆရာေတြထဲမွာဆိုရင္ ဆာလ္မန္ရပ္ရွ္ဒီ ၊ အာရြန္ဒါတီရြိဳင္း တို ့လို ကမၻာေက်ာ္ေတြပါဝင္သလို ၊ ိပံၸပညာရွင္ေတြဆိုရင္လည္း ႏိုင္ငံရဲ ့ထိပ္တန္း
အင္စတီက်ဳဒ္ေတြ ၊ အစိုးရဌာနေတြက ပညာရွင္ႀကီးေတြ ရာနဲ ့ခ်ီပါဝင္
ေၾကျငာခ်က္ထုတ္ ကန္ ့ကြက္ၾကတာျဖစ္တယ္ ။
စာေရးဆရာေတြ လက္မွတ္ထိုးကန္ ့ကြက္ေၾကျငာခ်က္ထုတ္ျပီးေနာက္
ဆက္ထြက္လာခဲ့တဲ့ သိပၸံပညာရွင္ေတြရဲ ့ေၾကျငာခ်က္ထဲမွာလည္း
ဒီလိုေရးထားခဲ့တယ္ ။
“စာေရးဆရာေတြက သူတို ့ကန္ ့ကြက္မႈကို ျပခဲ့ၿပီးပါၿပီ ။ ကၽြႏ္ုပ္တို ့သိပၸံပညာရွင္ေတြကလည္း အခု အသံထြက္ၿပီး ပူးေပါင္းတာျဖစ္တယ္ ။ မိမိတို ့ရဲ ့ဗဟုယဥ္ေက်းမႈ ၊ သိပၸံပညာ ၊ ဆင္ျခင္မႈတို ့ကို ဒီလိုတိုက္ခိုက္တာ ေတြ ျပည္သူေတြက လက္ခံမယ္မဟုတ္ပါ ။ လူေတြကို ဘယ္လိုေန ၊ ဘယ္လိုစား ၊ ဘယ္လိုဝတ္ ၊ဘယ္သူ ့ကိုခ်စ္ရမယ္လို ့ညႊန္ၾကားဖို ့
နည္းလမ္းရွာေနတဲ ့
အျမင္က်ဥ္းေျမာင္းလြန္းလွတဲ့ အိႏိၵယကို က်ဳပ္တို ့ျငင္းပယ္တယ္” လို ့ေဖၚျပထားတယ္ ။
အခ်ဳပ္ဆိုရရင္ေတာ့ ႏိုင္ငံတစ္ခုရဲ ့နယ္ပယ္အသီးသီးမွာရွိတဲ့ ပညာတတ္ ၊ ပညာရွင္ဆိုေတြဟာ မွိန္းလိုက္မေန ၊ အမ်ားႀကိဳက္ ၊ အုပ္စုိးသူႀကိဳက္ကို မလိုက္ဘဲ ဒီမိုကေရစီကို ကာကြယ္တာဟာ ေကာင္းျမတ္တဲ့ကိစၥျဖစ္တယ္ ။ ဗမာျပည္က အႏုပညာရွင္ဆိုသူေတြ အတုယူဖို ့ျပန္လည္တင္ျပေပးလိုက္တာဟာ
ဒီမွာ ရည္ရြယ္ရင္းျဖစ္ပါေၾကာင္း ။
( မွတ္ခ်က္- အိႏိၵယလူဦးေရဟာ ၂၀၁၁ မွာတင္ ၁ ဒသမ ၂၂၁ ဘီလီယံ ျဖစ္ၿပီး ဘာသာေရး
ကိုးကြယ္သူ အခ်ိဳးအစားအရ ဟိႏၵဴ ၇၉ ဒသမ ၉ ရာခိုင္ႏႈန္း ၊ မူစလင္ ၁၄ ဒသမ ၂ ရာခိုင္ႏႈန္း ၊
ခရစ္ယန္ ၂ ဒသမ ၃ ၊ ဆစ္ခ္ ၁ ဒသမ ၇ ၊ ဗုဒၵဘာသာ ၀ ဒသမ ၇ ၊ ဂ်ိန္းဘာသာ ၀ ဒသမ ၄ ရွိပါသတဲ့ ။ ႏႈိင္းယွဥ္စဥ္းစားလို ့ရေအာင္ )
(ပူးတြဲေဖၚျပလိုက္တဲ့ပံုက အင္ဒီးယန္း အိတ္စ္ပရက္စ္သတင္းကျဖစ္ၿပီး ၊
ရုပ္ရွင္ဒါရိုက္တာ ၁၂ ဦးက သူတို ့ရထားတဲ့ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ဆုေတြကို ျပန္အပ္တဲ့ပံု
ျဖစ္တယ္ ။)
Dr. Abdul Rahman Zafrudin @ Ko Ko Gyi 
Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics Against Rising Intolerance in India @ http://kafila.org/2015/10/27/statement-against-rising-intolerance-in-india-by-artists-curators-and-critics/
OCTOBER 27, 2015
tags: Artists Against Intolerance in India, Ministry of Culture – Govt. of India, Sahitya Akademi Writers Protest
by Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Text of a Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics in India against a Climate of Rising Intolerance in India
(Followed by Names of the 300 + Signatories, in Alphabetical Order)
The artist community of India stands in firm solidarity with the actions of our writers who have relinquished awards and positions, and spoken up in protest against the alarming rise of intolerance in the country. We condemn and mourn the murders of MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, rationalists and free thinkers whose voices have been silenced by rightwing dogmatists but whose ‘presence’ must ignite our resistance to the conditions of hate being generated around us.
