www.sacw.net  - 22 May 2007 > In Defence of Intellectual and Artistic Freedom in (or on) South Asia:

Delhi Petition condemns assault on freedom of expression
400 signatures at artists protest meeting on, 14th May 2007

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Sahmat
8, Vithal Bhai Patel House, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001/ Tel-23711276/23351424
 
We, the undersigned, wish to voice our strong protest and condemnation of the continuing assault on academic and other forms of freedom of expression by members of the Sangh Parivar. In recent years, senior artists such as M.F. Husain have been targets of both violence and innumerable, scurrilous lawsuits whose intent is to browbeat and intimidate freedom of expression within the Sovereign Republic of India. Citizens' right to legal redress is being misused to harass citizens; court proceedings are being used to punitively target whomever the Hindu right deems convenient in order to obtain cheap attention for its nefarious goals.
 
The recent attack on a graduate student at the prestigious Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, is the latest instance of this bludgeoning of public rights of expression. This was done with full state collusion. On Thursday, May 10, 2007, Mr. Neeraj Jain a known BJP activist, along with a group of Vishwa Hindu Parishad members, entered the premises of the Fine Arts Faculty where students' artworks were on display as part of the process of annual student evaluation.  They used violence against Mr. Chandramohan, a Master's candidate, and the police arrested him. Mr. Chandramohan has been in jail since then. The charge levelled against him is that of hurting religious sentiments.
 
Students in the Department of Art History at the University then mounted a 'protest exhibition' that attempted to show historical and pre-modern masterpieces from the history of art which could, in today's charged atmosphere, be deemed 'offensive'. The intention of the show was to question misconceptions about 'art', 'tradition', 'obscenity' and 'transgression'. On May 11, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University marched into the Department accompanied by four Syndicate members and ordered Prof. Shivaji Panikkar, the acting Dean, to shut down the exhibition. When Prof. Panikkar refused, the pro-VC had the exhibition brought down, and sealed the archive of the Art History Department. Prof. Panikkar, a highly respected academic with internationally recognized credentials, has since been suspended from his position and there is a demand to name him as co-accused in the case along with Mr. Chandramohan.
 
These kinds of attack on academics and artists not only represent the erosion of democratic freedoms, essential to the establishment of a vigorous and open society, but also destroy the very basis on which universities are founded. Let us make no mistake, the attack here is not merely on a particular artwork or form of expression, but on the very spirit of open-minded inquiry that is at the heart of the university's functioning. It is clear that since the rise of the Hindu right in the last decade and a half, India is descending into a dark prison for the imagination. And that, in states where the Hindu right or its allies are in power, state and police officials openly collude with their lumpen party mobs.
 
We, artists and art-related professionals, members of university faculties and administrations, and Indian citizens foremost, find this loutish behaviour intolerable. From these “narrow domestic walls”, these “dreary desert sands of dead habit”, as Tagore put it, may the people of India awake.
 
We appeal to all secular parties/organizations and individuals to raise their voice against the misuse of the police, judicial system and the state machinery to muzzle freedom of expression through coercion and intimidation.

