Dalit writer returns Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi awards

MYSURU: Noted Dalit litterateur from Karnataka Devanooru Mahadeva on Saturday joined writers and activists, who have returned their awards to register their protest against intolerance in India.
He announced his decision to return Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi award and took on those indulging in violence in the name of religion.
“Even god cannot save those who perpetrate murder, looting, hatred in the name of religion,” he said in an open letter.
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He was honoured with the Padma award in 2011 and got the Sahitya Akademi award for his novella ‘Kusumabale’ in 1990.
The reticent writer, based in Mysuru, hit out at those arguing there is no intolerance in India.
Sources told STOI the writer was disturbed about the rising intolerance in the nation for some time and had expressed his desire to return the awards.
He approached the Mysuru district administration asking it to take back the medal given with the Padma award.
The sexagenarian writer said: “I have always believed that for every government to remain sensitive and society-oriented, writers, artists and intellectuals should act like the restraining bridle… but when some writers and artists organised themselves in support of the ruling government, I felt it was a sure sign of evil.”
The writer, who now focuses on farming and social activism, said returning awards was symbolic.
“I feel awkward that I am not able to return the position and prestige I may have obtained indirectly through these awards,” he said.
He referred to Nehruvian concepts and said that dreams nurtured by the freedom struggle – freedom of expression, tolerance and social justice – have somehow eroded and are now in jeopardy.
“Those values may not be tangible or materially visible, but they are like the very breath of the cultural, social India we need to build. The lack of this awareness appears to be the reason for today’s intolerance.”
Absence of such sensitivity has led to the present situation, he said, pointing at leaders of the central government for arguing that incidents like Dadri and killings caused by ideological differences are the problems of the respective states.
Mahadeva also criticized Union law minister DV Sadananda Gowda for saying returning of awards by intellectuals is intolerance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The minister “should at least know that returning of awards by intellectuals is an expression of non-cooperation in protest against social and cultural intolerance”.
He expressed his reservations about the Pejawar mutt pontiff Visvesha Teertha Swami and accused him of being anti-Muslim.
According to him, the group which is now indulging in violence is emboldened by the feeling that those whom it voted to power will protect them.
That explains why violent incidents of intolerance which used to take place in a clandestine manner are now happening in daylight. Only if the Union government introspects can it provide governance, he said.
He referred to former Pakistan president General Parvez Musharraf’s statement that “Sayeed, Lakhwi were our heroes when they were fighting for the liberation of Kashmir’’.
“When religious fundamentalism began to mix with their struggle, it was transformed into terrorism. Now this terrorism is targeting our own people.”