DAKSHINAYAN MOVEMENT
DAKSHINAYAN MOVEMENT
DAKSHINAYAN MOVEMENT A constant drumbeat broke through the murmuring of hundreds of voices, old and young, men and women. Margao, the cultural capital of Goa, had spent the last few weeks preparing to host hundreds of visitors from all over the country. For three days in November, 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 programme began at Ravindra Bhavan on the 18th of November with participants from 11 states: – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Punjab, Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Ganesh Devy, literary critic and activist, founder of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre in Vadodara, Chairperson of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India and one of the chief organisers of the Dakshinayan Conference in Goa, introduced the coordinators of each state. Speaking in Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Punjabi and Bangla, writers, poets, academics, cultural activists, and singers shared the stage to express their determination to defend free speech, fight intolerance and hail democracy.
Goa welcomed
all of us as we marched silently from Ravindra Bhawan to Lohia Maidan,
determined to mark our presence in the city that also hosts the headquarters of
the organisation alleged to be behind the killings of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar,
Comrade Govind Pansare and Professor MM Kalburgi. The ‘Sankalp Yatra’ or 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 killed at the hands of those professed to
belong to the Sanathan Sanstha. On a windless, moist and overcast day, with
drumbeats setting the pace of the march, the procession extended as far as
could see. Marching past homes that have stood firm in the face of relentless
assaults by invaders, adventurers, and most corrosively, sea salt, the army of
writers and readers walked silently, registering their protest against the
assault now waged on them. Bending and weaving past traffic, the march
culminated at a place long remembered for the role played by Goans in the
struggle for independence from the Portuguese, as well as Maratha dominance in
the early 1960s. The significance of Lohia Maidan wasn't missed by the hundreds
that thronged to hear the voices of reason converging with the history of the city.
DAKSHINAYAN MOVEMENT A constant drumbeat broke through the murmuring of hundreds of voices, old and young, men and women. Margao, the cultural capital of Goa, had spent the last few weeks preparing to host hundreds of visitors from all over the country. For three days in November, 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 programme began at Ravindra Bhavan on the 18th of November with participants from 11 states: – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Punjab, Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Ganesh Devy, literary critic and activist, founder of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre in Vadodara, Chairperson of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India and one of the chief organisers of the Dakshinayan Conference in Goa, introduced the coordinators of each state. Speaking in Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Punjabi and Bangla, writers, poets, academics, cultural activists, and singers shared the stage to express their determination to defend free speech, fight intolerance and hail democracy.
Goa welcomed
all of us as we marched silently from Ravindra Bhawan to Lohia Maidan,
determined to mark our presence in the city that also hosts the headquarters of
the organisation alleged to be behind the killings of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar,
Comrade Govind Pansare and Professor MM Kalburgi. The ‘Sankalp Yatra’ or 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 killed at the hands of those professed to
belong to the Sanathan Sanstha. On a windless, moist and overcast day, with
drumbeats setting the pace of the march, the procession extended as far as
could see. Marching past homes that have stood firm in the face of relentless
assaults by invaders, adventurers, and most corrosively, sea salt, the army of
writers and readers walked silently, registering their protest against the
assault now waged on them. Bending and weaving past traffic, the march
culminated at a place long remembered for the role played by Goans in the
struggle for independence from the Portuguese, as well as Maratha dominance in
the early 1960s. The significance of Lohia Maidan wasn't missed by the hundreds
that thronged to hear the voices of reason converging with the history of the city.
The public meeting began with Hamid Dabholkar, son of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar
and one of the leaders of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS).
Dabholkar reminded us that the killers of his father Dabholkar, Govind Pansare
and MM Kalburgi belong to Goa and continue to roam free. He appealed to the
writers and artists who returned their awards in protest that along with this
symbol of resistance, they need to use the craft available to them to ensure
that these undemocratic, anti-constitutional forces lose sleep at night in the
face of democratic dissent.
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