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 Killing a Rationalist: Silencing Reason

Ram Puniyani

September 9, 2015

The killing of Professor Maleeshappa Madhivallapa Kalburgi on 30^th August 2015 came as a severe jolt to all those who are for an open, liberal society, who uphold the values of reason and are against blind faith. Prof. Kalburgi was a renowned scholar with over 100 books to his credit. He had brought to fore the ideology of Basavanna; the 12^th Century poet saint of Kannada; and had supported the idea that Lingyats, the followers of Basavanna be given the status of religious minorities as they do not belong to the Vedic tradition. His study of Vachanas, the teachings contained in the verses of Basavanna, was a profound contribution to the rational though.

It was his forthright reminder of Basavanna’s teachings, criticism of idol worship and Brahmanical rituals, which earned him the wrath of Hindutva groups like Bajrang Dal. As there are many traditions within the broad pantheon of Hinduism, the atheist tradition has its own existence from centuries, Charvak being the one from ancient times. Even opposition of idol worship is not new to Hindu traditions as Swami Dayanand Sarswati, founder of Arya Samaj, had given the call to stop the idol worship.

Incidentally as we are receiving the news of this killing, the neighboring Bangla Desh has witnessed the murder of three young secular bloggers in recent times (2015). In Syria a Scholar Khaled al-Assad has been put to death by ISIS fanatics. Maharashtra was shaken by the murder of a rationalist of repute Dr. Narendra Dabholkar nearly two years ago. He was instrumental in getting the law against black magic and practices related to blind faith passed in Maharashtra. Another well respected activist, Comrade Govind Pansare was killed just a year ago. Pansare was working on many issues; anti-blind faith campaign being one of them. He is also the author of well known tract on Maharashtra’s revered king Shivaji. Contrary to the communal presentation of Shivaji as anti Muslim king, Pansare shows that Shivaji was the king who was very sympathetic to the farmers (rayyat) and that he was respecting all religions. This interpretation of Shivaji is a great eyesore to the Hindutva politics.

On the back of the murders of these two rationalists, comes the murder of Dr. M.M. Kalburgi on 30^th August 2015 in his home in Dharwad. Prof Kalburgi was a very well accomplished man, ex Vice Chancellor of Kannada University in Hapmi, and recipient of National and Karnataka Sahitya Academy Awards for his writings. The learned professor had deep study of Virshaiva, Basavanna tradition amongst others. The opposition to him was due to his criticism of idol worship, Brahmanical rituals and ritualization of Basavanna tradition by Lingyats. Controversies followed him and so did the threats from conservative forces. The first one of which, was the publication of Marga treatise on Kannada folklore including articles on Virshaiva, Basavanna. Due to the death threats to him time and over again police protection was given. This police protection was withdrawn on his request recently. He supported U.R. Anathmurthy on the issue of stopping idol worship. When he invited VHP leaders and the pontiff of Vishveshra Tirtha Swami for a public debate; another controversy followed. His support to Karnataka bill against practices of superstition invited anger of Bajarang Dal and associate organizations and he had to face protest; where his effigy was burnt.

There is a pattern in the murders of Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi. Though there are some differences in the broad range of field of their social engagement, the similarity is very striking. They were rational, they made their voice abundantly clear and many threats were received by them. Another stark similarity is that all these three murders took place in early mornings by those who came on motor cycles, one person driving the bike and the second one pumping bullets. Strangely despite a long lapse of time the killers of Dabholkar and Pansare have not been nabbed so far.

After the murder of Kalburgi one Bajrang Dal activist Bhuvith Shetty tweeted, ***“Then it was UR Ananthamurthy and now MM Kalburgi. Mock Hinduism and die dogs (sic.) death. And dear KS Bhagwan you are next” .*** This tweet was later withdrawn. Also many a person’s related to Hindu right wing organizations started saying that Kalburgi had insulted Hindu gods, so anger among Hindus and so such murders. This is a subtle justification of the intolerance which our society is being gripped with. As such the attitude of communal elements in different religions is very similar. One recalls the threat to Salman Rushdie, the type of intolerance shown to Taslima Nasreen and the murder of bloggers in Bangla Desh and also murder of Salman Taseer in Pakistan. Taseer had stood in defense of a Christian woman who was accused of blasphemy.

