MARGAO
Noted historian and writer Ramchandra Guha has said that freedom of expression is facing as many as eight threats in modern India, even as he expressed concern over the physical elimination of writers and artists, including the murders of writers such as Gauri Lankesh, Pansari, Dhabolkar and Kalburgi by right wing groups in the country.
He was delivering a talk on the eight threats to Freedom of Expression in modern-day India after launching the book “Ink of Dissent” penned by noted Goan writer, Damodar Mauzo, at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, recently.
“No doubt, our writers and filmmakers enjoy greater freedom than their counterparts in Russia and China. Earlier, books of writers were banned or burnt, the films censored and work of art vandalized. Even as all this continue, we have seen during the last few years the physical elimination of writers and artists. We have seen the actual killing of writers such as Pansari, Dhabolkar, Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh by right wing fundamentalists in the country. We had seen such a trend in neighbouring Bangladesh where writers are being silenced by Muslim fundamentalists,” he said.
Outlining the eight threats to freedom of expression in modern day India, Guha said the colonial laws, imperfection in the judicial system, rise of identity politics, complicity of police force, complicity of politicians, dependence of the media on government advertisements, dependence of the media on commercial advertisements and the eight threats posed to freedom of expression by the community of writers, who identified with political parties and their ideologies.
Writer Damodar Mauzo and Dr Kiran Budkuley also spoke on the occasion.