We will never forget the battle we fought for our pre-eminent artist M.F. Husain who was hounded out of the country and died in exile. We remember the rightwing invasion and dismantling of freedoms in one of the country’s best known art schools in Baroda. We witness the present government’s appointment of grossly unqualified persons to the FTII Society and its disregard of the ongoing strike by the students of this leading Institute. We see a writer like Perumal Murugan being intimidated into declaring his death as a writer, a matter of dire shame in any society.
While the Prime Minister of the country has been conspicuously reticent in his response to the recent events, the reactions of BJP ministers in his government reveal their ignorance and prejudice. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture, has made abhorrent comments about mob lynching and murder. His remarks suggesting that writers should stop writing to prove their point are alarming – empowered as he is to take policy decisions in the domain of culture. Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Information & Broadcasting, has mocked the actions of our respected writers as a manufactured ‘paper rebellion’. He asks for scrutiny of the political and ideological affiliations of those who are protesting.
To these and other such provocations there is a clear answer: while the actual affiliations of the protesting writers and artists, scholars and journalists may be many and varied, their individual and collective voices are gaining cumulative strength. It is this that the ruling party will have to reckon with: the protestors’ declared disaffiliation from a government that encourages marauding outfits to enforce a series of regressive commands in this culturally diverse country.
The scale of social violence and fatal assaults on ordinary citizens (as in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh; Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir; Faridabad, Harayana) is escalating. The contemptuous comments about the religious minorities and Dalits made by those within the government confirm that there is little difference between the RSS-BJP mainstream and supposed ‘fringe’ elements. The perfunctory warnings and regrets issued by ruling party ideologues – to defend the agendas of ‘development’ and ‘governance’ advanced by Mr Narendra Modi – are merely expedient. The Sangh Parivar and its Hindutva forces operating through their goon brigades form the support base of this government; they are all complicit in the attempts to impose conformity of thought, belief and practice.
The ideology of the ruling party has revealed its contempt for creative and intellectual work; bigotry and censorship will only grow. As in the past, we must challenge the divisive forces through varied forms of appeal and protest, articulation and refusal. Our demand can be nothing less than that the entire range of constitutional rights and freedoms of the citizens of this country – freedom of expression and speech, right to dissent and exert difference in life choices including culture and religion – be ensured.
A government that does not tolerate difference, that does not safeguard the lives and interests of its marginalized and vulnerable citizens, loses its legitimacy in a democratic polity. We are facing this situation now, already.
Aastha Chauhan, artist, Delhi
Aban Raza, artist, Delhi
Abdul Mabood, Delhi
Abhilasha Kumari, media professor, Delhi
Abhimanue V.G., artist, Delhi
Abhishek Hazra, artist, Bangalore
Ahmar Raza, scientist, Delhi
Aishwaryan K, artist, Bengaluru.
