November 1, 2015

Shri Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari,

President, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi

Dear Mr. Tiwari,

We have learnt from media reports that a resolution was passed by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi on October 23, 2015 to condemn the shocking murder of Professor M.M. Kalburgi, and to support the right to freedom of speech of every writer in India. This is an urgent matter at this moment of spiralling hatred and intolerance.

The statement could have come earlier; but now that it has come, we urge you to build on this resolution to rethink how the Akademi can truly support its constituency of all writers in India and, by extension, the people of the country. As writers, we strongly feel that the Akademi can play a real and positive role by being independent and autonomous; and by responding to the situations in a strong, humane and robust manner.

We have read in media reports that the Akademi appeals to us to “take back” our awards and/ or our positions in the Akademi. Whatever each writer decides, may we jointly appeal, in turn, that the Akademi reinvent itself to connect with the India we writers, our readers, and our fellow citizens live in?

Yours sincerely,

1. Adil Jussawalla
2. Ajmer Aulakh
3. Ananya Guha
4. Anil Joshi
5. Arup Kumar Dutta
6. Ashok Vajpeyi
7. Atamjit Singh
8. Baldev Sadaknama
9. Bina Sarkar Ellias
10. Chaman Lal
11. Damodar Mauzo
12. Darshan Buttar
13. Datta Naik
15. Easterine Kire
16. Ganesh Devy
17. Githa Hariharan
18. Gurbachan Singh Bhullar
19. Jaswinder
20. K. Satchidanandan
21. Keki Daruwalla
22. Krishna Sobti
23. Kum Veerabhadrappa
24. Mandakranta Sen
25. Mangalesh Dabral
26. Manmohan
27. Mitra Phukan
28. Mohan Bhandari
29. Nayantara Sahgal
30. Pargat Singh Satauj
31. Patricia Mukhim
32. Pradnya Pawar
33. Rahman Abbas
34. Rajesh Joshi
35. Sara Joseph
36. Shashi Deshpande
37. Shubha
38. Surjit Patar
39. Uday Prakash
40. Waryam Sandhu
41. Xonzoi Barbora