The opposition to the voices of reason has been going on in History all through. One can as well begin with Charvak, who opposed the Brahmanical understanding about the world, divine nature of Vedas in particular. Charvak said Vedas are manmade, social in nature, and was persecuted. Gradually with the power of clergy the imposition of faith on society became more institutionalized. Even teachings of Gautam Buddha, who was agnostic, and talked about the social nature of human problems, were attacked. This had led to the wiping out of Buddhism from India. The medieval Bhakti saints were also more for rational thinking, critical of the imposition of various social practices-rituals in the name of faith. Many saints like Tukaram in Maharashtra had to face persecution at the hands of those who were close to social power, the clergy.

Globally one can see the same pattern in Europe. In Europe the scientists, rational thinking had to face the opposition from organized Church, which condemned Galileo to hell for stating that the Earth is round etc. Similar was the fate of many scientists who had to face inquisitions and punishments of various types. Clergy hid behind the façade of ‘divine authority’: faith, and tried to stall the process of social change and halt the scientific thinking. The society over a period of time overcame the opposition to the rational thinking and so we saw the rooting of science and scientific inquiry. Clergy had maintained that they are the repository of whole knowledge; as knowledge is already there in our ‘Holy books’. This is a part generalization and it manifested in different cultures and religions in diverse ways. In Pakistan, some Maulanas asserted that the problems related to power can be solved by doing research on djinns, who are power houses of infinite energy; this was presented as part of the religious knowledge.

In India with freedom movement, those standing for social change and transformation did stand for rational thinking and critiqued the scriptures from that angle. The traditionalists, who wanted to retain the old social equations; resorted to ‘our glorious heritage of knowledge’. Faith based understanding was counterpoised against the spirit of scientific inquiry. With independence, with Nehru being at the helm of affairs, the notion of ‘scientific temper’ came up in a big way paving the way for establishment of institution of higher learning and research; leading to the national growth and transformation towards democratic structures. This was the time when the nation was looking forward to all round progress and rational thinking was duly promoted. The national science resolution; based on reason and logic was passed unanimously in 1958.

Things start changing in the decades of 1980s. The politics in the name of religion came up in a very assertive manner and faith not only continued to be the emotional support system in the times of social anxiety but some political forces started asserting identity politics, faith based politics. Identity issues and faith based politics started getting more legitimacy. The social conservatism and undermining of rational thought went hand in hand. Incidentally it is around this time also when the groups promoting rational thought, scientific temper, groups to oppose blind faith, came up. The most prominent of these groups was Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad. Later in Maharashtra Narendra Dabholkar took the lead to establish Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Committee to oppose Blind faith).

This took the Maharashtra conservative elements by storm as the volunteers of this organization started going from village to village and started demonstrating the science behind the magic tricks which were being practiced by hoards of God men and other of their tribe, who were taking full advantage of the social insecurity of poor villagers and exploiting them. Pansare, in addition to opposing blind faith was also disseminating the values of Shivaji, presenting him as a person respecting all religions, which Shivaji was. The right wingers could not stomach it; neither could they oppose the logical formulations presented by him. In Karnataka individual like U.R. Ananthmurthy articulated against idol worship and blind faith. Kalburgi not only supported U R Anathmurthy; he also went on the support the bill against the practices promoting blind faith. He did author papers/books to disseminate his ideas.

Slightly back in time when the first NDA Government came to power with Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi as the MHRD minister, he introduced the courses like ritualism (paurohitya) and astrology (jyotish shastra) in the universities. This gave a big boost to the ‘faith’ based groups who were politically close to the politics in the name of Hindu religion. With the new Government coming to power (2014) again now the mythology is being promoted as history, the Pushpak viman, ‘plastic surgery in ancient India’ etc. is being promoted; at the same time so called fringe elements, which as such are part of the Hindutva politics, are becoming more assertive. The liberal open space is shrinking and the place of debate is being taken by physical violence. The liberal values which accept the validity of differences is being eliminated by force, intimidation and even partly by state support. The murder of these ‘saintly’ figures , Dabholkar, Pansare and Klaburgi, just goes to show that we are landing in a situation where those entrenched in the conservative values are becoming dominant and do not want the rational thinking to exist in our society.