Ajay Desai, artist, Delhi
Aji V.N., artist, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Akansha Rastogi, WALA collective, Delhi
Akshaya Tankha, art historian, University of Toronto, Canada
Alnoor Mitha, artist, curator, Manchester, UK
Amar Kanwar, artist and filmmaker, Delhi
Amrita Gupta Singh, art historian, Mumbai
Anamika Haksar, theatre director, Mumbai
Ananya Vajpeyi, CSDS, Delhi
Anindita Bhattacharya, artist, Delhi
Anish Ahluwalia, artist and filmmaker
Anish Kapoor, artist, London
Anita Dube, artist, Delhi
Anjolie Ela Menon, artist, Delhi
Anju Dodiya, artist, Mumbai
Anjum Singh, artist, Delhi
Anshuman Dasgupta, art historian, Santiniketan
Anupam Saikia, Dept. of Fine Arts, University of Hyderabad
Anupam Singh, artist, Mumbai
Anuradha Kapur, theatre director, Delhi
Aradhana Seth, production designer, artist, Goa
Archana Hande, artist, Mumbai
Arghya Priya Majumdar, artist, Santiniketan
Arpana Caur, artist, Delhi
Arpita Singh, artist, Delhi
Arshad Hakim, artist, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Arshad Hakim, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Arshiya Lokhandwala, curator, gallerist, Mumbai
Arun Kumar H.G., artist, Delhi
Arunima Choudhury, Kolkata
Ashim Purkasthaya, artist, Delhi
Ashis Kumar Das, artist, Mumbai
Ashrafi S. Bhagat, art historian, Chennai
Atreyee Gupta, art historian, Berlin
Atul Bhalla, artist, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Atul Dodiya, artist, Mumbai
Aurora Graldi, PhD Candidate in South Asian Art History, Vienna University
Avani Batra, Delhi
Avinash Veeraraghavan, artist, Bangalore
Ayisha Abraham, artist, Bangalore
Babitha Lingraj, artist, Bangalore
Babu Eshwar Prasad, artist and filmmaker, Bangalore
Balan Nambiar, artist, Bangalore
Balbir Krishan, artist, Delhi
Belinder Dhanoa, art critic, Delhi
Bhagath Singh E.K,artist,Kerala
Bharathesh G.D., artist, Bangalore
Bharati Kapadia, artist, Mumbai
Bharti Kher, artist Delhi
Bhavani G.S., artist, Bangalore
Bhavani Shiva, artist, Bangalore
Biju Jose, artist, Bangalore
Bina Sarkar Elias, editor & publisher, International Galerie
C.F. John, artist, Bangalore
Catherine Asher, art historian, USA
Chaitanya Sambrani, art historian, Canberra
Champa Sharath, artist, Bangalore
Chandrima Bhattacharyya, artist, Bangalore
Chinar Shah, artist, Bangalore
Chintan Upadhyay, artist, Delhi/Mumbai
Chitra Ganesh, artist, New York, USA
Christopher Pinney, art historian, London, UK
Cop Shiva, photographer, Bangalore
Deepa Mahajan, artist, Mumbai/Singapore
Deepak Ananth, art historian, Paris
Deepanjana Klein, art historian, New York, USA
Deepika Sorabjee, curator, Mumbai
Deeptha Achar, art critic, Baroda
Dev Benegal, New York, USA
Devika Daulet-Singh, gallerist, Delhi
Dhruvi Acharya, artist, Mumbai
Diana Gomes, artist, Baroda
Dilip Mitra, artist, Santiniketan
Dimple Shah, artist, Bangalore
Dipti Khera, art historian, New York University, USA
Faiza Hasan, artist, Hyderabad.
