After writers, artists, filmmakers and scientists, historians have spoken against intolerance. A statement sig... Read More

NEW DELHI: After writers, artists, filmmakers and scientists, historians have spoken against the growing intolerance in the country. A statement issued by Sahmat and signed by 53 historians including Romila Thapar , Irfan Habib and Mridula Mukherjee , expressed anguish over the “vitiated atmosphere” prevailing in the country.

“Differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by using physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter arguments but with bullets,” the statement says, recalling the Dadri lynching and ink attack on ORF’s Sudheerndra Kulkarni.

“This is particularly worrying for us as historians as we have already experienced attempts to ban our books and expunge statements of history despite the fact that they are supported by sources and the interpretation is transparent. What the regime seems to want is a kind of legislated history, a manufactured image of the past, glorifying certain aspects of it and denigrating others, without any regard for chronology, sources or methods of enquiry that are the building blocks of the edifice of history,” the statement said.

When a poor man is suspected to have kept a food item that certain sections do not approve of, his fate is nothing short of death by lynching. At the launch of a book whose author happens to be from a country disapproved of by certain groups, the organizer is disfigured with ink thrown on his face, the academicians said.

Slamming the silence of PM Narendra Modi on the issue, the statement said, "And when it is hoped that the head of government will make a statement about improving the prevailing conditions, he chooses to speak only about general poverty; and it takes the head of the state to make the required reassuring statement, not once but twice. When writer after writer is returning their award of recognition in protest, no comment is made about the conditions that caused the protest; instead the ministers call it a paper revolution and advise the writers to stop writing. This is as good as saying that intellectuals will be silenced if they protest.”

Urging the state to ensure an atmosphere that is conducive to “free and fearless expression, security for all sections of society and the safe-guarding of the values and traditions of plurality that India had always cherished in the past,” the historians said.

“It is easy to trample them down, but it is important to remember that it will take too long and will be beyond the capacity of those who are currently at the helm of affairs, to rebuild it once it is destroyed,” it added.

