South Asia Citizens Web

Lynch mobs and assassins are on a rampage across South Asia. Days after a Muslim man was murdered in India, for allegedly eating beef, a Baptist pastor was stabbed in Bangladesh. It isn’t just religious minorities that are under assault. In recent months, bloggers, atheists and rationalist intellectuals have been assassinated.

in the wake of the lynching and murder of Mohammad Akhlaq, Hindu fundamentalists in India utilise a language alien to their own principles to spread their brand of malice and violence — they use the language of democracy. Those who support Hindu fundamentalism mangle the most cherished norms of democratic society — liberty, equality before law, justice — to give even such a horrifying misdeed a democratic veneer.

Rationalist groups in India fight not just superstitions, ‘godmen’, ‘ghosts’, ‘spirits’ or social injustice. As profiles of several across India show, threats are a constant presence.

All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) expresses its profound solidarity with the growing numbers of writers and artists who are returning the awards they have been honoured with by the Sahitya Akademies at the central and state levels. This shows the measure of their outrage at the alarming loss of space for freedom of thought speech and creative expression in India today.

As journalists from Mumbai and Karachi who see each other as colleagues, we are dismayed at the recent violent disruptions and threats against Pakistani artists, writers and cricketers in Mumbai.