Tuesday, October 13, 2015

How India's writers are fighting intolerance...

On the morning of 30 August, Malleshappa Kalburgi, a leading Indian scholar and well-known rationalist thinker, was talking on his mobile phone to a friend when the doorbell rang.

Dr Kalburgi, 77 was an open-minded, liberal thinker from the southern state of Karnataka whose uncompromising scholarship had often offended powerful Lingayat - an influential Hindu sect that dominates life and politics in the state - as well as Hindu right-wing groups.

When he opened the door, he was shot at close range; his wife and daughter took him to the local hospital, where he was declared dead.

A month-and-a-half later, the murder of this scholar has set off an unusual movement with little precedent. Writers from across the country are standing up in protest against the Sahitya Akademi, a literary body that represents 22 of India's languages, and the state. Full story...

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