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WORLD NEWS A11
Monday 2 November 2015
Indian intellectuals alarmed by rising intolerance attacks
NIRMALA GEORGE people have been arrest- of writers and artists, their
Associated Press ed in connection with the
NEW DELHI (AP) — First writ- attack. use of words like ‘fascist’ is
ers then artists, followed by There have been other in-
filmmakers, historians and cidents in recent years, in- over the top.”
scientists. The chorus of In- cluding the killings of three
dian intellectuals protest- atheist scholars who had Worries over India’s secu-
ing religious bigotry and campaigned against re-
communal violence grows ligious superstition, and lar identity began rumbling
louder by the week with a more mob killings over ru-
single message for Prime mors of cow slaughter or before Modi was elected
Minister Narendra Modi: smuggling.
protect India’s tradition of Many Hindus, who make prime minister last year.
secularism and diversity. up more than 80 percent of
Those protesting are angry India’s population of 1.25 Modi and his Hindu nation-
and worried by a spate billion, consider cows to be
of deadly attacks against sacred, and many states alist Bharatiya Janata Party
atheist thinkers and minori- ban the slaughtering of the
ties, and by Modi’s relative animals. won the election in a land-
silence through it all. That Communal violence and
silence appears to have prejudice are nothing new slide, largely on promises of
encouraged some of his for India, born as a secular
party colleagues to make democracy in 1947 amid lifting the economy.
comments asserting Hindu deadly Hindu-Muslim riots
pride and superiority. that killed an estimated But some cautioned that
On Thursday, more than 1 million people as Mus-
100 scientists, including lim-majority Pakistan was his support was grounded
some of India’s top nuclear carved out of mostly Hindu
physicists, space scientists India with the end of British in the party’s Hindu base,
and mathematicians, ex- rule. Since then, horrific riots
pressed their anguish at and clashes have erupted and noted that Modi him- In this Oct. 6, 2015 file photo, activists of various Indian Muslim
the ways in which they said at intervals, mostly be- groups shout slogans against Indian prime minister Narendra
“science and reason were tween Hindus and Muslims. self had come up through Modi during a protest against the killing of a Muslim farmer by
being eroded in the coun- Yet India has still largely villagers upon hearing rumors that the family was eating beef,
try.” The protest by scien- been seen as overwhelm- the militant Hindu funda- in New Delhi, India.
tists is significant, given that ingly tolerant, with a ca-
most work for the govern- cophony of cultures that mentalist organization Associated Press
ment or in state-funded have lived side by side for
organizations and so could centuries. Secularism is en- Rashtriya Swayamsevak
risk being punished for shrined in its constitution.
speaking out. Some political analysts Sangh, which translates
“What we are witnessing said that the protests were
instead is the active pro- going too far in making it as the National Volunteers teenagers attending youth insisted during his election
motion of irrational and seem like India was on the camps. campaign that he would
sectarian thought by im- brink of a fascist revolt, and Association. For years, the Modi, having dodged alle- be prime minister for all of
portant functionaries of the that the government may gations of responsibility for India and guaranteed pro-
government,” the scientists simply be stumbling in its group has been accused deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat, tection for minorities.q
said in a statement. They communication strategy.
said the dozens of Indian Modi has no media spokes- of stoking anti-Muslim prej-
writers who have returned man, instead relying largely
national awards in protest on senior ministers and his udice, including among
had “shown the way.” official website to get his
The uproar among intel- messages out.
lectuals began in late Sep- “If you look at the history of
tember, when a village religious violence in India, it
mob beat a Muslim man is far less today than it was
to death and put his son in three decades ago,” ana-
critical condition over ru- lyst Ashok Malik said. “This
mors that their family was is part of the democratic
eating cow meat. In fact, discourse in India. While I’m
it had been a goat. Ten not doubting the concerns