G.S. Gopinath, artist, Bangalore
Gargi Raina, artist Baroda
Gauri Gill, photographer, Delhi
Gayatri Sinha, art critic, Delhi
Geeta Doctor, writer, Chennai
Geeta Kapur, art critic, Delhi
Geetha Mehra, gallerist, Mumbai
Gieve Patel, artist, Mumbai
Gigi Scaria, artist, Delhi
Gopika Chowfla, graphic designer, Delhi
Gopika Nath, artist-craftsperson and writer, Gurgaon
Goutam Das, artist, Santiniketan
Gulammohammed Sheikh, artist, Baroda
Hans Kaushik, artist, Chennai
Hema Upadhyay, artist, Mumbai
Homita Harish Katira, artist, Columbia, SC, USA
Homita, artist, Mumbai
Indrapramit Roy, artist, Baroda
Indu Chandrasekhar, publisher, Delhi
Ivan Smith, artist, Belper, Derbyshire, UK
Jahangir Asgar Jani, artist, Mumbai
Jaideep Mehrotra, artist, Mumbai
Jaideep Sen, artist, Bangalore
Jaishri Abichandani, artist, New York, USA
James Khamliansawma, artist, Aizawl, Mizoram
Janice Glowski, art historian, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Jasbeer Singh, artist, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Jatin Das, artist, Delhi
Jeetin Rangher, artist, Bangalore
Jitish Kallat, artist, Mumbai
Johny M.L., art critic, Delhi
Justin Ponmany, artist, Mumbai
Jyotindra Jain, art historian, Delhi
K.G. Subramanyan, artist, Baroda
K.P. Reji, artist, Baroda
K.V. Raghavendra Rao, artist, Bangalore, Vancouver, Canada
Karishma D’Souza, Panaji, Goa
Karishma Shah, artist, Surat
Kathryn Myers, Professor of Art, University of Connecticut, USA
Kaushik Bhaumik, artist, Delhi
Kausik Mukhopadhyay, artist, Mumbai
Kim Kyoungae, artist, Baroda
Kirtana Thangavelu, art historian, S.N. School, Hyderabad
Kirti Jain, theatre director, Delhi
Krishen Khanna, artist, Delhi
Krishnaraj Chonat, artist, Bangalore
Kuldeep Singh, artist
Kumari Ranjeeta, artist , Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Kunal Kalra, artist, Hyderabad
L.N. Tallur, artist, Kundapura
L.N.V. Srinivas, artist, S.N. School, Hyderabad
Lalitha Gopalan, video scholar, USA
Lalitha Shankar, artist, Bangalore
Latika Gupta, art historian, Delhi
Leela Mayor, artist, Baroda
Lokesh Khodke, artist, Delhi
M.K. Raina, theatre director, Delhi
Madhuban Mitra, artist, Kolkata
Madhusree Dutta, filmmaker, Mumbai
Madhusudhanan, artist, Kerala
Mahesh G., artist, Mysore
Mahjabin Imam Majumdar, artist, Santiniketan
Mahula Ghosh, artist, Delhi
Mala Marwah, artist, Delhi
Malavika Rajnarayan, artist, Baroda
Manas Bhattacharya, artist, Kolkata
Manmohan, writer, Rohtak
Mansi Bhatt, artist, Mumbai
Manuela Ciotti, visual anthropologist, Denmark
Marie Dias Arora, artist, Delhi
Mary-Louise Totton, art historian, USA
Meera Devidayal, artist, Mumbai
Meera Menezes, art critic, Delhi
Megha Joshi, artist, Delhi
Meher Pestonji, writer,Mumbai
Mithu Sen, artist, Delhi
Molly Emma Aitken, art historian, USA
Mona Berman, Director, Mona Berman Fine Arts, New Haven, USA
Moutushi Chakraborty, artist, Kolkata
Myna Mukherjee, cultural curator, Delhi
N. Ramachandran, artist, Chennai
N.N. Rimzon, artist, Thiruvananthapuram
N.S. Harsha, artist, Mysore
Nalini Malani, artist, Mumbai
Naman Ahuja, art historian, JNU, Delhi
Nanaiah Chettira, artist, Bangalore
Nanak Ganguly, art critic, Kolkata
Nancy Adajania, art critic, Mumbai
Nandesh Shanthi Prakash, artist, Bangalore
Nataraj Sharma, artist, Baroda
Natasha Ginwala, curator, Berlin/Ahmedabad
Naveen Kumar, artist, Bangalore
Navjot Altaf, artist, Mumbai
Navroze Contractor, photographer, Bangalore
Neelakshi Suryanarayan, University of Delhi, Delhi
Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry, theatre director, Chandigarh
Neha Choksi, Mumbai and Los Angeles, USA
Nibha Sikander, artist, Baroda
Nihaal Fazal, artist, Bangalore
Nikhileswar Baruah, artist, Baroda
Nilanjana S. Roy, writer, Delhi
Nilima Shiekh, artist, Baroda
Nirmala Beluka, artist, EFL, Hyderabad
Niyatee Shinde, art and photography writer, curator, photo-historian, Mumbai
Noopur Desai, art writer and researcher, Pune
Oindrilla Maity Surai, curator, Kolkata
Oli Ghosh, artist, Mumbai.