Signatures at protest meeting at Rabindra Bhawan Lawn, May 14th, New Delhi
Zoya Hasan
Mushirul Hasan
Aizaj Ahmad
Vivan Sundaram
Ram Rahman
Subodh Gupta
S Islam
Anjolie Ela Menon
Apoorvanand
Om Thanvi
Nilima
Nandita Rao
Mita Deshpande
Takahiro Noguchi
Alain Willaitie
Parth Datta
Javed Malick
Achla Sawhney
Tulika Mehra
Shyam Menon
A.R.Khan
Salil Misra
Razwan Qaiser
Rohan D Souza
Amar Farooqui
Rana P. Behal
Mukul Manglik
Sabyasachi Bhattacharya
D.N.Jha
Kavita Singh
Baba Shameer Merchant-09910387817
Ashok Nehru
K.Bikram Singh
Rashmi Vajpeyi
Shyam Sunder-IPTA
Sheeba Chhachhi
Rashna Imhasly
Parthiv Shah
Arpana Caur
Avneet Gandhi
Illa Datta
Preeti Varma
Kriti Arora
Kavita Nayar
Anandamoy Bannerjee
Bula Bhattacharya
Raza Haider
Paramjit Singh
Gauri Gill
Prerna Shrimali
Tani Sandhu Bhargava
Samit Das
Rahul
Ashim Purkayastha
Anuradha Pathak
Mandita Chatterjee
Nilanjana Nande
Kaushal Srivastava
Rajesh K.Sharma
B.Mandol
L.N.Rana
Mahendra S. Baoni
M.S.Rao
Mannika Chopra
Richa Narain
Prashant
Urvi
Jiten
Gautam
Shambhu Kumar
Kewal Arora
Rabi Ram B.
Avinash Paliwal
Dipesh Khushalani
Geetha Nambiar
Indu Chandrasekhar
T.K.Hareendran
Sibi Sebastian
Avishek Sen
Peter A.Nagy
Amrieka Takhar
Shetty Bahl
Shivani Dogra
Philip Reeves
Aditi Chandra
Jayati Ghosh
Jahnavi Sen
Isha Vallari
Vivek Kishore
Manohar Khushalani
Ashish Ranjan
Chandan Kumar Chaudhury
Deva Nand Dihrakar
Harinder M.
G.Arunima
JN Mukherjee
Sarah Hashmi
Malay Firoz
Gopika Chowfla
Sohael Chowfla
Gautam Bhan
Dadi Pudumjee
Sanjay Roy
Sarita Rani
Priya esn
Mario D Penha
Shantanu Lodh
Akhil Katyal
Anuj Kumar Agarwal
Md. Sahidur Rahaman
Ganesh Kumar
Asmita Singh
Shehla Hashmi
Swapnil
Krishna Morari
Purwa Bharadwaj
Shukla Sawant
Sheila Makhijani
Arpita Singh
Nandini Datta
Laila Tayebji
Nandita Das
Ashok Vajpeyi
Vinayak Bhattacharya
Dolly Naramg
Amrita Unnikrishnan
Sushnta Mandal
Iqbal Singh
Manjeet Sidhu
Bhannu Bharati
Prasanta Kalita
Sathyabhama
Rajnish Kaur
Sitaram Yechury
Sagri Chhabra
Vanyavaidehib
Ritu Dabas
Shikha Sharma
Aarti Sharma
Izhar Alam
Gunjan Singhal
Manmeet
Krishen Kant
Shakeel Khan
Rajinder Arora
A.Dev
Vishwa Mohan Jha
Shami Ahmad
Lalit Bhartiya
Sudhir Shandra
Anuradha Kapur
Tripurari Sharma
Pooja Sood
Mohan Maharishi
Mrinalini Mukherjee
Dattatraya Apte
Ajit Bhattacharjee
Mira Sinha Bhattacharjee
Vidya shivadas
Shibani Sahni
Madhu Trehan
Vanya V.Bhargava
Meena Menezes
Geeta Patel
Avijit Roy
S. Bakshi
Kalyani Duta
Aamir Rizvi
Priyanka Pandey
Rakesh Thakore
Anat Kumar
Saidi Hassan
Ashwani Kumar
GUlam Sarwar
Chetna
Madhvi
Abhijit
Prasanjit
Sourindra
Badri Raina
Alka Pande
Mohan Muhalniya
Anshu Pancholi
