A dissenting voice silenced, again

Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi died in 1966 He was both a formidable mathematician and an unparalleled historian His remarkable scholarship his reading of ancient Sanskrit texts aside he also had a very caustic irreverent style His Myth and Reality should be required reading for every believing Hindu I would say also for every atheist but I suspect that Indian atheists of the educated variety are already very well acquainted with D D Kosambi He is a star in the galaxy of Maharashtrarsquos fine traditions of scholarship and writing Through his work he cut through several myths and exposed our many realitiesMourners follow the funeral procession for scholar MM Kalburgi as he is taken to be buried at Karnataka University in Dharwad on August 31 PicAFPI think about Kosambi in the aftermath of the murder of writer and scholar M M Kalburgi in the Karnataka town of Dharwad on August 30 shot down by gunmen who rang his doorbell Kalburgi was what we like to call a ldquorationalistrdquo That is he was not religious and had written against idol worship and superstition For this his life was under threat from members of organisations which hold allegiance to the Sangh Parivar and related Hindutva outfits He had only recently asked the government to withdraw police protection Perhaps neither fear nor giving in to threats was part of his characterAs the news of his death broke a Bajrang Dal activist tweeted words to the effect that people like Kulbargi who mock Hinduism will die a ldquodogrsquos deathrdquo and suggested K S Bhagwan another Kannada writer was next The tweet and account were soon deleted The activist was arrested and then let out on bail even before he was produced before a magistrate He has been involved in three earlier cases of assaultIt is tempting to blame the BJP government at the Centre for the rise of Hindutva rightwing bravado and audacity But the problem runs deeper than one election result Karnataka is a Congressruled state but is no less a simmering communal cauldron for all that Moreover atheist and antisuperstition activist Narendra Dhabolkar was shot in Pune while on a morning walk in 2013 in what was then a CongressNCPruled state Veteran communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare was shot in Kolhapur in February 2015 before the general elections and the state Assembly electionsThe suspects for all three murders are the same however mdash Hindutva outfits The undertone is chilling if you are seen to oppose Hindu practices death will be your reward It is dangerous to dismiss this as the thinking of kooks nutcases and fringe elements We are talking about more insidious and fearless elements of our society who obviously feel they can get away with murder And we are also talking about tacit acceptance from larger sections of society In spite of being around 80 per cent of the population there are Hindus in India who are riven with insecurity about their numbers and an imminent threat from religious minorities I have heard gentle arguments about how you should not criticise Hinduism or this is what will happen with a small aside that murder is not correctInterestingly the same people were very quick to come out in support of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the horrific attack on it by Islamists They possibly do not see the irony in condemning violence by those who believe Islam has been ldquoabusedrdquo while saluting those who murder when Hinduism is ldquoinsultedrdquoSome people will argue that it is best not to challenge such murderous ideologies and thus remain safe from attack But how far will that get us Must we all look askance at the atrocities committed by IS and then pretend that Kalburgi Pansare and Dhabolkar were not murdered for threatening the status quo Is there space left in India for argument or is a ldquodogrsquos deathrdquo now an acceptable responseMany years ago Minoo Masani told me about a conversation he had many many years earlier with C Rajagopalachari Rajaji asked him ldquoDo you believe in mumbojumbordquo Masani answered ldquoNordquo Rajajirsquos reply ldquoThen you will find life very difficult in IndiardquoSo what would we make of Rajaji and Masani in todayrsquos India And if it comes to that DD Kosambi I am rereading Kosambirsquos Myth and Reality while you ponder on thatRanjona Banerji is a senior journalist You can follow her on Twitter ranjona