In Govind Pansare shooting, liberal writers see an attack on their values

The shooting of Govind Pansare has sent fear rippling through the hearts of prominent writers in Marathi. They fear that the attack on progressive-minded Pansare was a message to rationalist people, writers and their supporters that if they continue to propagate their rationalist thinkings, then they, too, will be attacked like Pansare was.

Pansare has written several thought-provoking and well-researched books that dissect various religious and caste-based myths. His work includes 'Who was Shivaji?', a book which countered Hindutva organisations' claims by saying that Shivaji was not an extremist Hindu king but had a tolerant and inclusive view of other religions.

Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer Jayant Pawar alleged that the attack on Pansare mirrors that on anti-superstitious activist Narendra Dabholkar. Pawar said that in his view the two attacks show that extremist Hindu organisations are not targetting Muslims as much as they are targetting secular people. Pawar said, "The right-wing extremists want to uproot the rationalist, progressive and secular thoughts from the country. They feel that liberals are a prominent threat to religion. This is happening in the Muslim religion as well. Unfortunately, these extremist forces are gathering strength during Bharatiya Janata party rule. Such attacks will put more pressure on rationalists and writers, reminding them that their lives are more insecure now," Pawar said.

Pawar called for progressive-minded people to come together in these testing times. "Now, the time has come to unite the rationalist and progressive-minded people against the extremist forces. Otherwise, we will hear more sad stories in the coming days. One by one we will be mauled by these groups," Pawar said.

Pawar recalled the words of Kannada writer UR Ananthamurthy, who before the Lok Sabha elections had declared that if Narendra Modi became the prime minister, then he would leave India. "Actually, the subtext of Mr Ananthamurthy's statement was that during right-wing rule, the free, liberal and rationalist thinking people would not have space and scope to put forth their viewpoint because the extremist forces have gained in strength. Ananthamurthy's words are coming true now," Pawar pointed out.

Renowned Marathi writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee Rangnath Pathare shared the same fear with dna. "I was aghast to hear the news of the attack on Pansare. I suspect that extremists might have prepared a list of activists such as Pansare and Dabholkar. Now, they are going as per their list and attacking the progressive thinkers and writers. It is unfortunate and we need to think about whether we should really call Maharashtra a progressive state in the tradition of Shahu, Phule and Ambedkar. Such attacks will hurt the confidence of progressive and rationalist writers. As a writer, I am really worried about my safety and security as well. If Pansare's assailants are not nabbed in time, then they will get away with any sort of heinous crime in future," Pathare said.

Former planning commission member and Rajya Sabha member Bhalchandra Mungekar said: "I condemn the attack on Pansare in the strongest possible words. The guilty should be punished as early as possible."