Padma Kaimal, art historian, Colgate University, USA
Parag Tandel, artist, Mumbai
Paramjit Singh, artist, Delhi
Parthiv Shah, photographer and designer, Delhi
Parul Dave Mukherji, art historian, JNU, Delhi
Parvati Nayar, artist, Chennai
Paula Sengupta, artist, Kolkata
Pavan K.J., artist, Mysore
Payal Arya, artist, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Philippe Calia, artist, Mumbai
Pierre Strauch, Paier College of Art, USA
Prabhavati Meppayil, artist, Bangalore
Prajakta Palav Aher, artist, Mumbai.
Prajakta Potnis, artist, Mumbai
Pratul Dash, artist, Ghaziabad
Pratul Dash, artist, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad
Premalatha Seshadri, artist, Chennai
Prithpal S Ladi, artist, Shillong
Priti Paul, gallerist, Delhi
Priya Ravish Mehra, artist, Delhi
Priya Sundaravalli, artist, Auroville
Purushottam Agrawal, writer, Delhi
Pushpamala N., artist, Bangalore
Rabindra Patra, artist, Delhi
Radha Gomaty, Kochi, Kerala
Ragini Bhow, artist, Bangalore
Rahul Bhushan, graphic artist, Hyderabad
Rahul Dev, art critic, Delhi
Rahul J. Gajjar, artist, Baroda
Rajan Barrett
Rakhi Peswani, artist, Bangalore
Ram Rahman, photographer, Delhi
Raman Sivakumar, art historian, Santiniketan
Ramesh Chandra, artist, Bangalore
Ranbir Kaleka, artist, Delhi
Ranjit Hoskote, art critic, Mumbai
Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, artist, Mumbai
Ranjith Raman, artist, Delhi
Rashmee Pal Chouteau, artist, Kolkata
Rashmi Kaleka, artist, Delhi
Rashmimala Devi, artist, Baroda
Rasna Bhushan, art critic, Hyderabad
Rasna Bhushan, art critic, Hyderabad
Ravikumar Kashi, artist, Bangalore
Reena Saini Kallat, artist, Mumbai
Rekha Rodwittiya, artist, Baroda
Renu Modi, Gallery Espace, Delhi
Risha Lee, Rubin Museum of Art, New York USA
Riyas Komu, artist, Mumbai
Rohini Devasher, artist, Delhi
Rosalyn Dmello, art critic, Delhi
Rupa Rani, artist, Delhi
Rupali Patil, artist, Mumbai
Rustom Bharucha, writer, Delhi
Saba Hasan, artist, Delhi
Sabina Jaitly, artist
Sabitha T.P., art historian, UK
Sachin Karne, artist, Baroda
Sadanand Menon, photographer, critic, Chennai
Sagar S. Naik Mule, artist, Hyderabad
Sahej Rahal, artist, Mumbai
Sajitha Madathil, actress, Kochi, Kerala
Salik Ahmad, Delhi
Saloni Mathur, art historian, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
Samit Das, artist, art historian, Delhi
Sanchayan Ghosh, artist, Santiniketan
Sandeep Biswas, photographer, Delhi
Sandeep Singhal, art collector, Mumbai
Sanjeev Khandekar, artist, Mumbai
Santhoshkumar Sakhinala, art historian, Hyderabad
Saravanan Parasuraman, artist, Chennai
Sarita Chouhan, Mumbai
Sasha Altaf, art critic, Mumbai/Miami USA
Savithri Rajeevan, poet, painter, Baroda
Shaibani Azam, animator, Delhi
Shakuntala Kulkarni, artist, Mumbai
Shamala Nandesha, artist, Bangalore
Shanthamani Muddiah, artist, Bangalore
Shanthi Swaroopini, artist,Hyderabad
Sharan Apparao, gallerist Chennai
N. Ramachandran, artist, Chennai
Sharmila Samant, artist, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Sheba Chhachhi, artist, Delhi
Sheela Gowda, artist, Bangalore
Shefalee Jain, artist, Ambedkar University Delhi
Sheila Makhijani, artist, Delhi
Sherna Dastur, designer, Delhi
Shilpa Gupta, artist, Mumbai
Shireen Gandhy, gallerist, Mumbai
Shivaji.K. Panikkar, art historian, Delhi.
