P.A.D.S. Statement on the killing of Prof MM Kalburgi - a sane voice against communalism and superstition
Silencing of another rational voice against communalism and
superstition
The respected and loved Kannada scholar and writer MM
Kalburgi was murdered by two unidentified men on August 30 at his home in
Dharwad. The seventy seven year scholar was actively researching Vachanas
literature of early Kannada and literature produced during the Adil Shahi
period in Northern Karnataka. He was a source of wisdom for many students and
scholars, and his killers gained access posing as students. He was also a vocal
critic of religious superstitions and had been targeted by fundamentalists
within his own Lingayat community and by Hindutva organisations. He had
received many threats and his house had been attacked with stones and bottles.
He was given police protection, which was withdrawn only days before his
murder.
Professor Kalburgi’s cold-blooded murder has caused
widespread shock and dismay in the literary and intellectual circles of
Karnataka. Many protests involving ordinary citizens have been held in
Bangalore and Dharwad. At least one Hindutva Bajrang dal activist has publicly
welcomed the assassination, warned another rationalist of Karnataka, Prof KS
Bhagwan of the same fate.
Prof Kalburgi’s killing comes after the murders of two other
prominent critics of religious superstitions. Dr Narendra Dabholkar was killed
in 2013 in Pune. Trade Unionist and Communist Govind Pansare was killed in
Kolhapur in February this year. There are uncanny similarities in the modus
operandi of all three cases. It is likely that as in the earlier cases, the
police will fail to solve Prof Kalburgi’s murder.
In political and social
terms, the murder of these three prominent scholars and public figures in
India, who raised their voice [against] religious fundamentalism, is similar to
the gruesome murders of secular bloggers Niloy Chatterjee, Washiqur Rahman
Babu, Avijit Roy, and Ananta Bijoy Dasin in Bangladesh. Democrats of all
countries in South Asia face violent threats from religious fundamentalists.
The established institutions of criminal justice have failed miserably to
counter this threat.
The sequence of murders of rationalist and secular scholars
and activists raises a number of issues of grave significance for democracy and
secularism. To begin with, the failure of state institutions to prevent these
murders and apprehend the criminals is an encouragement to other would-be
killers and their masterminds. Is this failure only due to lack of evidence, or
due to systemic issues such as the criminalization of the polity and the spread
of communal bias? India’s institutions of criminal justice have regularly
failed to protect people from intimidation by religious fanatics. Taslima
Nasreen and Shireen Dalvi have been hounded by Muslim fundamentalists.
Rationalist Sanal Edamaruku has been forced to live in exile due to harassment
by Christian zealots.
Communally inspired crimes have also gone unpunished. Over
the past decade, many cases of bomb blasts in Muslim areas have seen the police
initially arresting numbers of Muslim youth. Later, the hard work of the
upright police officer Hemant Karkare revealed the role of Hindutva extremist
groups in those crimes. Recently the public prosecutor in Malegaon blast case,
Ms Rohini Salian has publicly claimed that the National Investigation Agency
asked her to deliberately sabotage the state case against the accused. Is it
really an accident that India’s intelligence agencies and police have no case
to make about certain extremist organisations?
The murders of three prominent Indian rationalists have
occurred in the geographically compact region of Western Maharashtra and the
contiguous area of Karnataka, within bustling cities. All three had received
prior threats from identified groups. The police’s failure to nab the culprits
is not only professionally shameful but increasingly appears to be deliberate.
After Dr Dabholkar’s murder, the Congress government in
Maharashtra had eagerly pushed his anti-superstition bill in the assembly, where
it had been languishing for more than a decade. Now, the Congress government in
Karnataka has given full state honours to Prof Kalburgi during his funeral. It
is clear that the largest opposition party in the country is eager to lap
whatever secular credentials it can gather, after the event so to say, but is
neither capable, nor inclined to take a principled stand on secularism and
democracy.
The Aam Aadmi Party too has hobnobbed with all kinds of religious
leaders and groups, and has sided with the Hindutva brigade in the recent
decision to rename the Aurangzeb road in Delhi. The CPI(M) had forced Taslima
Nasreen out of Kolkata after demands by Muslim fundamentalists there. These
[political] parties may be non-communal, but their secularism is opportunistic
and they have no compunction in bowing to the undemocratic demands of fanatics. There is little chance that India’s established [political] parties will take a
pro-active stand against threats to democracy and secularism. Democratic and
secular forces need to mobilize urgently to spread the message that democracy
is impossible without secularism.
An FIR was filed against Prof MM Kalburgi last year for
’hurting religious sentiments of a community’ after he came out in support of
writer UR Ananthamurthy’s statements against idol worship. Now, many news-media
have reported that he ’courted’ controversies by campaigning against
superstition. An attempt is being made to equate the intellectuals who stand
for reason, discussion and openness, with religious fanatics who advocate
violence. Arguments are made condemning the murders, but criticizing them for
‘hurting sentiments.’
We condemn such arguments. Reasoned investigations of
society and history; and the questioning of beliefs and openness to diverse
cultural strands, are essential for democracy. Modern democracy is premised
upon the moral autonomy of every citizen. Humans realise their autonomy when
they ask questions, discover new knowledge, and challenge unsubstantiated
beliefs, including their own. They forfeit their freedom when they submit to
superstitions out of fear or greed. Religious fundamentalists need blind
followers, who will obey their agendas of hatred and violence.
A democratic society cannot exist without people like
Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi; whereas communalists and fanatics of all
colours are enemies of democracy. Any effort to equate the two is misleading.
Even at the level elementary morality, there is a distinction between verbal
and rational criticism, and the practice of violence. The choice between the
two is essential, and a society cannot be democratic unless majority of the
people choose the former over the latter.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism pays
homage to Prof Kalburgi and stands with his wife, children and all people of
Karnataka who have protested against his murder.
We demand
1. That the police uphold the obligations of their
profession and arrest the murderers of Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and
MM Kalburgi at the earliest. The masterminds of these murders and their
organisations must be identified publicly and given adequate legal punishments.
2. The laws relating to ’hurt religious sentiments’
should be repealed. If anyone deliberately humiliates or threatens any
community through speech or words, laws relating to hate speech should be used.
3. We also call upon teachers and university trade unions
and media workers and writers organisations to support calls for protection of
rights of freedom of expression of teachers, scholars, media personnel and
literary workers
We call attention of the public to the fact that the
electoral successes of the BJP have emboldened Hindutva fundamentalists, who
are becoming increasing brazen in their attacks, not only on religious
minorities, but on all democratic and secular groups and individuals.
Democratic and secular forces should redouble their efforts to mobilise public
opinion against these fanatics to uphold and protect the hard-won freedoms of
India’s democratic constitution.
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Telephone contact: Srinivas Rao 09393875195