The aggressive stance by the Hindutva right wing on those who are putting forward the rational thought, criticizing the ills of caste system, idol worship etc. is ideological supplement to the politics of Hindu right wing. The march of this politics in recent years has been built around identity issues like Ram temple or cow slaughter. Their whole assertion is built around the Brahmanical Hinduism, which upholds the caste hierarchy. The ideology being propounded by the likes of Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi stands closer to the ideology for liberation from the caste hierarchy, which is the root of HIndutva politics. This politics does target the religious minorities, while ironically Hinduism is so diverse with contradictory tendencies within same religious umbrella. Kalburgi’s murder is part of the larger scheme of things where the ideologies opposed to the present status quo are being hounded along with persecution of those who are struggling to uphold these values.

On the other hand there has been a tremendous opposition to these brutal acts. The social groups upholding pluralism and rationalism have been agitating against these murders and the ideology of those involved in these killings. Opposition of sections of society to the murders of Daholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi shows that there are still large numbers of people who are willing to uphold rational values and that gives a ray of hope for the times to come. In last couple of years after the murder of Dabholkar, various social groups have been coming together with a determination not only to oppose the intolerant conservative aggressive right wing politics, but also to take up the unfinished task of these slain pioneers committed to social change.

Ram Puniyani

* http://beyondheadlines.in/2015/09/killing-a-rationalist-silencing-reason/

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 P.A.D.S. Statement on the killing of Prof MM Kalburgi - a sane voice against communalism and superstition

2 September 2015

Murder of another rational voice against communalism and superstition (P.A.D.S. statement in condemnation of the killing of Prof MM Kalburgi)

The respected and loved Kannada scholar and writer MM Kalburgi was murdered by two unidentified men on August 30 at his home in Dharwad. The seventy seven year scholar was actively researching Vachanas literature of early Kannada and literature produced during the Adil Shahi period in Northern Karnataka. He was a source of wisdom for many students and scholars, and his killers gained access posing as students. He was also a vocal critic of religious superstitions and had been targeted by fundamentalists within his own Lingayat community and by Hindutva organisations. He had received many threats and his house had been attacked with stones and bottles. He was given police protection, which was withdrawn only days before his murder.

Professor Kalburgi’s cold-blooded murder has caused widespread shock and dismay in the literary and intellectual circles of Karnataka. Many protests involving ordinary citizens have been held in Bangalore and Dharwad. At least one Hindutva Bajrang dal activist has publicly welcomed the assassination, warned another rationalist of Karnataka, Prof KS Bhagwan of the same fate.

Prof Kalburgi’s killing comes after the murders of two other prominent critics of religious superstitions. Dr Narender Dabholkar was killed in 2013 in Pune. Trade Unionist and Communist Govind Pansare was killed in Kolhapur in February this year. There are uncanny similarities in the modus operandi of all three cases. It is likely that as in the earlier cases, the police will fail to solve Prof Kalburgi’s murder. In political and social terms, the murder of these three prominent scholars and public figures in India, who raised their voice [against] religious fundamentalism, is similar to the gruesome murders of secular bloggers Niloy Chatterjee, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Avijit Roy, and Ananta Bijoy Dasin in Bangladesh. Democrats of all countries in South Asia face violent threats from religious fundamentalists. The established institutions of criminal justice have failed miserably to counter this threat.

The sequence of murders of rationalist and secular scholars and activists raises a number of issues of grave significance for democracy and secularism. To begin with, the failure of state institutions to prevent these murders and apprehend the criminals is an encouragement to other would-be killers and their masterminds. Is this failure only due to lack of evidence, or due to systemic issues such as the criminalization of the polity and the spread of communal bias? India’s institutions of criminal justice have regularly failed to protect people from intimidation by religious fanatics. Taslima Nasreen and Shireen Dalvi have been hounded by Muslim fundamentalists. Rationalist Sanal Edamaruku has been forced to live in exile due to harassment by Christian zealots.