Shreshta Rit Premnath, artist, New York, USA
Shubha, writer, Rohtak
Shubhalakshmi Shukla, art writer, Mumbai
Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist, Raqs Media Collective, Delhi
Shukla Sawant, artist, JNU, Delhi
Sita Reddy, curator/writer, Hyderabad
Smitha Cariappa, artist, Bangalore
Sonal Khullar, art historian, Seattle, USA
Sonam Chaturvedi, art student, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Sonia Jabbar, photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer, Delhi
Sonia Khurana, artist, Delhi
Sosa Joseph
Soumik Nandy Majumdar, art historian, Santiniketan
Srajana Kaikini, curator, research scholar, Bangalore
Sreshta Rit Premnath, Assistant Professor, Parsons Fine Arts, New York
Subba Ghosh, artist, Delhi
Subodh Gupta, artist, Delhi
Subodh Singh Triparti, art history, sculpture, JNAFAU, Hyderabad
Sudarshan Shetty, artist, Mumbai
Sudhir Patwardhan, artist, Mumbai
Sudipta Sen, artist, Kolkata
Sugata Ray, art historian, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Suguresh Sultanpur, artist, Baroda
Suhas Nimbalkar, artist, Pune
Suman Gopinath, curator, Bangalore
Sumathi Ramaswamy, historian, visual culture, Duke Univ., USA
Sumedh Rajendran, artist, Delhi
Sumesh Sharma, curator, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai
Suneel Sinha,theatre, film & TV worker, Mumbai
Sunil Kothari, Delhi
Surekha, artist, Bangalore
Surendran Nair, artist, Baroda
Suresh B.V., artist, Baroda
Suresh Jayaram, art historian, Bangalore
Susan S. Bean, independent curator, USA
Swati Khurana, artist ,New York
Tallur L.N., artist, Kundapura
Tanmoy Samanta, artist, Delhi
Tanuja Rane, artist, Mumbai
Tara Sabharwal, artist, Delhi
Tunty Chauhan,Threshold Art Gallery , Delhi
Tushar Joag, artist, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida
Udeya Vir Singh, artist, Bangalore
Uma Shankar Pathak, artist, Delhi
Umar Aman, Delhi
Urvi Khanna, Delhi
Ushmita Sahu, artist, curator, Santiniketan
Ushmita Sahu, artist, curator, Santiniketan
Manjari Chakravarti, artist, Santiniketan
Vaishali Narkar, artist, Mumbai
VaishaliNarkar, artist, Mumbai
Valay Gada, artist/designer, Delhi
Varsha Nair, artist, Baroda
Varunika Saraf, artist, Hyderabad
Vasudha Thozhur, artist, Delhi
Vasvi Oza: artist, Gujarat
Veena Bhargava, artist, Kolkata
Veer Munshi, artist, Delhi
Velu Viswanadhan, artist, Paris/ Chennai
Vibha Galhotra, artist, Delhi
Vidya Rao, Music, Delhi
Vidya Shivadas, curator, Delhi
Vijay Sekhon, artist, Mumbai
Vinod Bhardwaj, art critic, Delhi
Vishaka Chanchani, art educator, Bangalore
Viswanadhan, artist, Paris
Viswanath B.R., artist/cinematographer, Bangalore
Vivan Sundaram, artist, Delhi
Yamini Nayar, artist
Yardena Kurulkar, artist, Mumbai
Yashodhara Dalmia, art critic, Delhi
Yashwant Deshmukh, artist, Mumbai
Yunus Khimani, artist, Jaipur
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Top scientists join protest, slam ‘climate of intolerance’
Peace disturbed by rash of bigoted acts, attacks on minorities and Dalits. The scientists did not hide the fact that they had been influenced by the writers’ protest.
Written by Amitabh Sinha | New Delhi | Updated: October 29, 2015
After protests by writers and artists, over 100 distinguished scientists from some of India’s top institutes issued a statement on Wednesday denouncing the “climate of intolerance” and “a rash of bigoted acts”. The statement — a rare public stand by a community that is reluctant to voice its collective opinion on non-scientific issues — came just a day after two smaller groups of scientists issued separate statements making a similar point. – See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/top-scientists-join-protest-slam-climate-of-intolerance/#sthash.jwNwI1yH.dpuf
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Indian writers return awards in protest against ‘climate of intolerance’
More than 40 authors have handed back major honours in a stand against ‘vicious assaults’ on cultural diversity@ http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/14/indian-writers-return-awards-in-protest-against-climate-of-intolerance
Dozens of Indian writers have returned top national awards in a protest against what they call a “climate of intolerance” in the emerging economic power.
The campaign, described as an “unprecedented rebellion by the cream of India’s literary talent” in the local Indian Express newspaper, follows a series of incidents of communal violence and attacks on intellectuals since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power in a landslide election victory in India last year.
