Background of the Writers’ Protest Against Sahitya Academy

The left leaning writers have started a protest against Sahitya Academy in specific and the government in general. In this writers’ protest, more than 40 writers have either returned their awards or relinquished their statuses. Their protest is against the “terrorism” of the extremist right wingers and against the “subtle” support of the state machinery to the acts of “terrorism” against writers, minorities and liberalism in general. The state machinery includes bureaucracy and police as well.

The state of affairs in India has indeed reached a seriously totalitarian state. The state has started interfering in the lives of people to the extent of deciding their fooding and clothing choices. Ironically, most new laws in the present BJP regimes are extensions of laws made under the previous governments, especially under Congress. No wonder congressmen like Shashi Tharoor have already started calling the writers’ protest disoriented: he thinks the writers’ protest shouldn’t extend to returning awards, which, he thinks, define writers’ identities. This argument of Shashi Tharoor has interested me the most in this writers’ protest. And contradicting this idea is my main focus in this blog post.

The Underlying Reason of the Writers’ Protest Against Sahitya Academy

In the current paradigm, the corporate have gained extraordinary control over the running of the state with statuses often higher than even that of politicians. In other words, the corporate is the new state. At the same time, the left leaning intellectuals, writers, artists, etc, have been side lined so much so that political goons have even started murdering well-recognized, award winners among them. This is also a message to ordinary writers to shed their leftist orientation and adopt “neo-liberal” orientation like Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi, who are recognised better for their business acumen.

However, the award winning faces were recognized pretty well in the previous dispensation. They comprised both the left-leaning congressmen and the leftists per se. Obviously, the left-leaning writers are getting replaced by the “neo-liberal” faces in the new BJP dispensation. Sahitya Academy can well remain in business by shifting focus to these new “neo-liberal” faces. However, the left leaning writers and intellectuals are in majority, and their mass protest has indeed led to an existential crisis for Sahitya Academy.

Blessing in Disguise

I feel whatever is happening is a blessing in disguise for writers. Writers need to be free from all kinds of influences, including that of the state. They need to take independent stand on social issues and articulate it in the manner best understood by common men. Their identity is that of illuminators, whether directly through non-fiction or subtly through fiction. They are indeed the independent political voices of the masses. Their identities are definitely not defined by their awards.

They ought to live their simple lives without getting influenced. They need to assist activists or take up the role of activists themselves if there is a vacuum. They need to resist and expose “terrorism”, whether of the state or whoever else. They obviously can’t be the instrumentalities of the state.

I have always believed that writers, artists, intellectuals, etc, have no business accepting awards from the state or even from private entities. The state has the monopoly of violence, which violence is mostly used to terrorize common men from rebelling against elites. The elites include the corporate, politicians; senior bureacracy, higher judiciary, high networth individuals, senior journalists, state protected artists/intellectuals/writers, etc. The writers who are protesting by returning their awards are, indeed, guilty of accepting them at the first place.

Only if such influential and intelligent people can re-organise themselves into an anarchic force fighting against the ills of the society, will it give a ray of hope to the not-so-very-gifted people. The time has indeed come for the illuminators of the society to amalgamate their islands into a continent of hope, providing shelters to those who deserve it.