Radhakrishnan
S. Hamida Vadhava
Vaghish K.Singh
Haripriya Singh
Hema Singh
Roshan Kishore
Sanjay Kak
Ama Mehra
Mahula Ghosh
Tanmoya Samanta
Sania Hashmi
Vinay Verma
Shvetang Bhardwaj
Jawarimal Parakh
Nagama
Sabat Severini
Mrtaza Danish Husain
N.K.Sharma
Randhir Singh
Manoj K.Karlee
Mukeshwar
Vikas Singh
Avadhesh
Sanjay SharmaSameer
Manini Chatterjee
S.Kalidas
Githa Hariharan
Shubha Singh
Jogendra Sharma
Sanjiv Kumar
Sohail Hashmi
Shaktipada
K.Ashok Rao
Jharna
Shubha Mudgal
Roobina Karode
Laila Khan Rajpal
Manohar Khushalani
Rajan Fuleri
Satish Gupta
Pankaj Singh
Savita Singh
Sanhita Gupta Bhaskar Chandavarkar
Atul Matla
O K.Yadav
D.Raja
Chitfina
Prasun D
Savita Kundra
Manmeet
Vinod Bhardwaj
Sabeena Gadihoke
Sabina Kidwai
Shikha Jhingan
Ranjani Mazumdar
Damodran Panikkar
Jatin Anand
Sanjeev Jaiswal
Brijraj Sharma
Manoj Saikia
Arshi Hasan
Mohan Panikkar
Satish Sabarwal
Jayshree Malthi
Akansha Rastogi
Arjun Rajgopal
Anuradha Chandra
R.Agarwal
Ajay Kumar
Lokesh Kumar
Vijit
Raghu Rai
Johny ML
Ashish N.
Amit Singh
Arbind Kumar Singh
Rajesh Ram
Sushmita Mohanty
Deepak K.Ambuj
Ranjan Mullik
Banoj Mohanty
Sebestian N.
Himanshu B.Joshi
Bipin K.
Avtar Sahni
Banwari Taneja
Rahul Roy
Randhir
Vipin
Praven Kumar Gunjan
Madhu Prasad
Madan Gopal Singh
Anuradha Roy
C.P.Chandrasekhar
Vandana
Vibha Galhotra
K.B.Vaid
K.S. Radhakrishnana
Nutan
Aditya Menon
Sneha
Vinod Kumar
Savita Kundra
Meeta Mishra
Sailha Chenhat
Geeta Kapur
Shibani Azam
Mark Paul
Raghvendra Rao
B.Mandal
S.G.
Supriya Shukla
Anusha Lall
Tanmaya
Santosh
Abhay Agarwal
Augustine Rongpi
Prakash Upadhyaya
Ranjita Bhattacharya
Gagandeep
Sanitha B.
Savita Malawat
Hira Singh
Pratik Kanjilal
Abhishek Gupta
Ashu
Naveen Kaushik
K.M.Madhusudhanan
Mala Marwah
Archana Shastri
Kavita Nayar
Gayatri Sinha
Lovly Singh
Nabodita Sarkar
Amitabh Kumar
Manjari Sihare
Surbhi Bahl
A.Sandhu
Ashok Dogra
K.K.Radhey
Veenu
Mohani Gulranjani
Usha Krishna
Rajni Palriwal
Nasreen Fezalbhoy
Sanjay kumar
Mon JH Shukla
Binod Kumar
Rupika Chawla
Kausar Wizarat
Anita Khemka
Daulat Vaid
Rajesh Dailang
Vibha Chauhan
Kath Weston
Geeta Patel
Joya John
Rashna Imhasly Gandhi
Nuzhat Kazmi
Aban Raza
Antara Dev Sen
Brinda Kumar
Akshya Tankha
Kamala Menon
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
Kausar Wizarat
Anita Khemka
Daulat Vaid
Rajesh Tailang
Alok
Gagan Vij
Pratul Desh
Nishant
Kashmir
Sakshi Gupta
Aastha Chauhan
Rohini Devasher
Ram Bali Chauhan
Shantanu Mitra
Gautam Kalra
Soumitra
Kristine Michael
Ishad Alam
Moggallan Bhatia
Aruna Vasudev
Geeti Sen
Devendra Shukla
Amita Rana
Dhananjay
C. Shamsher
Umesh Sudhakar
Sudheer Nath