More than 40 novelists, essayists, playwrights and poets have now given back awards from the country’s most prestigious literary institution, the Sahitya Akademi.
One of the most prominent is the niece of Nehru, journalist and author Nayantara Sahgal, who claimed that “India’s culture of diversity and debate is now under vicious assault”.
The row took on an international dimension earlier this week when Salman Rushdie weighed in, telling a local television network that the failure of prime minister Narendra Modi and others to act was allowing a new “degree of thuggish violence” in India.
On Tuesday, 80-year-old novelist Dalip Kaur Tiwana said she was returning her Padma Shri, one of the most important national decorations, which she won in 2004.
Tiwana, from the northwestern state of Punjab, said she was acting out of solidarity with those “protesting against the increasing communalisation of our society”.
The two incidents that have most angered the writers are the lynching of a Muslim labourer last month, and the murder of a rationalist thinker in August.
In the first, a mob in the village of Bisara on the outskirts of Delhi, the capital, believed their victim had eaten beef and beat him to death outside his home. Cows are sacred in Hinduism.
In the second incident, Malleshappa Kalburgi, an award-winning scholar whose frequent criticism of what he saw as superstition and false beliefs had angered Hindu extremists, was gunned down in the southern state of Karnataka.
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“To kill those who stand for truth and justice puts us to shame in the eyes of the world and God,” Tiwana said.
The authors, who write in English as well as regional languages, have called on the Sahitya Akademi, which was established nearly 60 years ago by India’s independence leader and prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to publicly condemn the murder of Kalburgi.
The upsurges of sectarian tension in recent years have often coincided with elections. Currently, voting is underway in a key state-level election in the east of India.
Some analysts say rightwing groups allied to the BJP are pushing to see how far they can go under the Modi government.
Samir Saran, of the Observer Research Foundation, said that “louder and more rabid rightwing groups” in India felt emboldened by the mandate won by Narendra Modi, leader of the BJP, in last year’s poll and believed they now had more freedom of action.
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Rushdie said: “What has crept into Indian life now is a degree of thuggish violence which is new. And it seems to be given permission by the silence of official bodies, the silence of the Sahitya Akademi … by the silence of the prime minister’s office.”
However, Saran said said the greater scrutiny and reporting of such incidents following Modi’s victory obscured how such incidents had happened under previous governments led by the centre-left Congress party too.
“It is definitely getting greater prominence now,” he said.
On Wednesday Modi spoke about the lynching last month, as well as the cancellation of a Pakistani Muslim musician’s concert in the commercial capital of Mumbai following threats from a rightwing group. The prime minister called the incidents “unfortunate” but said his government was not to blame.
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Senior BJP officials have dismissed the writers’ protests, accusing them of being politically motivated.
“If they say they are unable to write, let them stop writing,” Mahesh Sharma, India’s minister for culture, told reporters.
However, he also condemned the murders of Kalburgi and Mohammed Akhlaq, the labourer lynched by the mob last month.
The sectarian violence has had a significant impact on India’s image overseas and could undermine Modi’s drive to attract investors.
In one case earlier this year, a critically acclaimed Indian novelist announced his “death” as a creative artist following threats and protests by rightwing Hindu and caste groups prompted by his book about a woman’s efforts to get pregnant with a stranger through a religious ritual.
Perumal Murugan said he planned to stop writing and asked his publishers to withdraw all his works of fiction from sale.
In February last year, religious conservatives forced the removal from sale of a book on Hinduism by the US academic Wendy Doniger, claiming it was insulting to the faith.
An editorial in the Times of India newspaper at the time condemned “the growing power of bullying self-appointed censors” displaying “a Victorian hangover with a Taliban temperament”.
There is a long history of clashes over culture and effective censorship by parties and leaders from across the political spectrum in India.
The sale of Rushdie’s 1988 novel The Satanic Verses remains proscribed in India and its author was unable to appear at the Jaipur literary festival in 2012 after Muslim organisations protested.
Politicians have repeatedly sought to ban or restrict the sale or production of specific books. In 2010, MPs loyal to Sonia Gandhi threatened legal action to stop the sale of a “fictionalised biography” of the Congress party leader.
“It’s become a question of an individual’s right to speak, to think, to write, to eat, to dress, to debate,” said Maya Krishna Rao, a playwright and actor, who returned her award to the academy this week.
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