Recently, writers, artists and scientists have returned their awards.

Other similar eminent persons also

have joined hands with these protesters. At this juncture, it will not be irrelevant to discuss the political
views of these eminent persons.
The politics of politicians faces a test at least during elections. But it is left to the students of Literature
and Social Sciences to discuss the politics of the writers, artists, scientists, social scientists or historians
from time to time.

Semantics
I have to give two clarifications.
First, I am conscious of my vernacular English which may not be of the standard of the mainstream
intellectual discourse in India. But I do think that intellectual discourse need not be left only to
sophisticated English speaking writers. Therefore I hope readers will tolerate my English.
The second clarification is more important. It is about the words used in this essay. The word Hindu
used here is to mean as it means in the government records. It does not mean a homogeneous unit or
does not refer to a single group of people with certain belief systems. This word includes all those
communities, castes and traditions which are included under the category Hindu in the census data of
the government.
Here, the word Hinduism does not mean a religion that is similar to Islam or Christianity. In this essay
the word religion does not include Hinduism as it includes Islam and Christianity.
The words secular, secularism and secularist are used in the sense they are used by the awardreturning writers. I should also clarify that I believe their model of secularism is not the real
secularism, if at all secularism is the right word to be used and that their idea of secularism does not
serve the purpose that it should serve.

Growing Intolerance: Placing the Responsiblity

Those writers who have returned their awards have claimed that this is an act of protest against the
Sahitya Akademi, against the Central Government or against the rightist groups. The core of all these
statements is that they are protesting against the growing trend of intolerance in the country.
Growing trend of intolerance does not refer to any single or specific incident. It is something that
takes place over a period of time. Therefore we can agree that the questions such as why they did not
protest when Sikhs were murdered or when emergency was imposed etc, do not arise.
We can also agree with their argument that, though late, at least now they have woken up and that its
better late than never. But the fact that this growing trend of intolerance has become visible to them
only during the last one or so years shows that they have just got their spectacles changed and we can
easily imagine the colour of the new spectacles.
We should note one small, but very important difference as far as the conflicts or relations between

communities are concerned. Though equality between the castes is not achieved completely,
discrimination based on caste has definitely decreased during the last six or seven decades and
the standard of living of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Castes is better when compared
to the earlier years.
This is because of the efforts of reformers of the distant past, recent past or present. We should also
take note of the contributions made in this regard by constitutional measures, various governments and
the writers who created awareness.

The social unrest caused by the policy on

SC, ST and OBC is negligible when compared to the amount of change or empowerment it caused. But
the policy on Muslims has not brought about any significant improvement in the standard of
living of Muslims. If it has helped Muslims, Sachar Report should have shown different findings.
The Indian secular discourse has resulted in alienating Muslims and in turn, has harmed them. If we see
the relations between the Hindus and Muslims the gap is widening day by day. This has made the
award returning writers believe that intolerance is growing.
But who should be held responsible for this intolerance?
Actually the secular discourse during the last sixty years has not succeeded in reducing the tensions
between Hindus and Muslims. Instead, it has increased intolerance.
The award returning writers call themselves as secularists and advocates of multiculturalism and
pluralism. Their writings are the most dominant part of Indias secular discourse and if there is any
fallacy or contradiction in the secular discourse they must hold themselves responsible.
What are the ways in which the harmony between various communities need to be retained and
improved? Is it through police action or is it through the mutual trust, attitudes and mind-set of the
people? If it is through mutual trust and the mind-set of the people, then the state should create a
conducive atmosphere for that. Writers should provide thoughts, social theories and literature in that
direction.