It was perhaps the most inclusive gathering of Goans in long time. They were creative intellectuals all. Writers, poets and authors, many of them with different ideologies and different stands on issues. But as they sat together on one platform to urge the Sahitya Academy to speak out against the culture of intolerance, it was a unique moment of right thinking and right feeling minds and hearts coming together for the cause of tolerance and the right to dissent.
Mind you, both these causes are rare and becoming extinct in the India of today. But the Goan writers, chose to differ from their national counterparts and hold back returning awards or taking any other coercive action beyond expressing the need to come together to protest and ask the Sahitya Academy, a body meant for those who create literature as a reflection of our society, to wake up to fight the culture of intolerance.
In the Goan context too, this is important. As Damodar Mauzo, who graciously accepted an invitation from Herald to participate in a debate for HCN the groups TV arm, said “We respect the sentiment of each of the writers who have returned their awards. But these awards were given for their creative work. It’s easy for me to return the Rs 10,000 I got with my Sahitya Academy award. But will that remove the culture of intolerance. It is therefore more important to speak out and be united”.
Mauzo’s concern should be Goa’s concern. The killing at Dadri, UP of a harmless in innocent man, for ostensibly eating beef, has led to nationwide polarisation – not between Hindus and other minorities, but between those who believe in the Indian Constitution and those who don’t. Thus this is not Hindu vs Muslims vs Christians debate. Goan writers and intellectuals who came together to protest included Nagesh Karmali, Pundalik Naik, N Shivdas, Datta Naik, Ramesh Veluskar, Hema Naik, Dilip Borkar and others. And they joined Padmashri Maria Aurora Couto. If this wasn’t an inclusive lot who Goa can be proud of, then which is that lot?
The question is why is Goa concerned? Let’s look at the latest salvo of intolerance of Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar who said that those who eat beef should not remain in India. The Goa BJP state president has clearly dissociated from the remarks made by him realising that supporting such a remark will be disastrous in Goa. The grouse with the present BJP government in Goa is that it has betrayed the people of Goa and gone back on its promises. The fallout of this, people apprehend, is that if there is mounting criticism and dissent, the BJP here will crush it with the same intolerance that its national party in power has shown. The feeling is that the might of the state and all its arms will be misused against all opponents.
Thus, the apprehension is beyond communal. It is about losing the space to be free, to be expressive, a space without fetters, both literal and figurative. And if a body of such eminent literary personalities have decided to come out of their closed environs and make such a string statement, Goa is indeed in safe hands
As writer Shashi Deshpande, who resigned from the Sahitya Akademi General Council, because she is “deeply distressed by the silence of the Akademi on the murder of Professor M M Kalburgi”, said, “Now is the right time for writers to reclaim their voices because silence is a form of abetment”. Our Goan writers have proven that they will never be guilty of this kind of abetment.
