India: Perto de 300 escritores e activistas culturais responden á situación na Cachemira: "Isto é unha burla da democracia" (inglés)

Over 200 writers and cultural activists respond to the Kashmir situation: “This is a mockery of democracy”

Indian Cultural Forum

August 16, 2019

 

Courtesy Scroll: A Kashmiri woman wipes her tears while listening to a story of a Kashmiri man at a function in New Delhi where compatriots gathered to observe Eid. | Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters  

By revoking the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and splitting it up into two union territories, the central government has made a mockery of democracy. It has violated the solemn promises made to the state of Jammu & Kashmir by the Union of India during the accession of the state in 1947.  

The abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the breakup of the state has been executed unilaterally, clandestinely and coercively. The people — across religious, cultural, ethnic and ideological segments — have not been consulted. Indeed, the unprecedented security and information clampdown in the state since 5th August 2019 is proof of the government’s fear of popular discontent and democratic dissent.  

We, Indians who are writers, artists, media persons and cultural activists, condemn the undemocratic and unconstitutional moves of the government in Jammu & Kashmir. We condemn the government’s division of people and territories from above, subverting the very basis of our constitutional federalism. We condemn the state of siege imposed on the people of a state already suffering for many long years.  

We demand that the state of siege in Jammu & Kashmir be lifted, and all basic freedoms — including those of free expression, communication and media freedoms — be restored with immediate effect. We demand the restoration of Article 370, and the restoration of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. We declare our solidarity with the Kashmiri people, and call on all our fellow citizens to resist this authoritarian challenge to the freedom and autonomy of Jammu & Kashmir. 

Read the statement in Hindi here.

 