Communally inspired crimes have also gone unpunished. Over the past decade, many cases of bomb blasts in Muslim areas have seen the police initially arresting numbers of Muslim youth. Later, the hard work of the upright police officer Hemant Karkare revealed the role of Hindutva extremist groups in those crimes. Recently the public prosecutor in Malegaon blast case, Ms Rohini Salian has publically claimed that the National Investigation Agency asked her to deliberately sabotage the state case against the accused. Is it really an accident that India’s intelligence agencies and police have no case to make about certain extremist organisations?

The murders of three prominent Indian rationalists have occurred in the geographically compact region of Western Maharashtra and the contiguous area of Karnataka, within bustling cities. All three had received prior threats from identified groups. The police’s failure to nab the culprits is not only professionally shameful but increasingly appears to be deliberate.

After Dr Dabholkar’s murder, the Congress government in Maharashtra had eagerly pushed his anti-superstition bill in the assembly, where it had been languishing for more than a decade. Now, the Congress government in Karnataka has given full state honours to Prof Kalburgi during his funeral. It is clear that the largest opposition party in the country is eager to lap whatever secular credentials it can gather, after the event so to say, but is neither capable, nor inclined to take a principled stand on secularism and democracy. Aam Aadmi Party too has hobnobbed with all kinds of religious leaders and groups, and has sided with the Hindutva brigade in the recent decision to rename the Aurangzeb road in Delhi. The CPI(M) had forced Taslima Nasreen out of Kolkata after demands by Muslim fundamentalists there. These [political] parties may be non-communal, but their secularism is opportunistic and they have no compunction in bowing to the undemocratic demands of fanatics. There is little chance that India’s established [political] parties will take a pro-active stand against threats to democracy and secularism. Democratic and secular forces need to mobilize urgently to spread the message that democracy is impossible without secularism.

An FIR was filed against Prof MM Kalburgi last year for ’hurting religious sentiments of a community’ after he came out in support of writer UR Ananthamurthy’s statements against idol worship. Now, many news-media have reported that he ’courted’ controversies by campaigning against superstition. An attempt is being made to equate the intellectuals who stand for reason, discussion and openness, with religious fanatics who advocate violence. Arguments are made condemning the murders, but criticizing them for ‘hurting sentiments.’

We condemn such arguments. Reasoned investigations of society and history; and the questioning of beliefs and openness to diverse cultural strands, are essential for democracy. Modern democracy is premised upon the moral autonomy of every citizen. Humans realise their autonomy when they ask questions, discover new knowledge, and challenge unsubstantiated beliefs, including their own. They forfeit their freedom when they submit to superstitions out of fear or greed. Religious fundamentalists need blind followers, who will obey their agendas of hatred and violence.

A democratic society cannot exist without people like Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi; whereas communalists and fanatics of all colours are enemies of democracy. Any effort to equate the two is misleading. Even at the level elementary morality, there is a distinction between verbal and rational criticism, and the practice of violence. The choice between the two is essential, and a society cannot be democratic unless majority of the people choose the former over the latter.

The People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism pays homage to Prof Kalburgi and stands with his wife, children and all people of Karnataka who have protested against his murder.

We demand

1. That the police uphold the obligations of their profession and arrest the murderers of Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi at the earliest. The masterminds of these murders and their organisations must be identified publicly and given adequate legal punishments.

2. The laws relating to ’hurt religious sentiments’ should be repealed. If anyone deliberately humiliates or threatens any community through speech or words, laws relating to hate speech should be used.

3. We also call upon teachers and university trade unions and media workers and writers organisations to support calls for protection of rights of freedom of expression of teachers, scholars, media personnel and literary workers

We call attention of the public to the fact that the electoral successes of the BJP have emboldened Hindutva fundamentalists, who are becoming increasing brazen in their attacks, not only on religious minorities, but on all democratic and secular groups and individuals. Democratic and secular forces should redouble their efforts to mobilise public opinion against these fanatics to uphold and protect the hard-won freedoms of India’s democratic constitution.

PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY AND SECULARISM (PADS)

* http://sacw.net/article11578.html

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 The importance of Professor Kalburgi

Chandan Gowda

Symptomatic of the superficiality of our times, the murder of Kalburgi, a scholar who considered knowledge essential for understanding society, was seen as the murder of a rationalist and an atheist

The murder of Professor Kalburgi has meant the loss of a scholar who exemplified a grand research tradition which considered a knowledge of philology, history and literature as essential for understanding society. (It is symptomatic of the superficiality of our times that his passing away was quickly seen, across national and international media, as the murder of a rationalist and an atheist- he was a devout Lingayat, in fact - at the hands of intolerant bigots).

Kalburgi had worked extensively on Lingayat philosophy, ancient Kannada literature, and the folklore of North Karnataka. His four volume collection titled Marga (The Way), bring together a rich range of essays in these areas. An understanding of contemporary Karnataka will be incomplete without an engagement with the issues raised here. I mention this not because historical issues are good to know but because many of them are still living issues and cannot be safely laid to rest as things of the past. A discussion of medieval Karnataka society will not remain - as the hostile reception to Kalburgi in the past has shown - only a historical discussion. Medieval society, unlike in Europe, is a living presence here. We have the strange case of scholars of contemporary Indian society with little idea - let alone knowledge - of the cultural universe that lives outside the charmed circles of English scholarship.
During Kalburgi’s tenure as the second vice-chancellor of the Kannada University at Hampi, according to one of his colleagues, he was keen on making up for the modernist intellectual bias of its faculty and get them to take the premodern literature and history seriously. He later edited the massive fifteen volume compilation of Vacanas published by the Kannada Book Authority. He had completed much of the work on compiling the writings from the Adil Shahi period.

Kalburgi’s work is testimony to the valuable scholarship that has emerged from the state universities in the country (He taught at Karnataka University, Dharwad). Much of this work has happened without the support of large research grants or the formidable library support of the kind found in libraries in western universities. The presence of serious scholars in non-metropolitan universities cannot be valued enough. Not only has it meant the decentralization of scholarly discussions, it has guarded against homogeneity in research concerns. Kalburgi’s work also shows how state universities allowed enormous research freedom for scholars.

Kalburgi’s work was controversial because it disturbed the stable official memories of Lingayat institutions. He discovered historical facts that provoked moral disbelief. For example, he would present facts to prove that Lingayats cannot be considered Hindus. Since his claims were supported by his formidable hold over the vacanas, such findings had angered many of the Lingayat mathas in the past, some of whom had stated that it was better that he died. In 1989, the anger of the established Lingayat orthodoxy was so great that they forced him to retract his claims that the father of Basavanna’s nephew, Chenna Basavanna, was a lower caste man. Last year, the Hindu right wing attacked him viciously when he questioned the sanctity of idol worship in Hinduism.

What is remarkable is that only historians like Kalburgi or novelists have been able to elicit controversies that stir the moral equanimity of communities. Social scientists in India have not succeeded in doing this through their work. For all their care about data and method and analytical rigour, their scholarly outputs usually fail to engage the moral imagination of communities.

The unfortunate trend towards producing “useful” knowledge has meant a decline in institutional support for humanities research. These changing research priorities make us doubly grateful for intellectual contributions of scholars like Kalburgi whose work will remain a precious inheritance for anyone interested in the intellectual history of the state, and indeed of India.

As the news of Kalburgi’s passing away spread, friends from outside the state enquired if any of his writings were available in English. None of his writings have been translated into English or, for that matter, any other language. Facts like these, one hopes, will cease to be routine. A possible tribute to the memory of Kalburgi would be to make his writings available to readers outside the state, and enable new conversations between scattered research communities in the country and abroad.

