Romila Thapar on Intellectuals Returning National Awards - Interview review

Romila Thapar

Interviewer: Rashme Sehgal 

Interviewee: Romila Thapar

Date: December 21, 2015

[Romila Thapar is an Indian historian whose principal area of study is ancient India. She is the author of several books including the popular volume, A History of India, and is currently Professor Emerita at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi]

ROLE: Being a historian; her role is to make necessary points to bystand the present situation that writers,fimmakers,scientists,intellectuals,etc are returning their state awards in protest of the rising discomfort  from some anti-social people. And also to express her own demands in solving the present problems in a comfortable way.

MOOD: India is under the threat of social disrupt and communal disharmony. Individuals are being criticized and threatened on their works saying that those works doesn’t match with the social status, religious concepts and moral values! 400 writers, filmmakers, scientists and intellectuals returning their state awards in protest of the rising communal disharmony.

Description:  The scenario seems to have gained its momentum in two different aspects. One being the problem that the people in eachothers respective field have being facing many threats to their works and social stability on the light of being accused as a social deformer. These kind of things are not just outcome of recent changes in society; but are prominent from the old times. Only now a days such things are made more public. Being a historian she could easily point out these things with evidence that the problems remains unsolved and the right not given to the writers and artists. Three rationalists who have been assassinated [Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi in 2015, and Narendra Dabholkar in 2013] the blame has been put at the doorstep of the respective state governments that have not yet arrested the culprits.

The second thing that she points outs is about the relevance of these awards. Its more clear from her words itself: It was extremely important that this step be taken, that all of us, who have joined in the protests, must take every opportunity to explain the [reasons behind this] protest and why we are doing this  These same accusations were made against me when I turned down the Padma awards. The reason I gave at the time, too, was that these are not State awards. These are awards given in the name of a State by a government. When you read the list [of awardees], the major names are clearly those individuals who the political party in power is happy with.