For the Indian Writers Forum

1	A Mangai	86	Karthik Venkatesh	171	Shastri Ramachandaran
2	Abhay Maurya	87	Karthika Nair	172	Shaswati Mazumdar
3	Abhinava Bhattacharya	88	Kavery Nambisan	173	Sheba Chhachhi
4	Achin Vanaik	89	Kiran Nagarkar	174	Shoma A Chatterji
5	Ajay Kamalakaran	90	Leena Manimekalai	175	Shyam B Menon
6	Ajitha GS	91	M A Baby	176	Shyama Dasgupta
7	Akeel Bilgrami	92	Madhu Bhaduri	177	Simar Puneet
8	Ali Javed	93	Madhusree Dutta	178	Skye Arundhati Thomas
9	Alok Rai	94	Makarand Sathe	179	Sohail Hashmi
10	Amandeep Sandhu	95	Mangad Rathnakaran	180	Sonia Jabbar
11	Ami Sanyal	96	Mangalesh Dabral	181	Srilata K
12	Amit Bhaduri	97	Manishi Jani	182	Subhash Gatade
13	Amit Chaudhuri	98	Manoj Kulkarni	183	Sudhanva Deshpande
14	Amitav Ghosh	99	Maria Couto	184	Sudhir Chandra
15	Ammu Joseph	100	Martin Macwan	185	Tejal Kanitkar
16	Anand Swaroop Verma	101	Maya Palit	186	TM Krishna
17	Anand Teltumbde	102	Maya Pandit	187	Uday Narkar
18	Ananya Parikh	103	Meena Kandasamy	188	Unni R
19	Ananya Vajpeyi	104	Megha Pansare	189	Vaasanthi Sundaram
20	Ania Loomba	105	Moloyashree Hashmi	190	Valay Singh
21	Anitha Thampi	106	Mridula Koshy	191	Venita Coelho
22	Apoorvanand	107	Mukul Kesavan	192	Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
23	Aritry Das	108	Murli Manohar Prasad Singh	193	Vibha Maurya
24	Arundhati Dhuru	109	N P Chandrasekharan	194	Vijay Prashad
25	Arundhati Ghosh	110	N P Chekkutty	195	Vijaya Venkataraman
26	Arvind Krishna Mehrotra	111	N P Hafiz Mohamad	196	Vikas Narayan Rai
27	Asad Zaidi	112	Naina Dayal	197	Vineet Tiwari
28	Ashok Vajpeyi	113	Nalin Ranjan Singh	198	Vishnu Nagar
29	Ashokan Charuvil	114	Namita Singh	199	Vishwanath Tripathi
30	Ashutosh Kumar	115	Nandini Sundar	200	Vivan Sundaram
31	Atamjit Singh	116	Nandita Narain	201	Vivek Narayanan
32	Ayesha Kidwai	117	Nayantara Sahgal	202	Zahoor Sidiqui
33	B R P Bhaskar	118	Neelan Premji	203	Zoya Hasan
34	Badri Raina	119	Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay	204	Ajai Singh
35	Bali Singh	120	Neeraj Malik	205	Usa Rai
36	Bama	121	Nikhil Narkar	206	Kiran Singh
37	Bezwada Wilson	122	Nilanjana Roy	207	Shobha Singh
38	Bhasha Singh	123	Nirupama Dutt	208	Shreemoyee Moitra
39	Bina Sarkar Ellias	124	Nityanand Tiwari	209	Sahej Rahal
40	C P Aboobacker	125	Nupur Asher	210	Krishnan Unni P
41	C S Chandrika	126	Orijit Sen	211	Indu Chandrasekhar
42	Chaman Lal	127	P N Gopikrishnan	212	Vidya Rao
43	Chanchal Chauhan	128	P Sainath	213	Natasha Ginwala
44	Chandrakant Patil	129	Pamela Philipose	214	Pallavi Paul
45	Civic Chandran	130	Pankaj Bisht	215	Anuradha Kapur
46	Dalip Kaur Tiwana	131	Perumal Murugan	216	Urmilesh
47	Damodar Mauzo	132	Prabhat Patnaik	217	Abhishek Majumdar
48	Danish Husain	133	Prabodh Parikh	218	S Vijayaraghavan
49	Debaditya Bhattacharya	134	Parvathi Ramanathan	219	Senjuti Mukherjee
50	Dileep Chavan	135	Rahman Abbas	220	Mallika Sarabhai
51	Dilip Borkar	136	Rahul Roy	221	Leela Jacinto
52	Divya Bharathi	137	Rajendra Chenni	222	Saba Hasan
53	E V Ramakrishnan	138	Rajendra Rajan	223	Merlin Moli
54	Ebbar Rabbi	139	Rajendra Sharma	224	Rayees Ahemed
55	G Arunima	140	Rajesh Joshi	225	Gita Jayaraj
56	G N Devy	141	Rajesh Saklani	226	Svati Joshi
57	G P Ramachandran	142	Rajib Ray	227	Mohsin Alam Bhatt
58	Gauhar Raza	143	Ram Prakash Tripathi	228	Rachita Taneja
59	Geeta Kapur	144	Ram Rahman	229	Tishani Joshi
60	Geetanjali Shree	145	Raosaheb Kasbe	230	Madhusudhanan
61	Githa Hariharan	146	Rekha Awasthi	231	Promona Sengupta
62	Gopi Krishnan	147	Ritu Menon	232	Tanvi Mishra
63	Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar	148	Rosalyn D'mello	233	Trina Chatterjee
64	Hariyash Rai	149	Rukmini Bhaya Nair	234	Sanjana Sarkar
65	Harsh Mander	150	S Raghunandana	235	Somdev Thakur
66	Hirala Rajasthani	151	Saba Dewan	236	Sukaina Husain
67	Huchangi Prasad	152	Sadanand Menon	237	Prama
68	Indira Jaising	153	Sahiram	238	Arijita Das
69	Ishrat Syed	154	Saleem Peeradina	239	Aritra Chakraborti
70	J Devika	155	Salil Chaturvedi	240	Aashish Sahoo
71	J V Pawar	156	Salim Yusufji	241	Ustab Nath
72	Javed Malick	157	Sambhaji Bhagat	242	Jayant Manchanda
73	Jawari Mal Parakh	158	Samik Bandyopadhyay	243	Savita Singh
74	Jeet Thayil	159	Sandeep Pandey
75	Jenifer Areng Datta	160	Sanjay Bohidar
76	Jerry Pinto	161	Sanjay Joshi
77	K G Shankara Pillai	162	Sanjay Rajoura
78	K N Panikkar	163	Sanjeev Kaushal
79	K Neela	164	Sanjeev Kumar
80	K P Ramanunni	165	Sara Joseph
81	K R Meera	166	Sara Rai
82	K Satchidanandan	167	Sethumadhavan
83	Kalpana Swaminathan	168	Shabnam Hashmi
84	Kanti Mohan	169	Sharankumar Limbale
85	Kanupriya Sharma	170	Shashi Deshpande