Chandan Gowda
The author is Professor of Sociology, Azim Premji University

* Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Sep 4, 2015, 10.24 PM IST:
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/columns/views/The-importance-of-Professor-Kalburgi/articleshow/48818922.cms

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 Radical Socialist condemns the killing of M.M. Kalburgi

Renowned Kannada scholar, rationalist and epigraphist M.M. Kalburgi, formerly the Vice Chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi, was murdered by two assailants on August 30, 2015, in a continuation of vicious attacks on rationalists and intellectuals by the Sangh Parivar and BJP. Dr. Kalburgi, a key organiser of the Dharwad Sahitya Sambramha (Dharward Lit. Fest.), openly spoke up against idol worship and had recently questioned the Lingayat orthodoxy claiming that they were not Hindus. This invited resentment and hostility from RSS and the Hindu right, because the Lingayats are an important voting block for the BJP and have been instrumental in the election of the first BJP government in Karnataka in 2004, with chief minister BS Yeddyurappa being a Lingayat.

The killing of Dr. Kalburgi is far from being an isolated incident. The right wing Hindu forces are bent on creating communal disharmony and hostility based on the perpetuation of Hindu myths and stereotypes. Thus, anyone who seeks to question received religious orthodoxy, especially those of Hinduism, are perceived as threats and are dealt with accordingly. Narendra Dabholkar, who was a prominent anti-superstition and rationalist activist from Pune, was also killed by right wing communal forces in August 2013. Investigation agencies and governments in Maharashtra, both the saffron combine BJP- Shiv Sena and its predecessor, the so-called secular Congress- NCP in Maharashtra have failed to bring the perpetrators to book. Govind Pansare, a veteran CPI leader, intellectual and rationalist, known for his scholarly work on Shivaji, was killed by right wing fanatics in February 2015. Even after the Maharashtra police having in place a Special Investigation Team for probing Govind Pansare murder, the assailants are till date to be brought to book. Tamil novelist Perumal Murugan announced on January 2015 that he is giving up writing after he was attacked by right wing caste Hindu forces. Soon after the tragic murder of Kalburgi, Bajrang Dal has openly cheered his death and threatened to kill Mysore University professor K.S. Bhagwan, who happened to be a close friend of Dr. Kalburgi.

Scholars, activists, and ordinary working class citizens committed to fighting religious fundamentalism should deplore theseacts of intimidating intellectuals and rationalists as cowardly, undemocratic and immoral. We need to realise that this is a broader project of a homogenisation of Indian society, where dissenting voices against majority views, particularly those held by the Hindutva forces, are being muzzled.The ruling party BJP has among its ranks MPs who have demanded that Gita be declared the national book of India. Attack on rationalist should hardly be a surprise when organisers of the Indian Science Congress state that the invention of aeroplane was in the Vedas.

Just as we see in Bangladesh, where one after another rationalist bloggers are being killed by the right wing Muslim fundamentalists, so we see in India a disturbing trend of attack on multiplicity of opinions and pluralism by the Sangh parivar. It is easy to condemn fundamentalists in a different country. Radical Socialist is truly committed to a secular and multicultural India, and thus condemns the killing of M. M. Kalburgi. We have and will continue to fight, on the ground, all those forces in Indian society who are committed to spreading communalism and hatred and stand in the way of rational thought and progress.

Radical Socialist, 2.9.2015

* http://www.radicalsocialist.in/

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 Time to go after the Killers of Rationalists - Select Editorials

Posted below is selection of recent editorials from the Indian newspapers.

The Asian Age, August 31, 2015

Editorial: Taliban-like extremism

The gunning down of rationalist Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi is a blot on our society. The behaviour of these fringe religious zealot groups, who have assassinated three such eminent thinkers and elderly scholars in the last two years in Maharashtra and Karnataka, is no less than that of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A country boasting of such huge numbers of people of so many different faiths should also show tolerance for those who subscribe to atheism and are opposed to superstition and idolatry, etc. Kalburgi’s views may have been even more extreme, but then the same could be said of many professing faith in God and practising formal religion.

The fact that such murderous extremists have been emboldened to the extent of knocking on a man’s door and shooting him in cold blood points to how much leeway has been given by the lack of eagerness to solve such cases and bring the perpetrators to book. We know that for a while now extreme rightist elements have been playing up in certain areas of Karnataka, behaving quite like the Taliban or Al Qaeda in harassing people with different opinions and outlooks.

Kalburgi may have contributed somewhat by calling off the security provided to him. It is, however, not a matter of how much security a state can provide as it is of where our society is headed if people are allowed to get away with wanton destruction of the principles of a safe and secure life. A country that once boasted of one of mankind’s most ancient civilisations has to show that these values have not been extinguished by intolerance.

o o o

The Times of India, September 1, 2015

Editorial

A rationalist’s murder: Don’t go soft on M M Kalburgi’s killers, even if they belong to a Hindu extremist group

On Sunday, 77-year-old Kannada scholar and rationalist M M Kalburgi was shot dead at his residence in Dharwad, Karnataka. The former vice-chancellor of Kannada University had often invited the ire of Hindu extremist groups for his views. Kalburgi’s murder seems to fall into a pattern. Rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare were gunned down in similar fashion in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Both had been at the receiving end of threats from Hindu fundamentalist groups.

People have the right to air their views in a democracy, no matter how offensive they may be to some. It is too early to conclude if Kalburgi’s killers belonged to the Hindu extremist fringe. But Bajrang Dal leader Bhuvith Shetty has welcomed the assassination. The point is that even if there were reasonable grounds to suppose that the dastardly murder was the work of a Hindu group will it be investigated – and charges pressed – with the rigour it deserves?

The question is pertinent because there have been too many instances where Hindu extremists are suspected in terror attacks and the killers have not been brought to book. Be it the Malegaon blasts in 2006 and 2008, the Samjhauta Express bombings in 2007 or the Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad the same year, investigations have been sloppy at best. In June this year Rohini Salian, special public prosecutor in the Malegaon blast case, made the disturbing allegation that the National Investigation Agency had instructed her to “go soft” on the accused. It is high time the government realised that terror has no religion – whatever its prefix, it needs to be tackled sternly.

o o o

The Hindu, September 1, 2015

Editorial

Act against right-wing groups

Sunday’s murder in Dharwad of the outspoken Kannada scholar, M.M. Kalburgi, is tragic and alarming. It is the first such instance in Karnataka, which has a tradition of free speech and a record of outspoken scholars and writers. Kalburgi, a Sahitya Akademi award winner and an authority on Vachana literature, was known for his sharp criticism and questioning of superstitious beliefs, and received a death threat from the leader of a fringe right-wing group last year. Since June 2014 he was given police protection but some months ago he requested that it be withdrawn. While the identity of the two assailants, and their motive, are yet to be conclusively established, the nature of the threats against him has led investigators and the intelligentsia to suspect the role of fringe groups. This, especially given the backdrop of the murder of rationalist writer Narendra Dabholkar in 2013, and of CPI activist Govind Pansare in 2015, both in Maharashtra. In all the three cases the assailants were motorcycle-borne, and shot from point-blank range.

While hasty conclusions on the latest murder would be imprudent, there is no denying that fringe right-wing groups have created an atmosphere of intolerance to outspoken writers and academics who question religious practices and myths, thereby putting pressure on freedom of speech and expression. Soon after Kalburgi’s murder, a case was filed by the police in Mangaluru against a Bajrang Dal activist who tweeted that the “next” victim would be the Kannada writer K.S. Bhagwan, and the activist was arrested. The social media have amplified such threats, which are acerbic and abusive in nature and typically target writers or academics who question ideologies and religious beliefs. There is enough evidence of the use of brute force by these fringe groups to enforce their points of view. There is a need to crack down on these groups which profess violence. It is important to use for some of these outfits the same yardstick as is used for other religion- and ideology-based extremist groups. Unfortunately, a majority of the cases filed against them or their leaders for inflammatory and abusive remarks and even violent acts do not result in convictions, and that emboldens them further. It is also crucial to monitor and promptly curb threats made through social media. These actions are needed to ensure that daring, fierce and tempered academic and literary opinion continues to be freely expressed without fear of any retribution. Whether or not fringe groups were involved in Kalburgi’s murder is immaterial here.

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