DAKSHINAYAN ABHIYAN



DAKSHINAYAN ABHIYAN
                              - AACHAL BURANDE
    
             Dakshinayan Abhiyan is a nationwide movement by progressive authors and activists to address the ‘threat’ to the freedom of expression lately observed in the country. Over 700 delegates from across India, including progressive writers from 300 villages and social activists were converged at the event held from November 18 to November 20, 2016 at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao. Margao is the cultural capital of Goa. Dr. Ganesh Devy has launched this Dakshinayan movement. Padma Shri Dr Ganesh Devy, literary critic, activist, founder of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre in Vadodara, Chairperson of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India  and one of the writers who returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards.
                    
 The Dakshinayan Rashtriya Parishad was to organise the biggest demonstration of the fight against intolerance and the defence of freedom of expression. Appropriately called Abhivyakti. The procession of hundreds of rationalists, writers, activists and people breaking their quotidian routines to assert their right to free speech was led by the Hamid Dabholkar, Megha Pansare and Lingappa Kalburgi, family members of the rationalist, activist and academic Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Comrade Govind Pansare and Professor MM Kalburgi killed at the hands of those professed to belong to the Sanathan Sanstha. It ensures that these undemocratic, anti-constitutional forces lose sleep at night in the face of democratic dissent. Writers don't just fear such organisations and the killers that roam free. Today they fear the very government at the Centre, and those in its favour who wield control over our lives. This is reflected in the cases of defamation and sedition filed against writers, activists, intellectuals, journalists, filmmakers, and now, even TV news channels. This reflects the power of voices of reason, voices that those in power are relentlessly trying to silence. Returning awards was one of the first signs of protest emerging from among the literary world in the subcontinent. The small state of Punjab saw 13 writers returning the Sahitya Akademi award. Playwright and poet Atamjit felt that the definition of nationalism was being changed to suit the needs of those in power.

                   
  Tying the narratives from across regions and languages, Ganesh Devy’s appeal brought together the freedom of expression and the fight against intolerance as the essence of human spirit. Dakshinayan, “the long path towards a beautiful dawn”, builds the hope that creates the thing it contemplates. That evening in Lohia Maidan, amid the drumbeats and the murmuring of the young and old, we hailed the dawning hope that brought us all together.

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