Posts Tagged ‘sahitya akademi’
Of Tormentors and ‘So Called’ Saviors
Lying down, old and tired, I am wondering what is happening? I have faced a couple of attempts to my life, a whole lot of diseases, bouts of indigestion. My will to live and level of immune system let me sail through all these hardships all these years.
As a newborn, my father was taken away from me. A fanatic shot and it was curtains. I learned to live without him. I had an amputation right at my birth. I felt extreme pain but braved the surgery to survive. I had a troubled childhood. Before I was 15, I had couple of attempts on my life already. Such had been my lineage. A part of my head still has scars from deep cuts as reminiscence of those attacks.
I was teased regularly by people in my neighborhood. However I always helped them. I stood up for lady next door. Her husband used to beat her up daily. I said enough. Gave her enough will and support to divorce that evil man and find independent existence. Alas! That lady never was grateful. Tried to mug me a couple of times!
I found myself all chained up and locked up for a number of years by a dictator. I felt so helpless and full of resentment. One day I finally burst of anger and broke the shackles. Dictator was thrown off only to be back. Sometimes I wonder what was wrong with me. Was it my humility and good nature that they exploit?
I was labeled mad. Was subjected to mental shocks. All to get hold of me. I resented and survived again. I was attacked again and again and again. I saw bystanders just whistling and looking the other way. I witnessed them being bribed not to help me. They knew I was being tortured but they were kept placated by my tormentors.
I have grown old now. I don’t hold anything against anyone anymore. Just when I am trying to relax, having gone through a tumultuous life, I see a lot of those bystanders coming back. They say they are trying to save me. I am not sure from what.
They say they won’t let me get hurt. I am not sure from what. I ask them to go hunt my old tormentors if they are so concerned. They go silent; they say nothing.
They just keep on saying they will save me from what is happening. I am not sure what that is. I ask them to get lost. They say they won’t tolerate such intolerance.
Who am I? I am India.
Sahitya Akademi: Political slavery of the worst kind
An interesting drama has been unfolding at Sahitya Akademi, a Govt. organization founded in 1954. More than dozen writers have returned Sahitya Akademi awards to protest against the intolerance engulfing the society. Most of these writers accuse the central Govt. of vitiating the atmosphere and fanning communal fires.
From the media reports I gather Kalburgi and Dadri cited as two primary reasons for this sudden move by the awardees. I find it amusing and sad at the same time to see a literary organization going political. But then when was it otherwise?
It’s their right to protest and no one can argue with that. But what I argue with is the hypocrisy.
Not much people would have heard the name of this organization. It’s due to the fact that it has done nothing worthwhile all these years. Their awards always have been under the scanner to be politically backed. Current episode seals that argument.
No one returned awards when there were allegations of corruption and wrongdoings against Akademi. No one returned awards after Sikh riots, Muzaffarpur riots. No one returned the awards when India witnessed most shameful corruption all around. No, they were fine with that. I am not here defending the current Govt. Maybe they are vitiating the atmosphere for all we know.
But to cite this as a reason for such cheap stunts, sounds fishy. My take is most of the awardees have been political. Akademi was criticized by none other than Khushwant Singh for awarding below-par and sub-standard writers. So for people who got awards due to their political alignment to previous Govt’s, it’s time to return the favors. Their action does nothing but malign the current Govt and in my opinion it is politically motivated.
It’s high time these people are not given any audience. If we look back last 60 years, India has achieved nothing much in literary space anyways. All thanks to such people who rose up the ranks and got awarded owing to their political alignments.
What we need is a new breed of writers who can take India to literary heights which we lost out on all these years.
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