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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