INDEPENDENT || OCTOBER 2015
Dozens of writers have returned India’s highest literary honour to protest what they call a growing climate of intolerance in the country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government took office.
So far 41 novelists, essayists, playwrights and poets had returned the awards they received from India’s prestigious literary academy, saying they cannot remain silent about numerous incidents of communal violence or attacks on intellectuals across the country over the past year.
The writers, who write in English as well as regional languages, are also angry that India’s National Academy of Letters has said little about the attack on the well-known rationalist Malleshappa Kalburgi, an award-winning writer in the Kannada language gunned down in August for his writings against superstition and false beliefs. >>READ MORE
