Now, 53 historians join those giving up awards

Leading historians of the country on Thursday added their voice to the growing expressions of dissent against the actions of the government, which according to them have led to a "highly vitiated atmosphere" characterised by "various forms of intolerance".

Accusing the government and prime minister Narendra Modi directly for their silence on incidents of bigotry-related violence, an open letter by 53 historians says: "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."

Among the signatories are Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib and DN Jha — distinguished historians. Upinder Singh, daughter of former prime minister Manmohan Singh who teaches at Delhi University, is also a signatory.

With this, intellectuals of the country are almost daily keeping up the pressure on the Modi government for its acts of ommission or commission. This brings the number of eminent intellectuals and creative professionals who have either spoken out or given up government awards, since Nayantara Sahgal took the first step of giving back her Sahitya Akademi award on October 6, to more than 500. These include a group of 163 artistes from Bengal, well-known English novelists Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh.