by MUKUL DUBE
The people who gave V.S. Naipaul an award in Mumbai had the right to give what they pleased to whom they pleased. After all, they paid for it. Pay the piper, call the tune. They were not authorised by the people of India to give the award: they had appointed themselves. Thus by no stretch of the imagination can it be said that India gave Naipaul an award.
In the world of music, of which Girish Karnad spoke, it is routine for musicians to be honoured by associations which they themselves have formed for the purpose. Such puppets propping themselves up are only to be smiled at if not ignored completely. Similarly, I have the absolute right to declare Karnad a saint, and no one may look askance at that or at what I expect or get in return. My antics do not drain their pockets, after all.
On the other hand, Karnad — and all Indians who can think — can and must denounce a writer who has been honoured apparently for giving vent, in several published works, to a blind hatred for very many Indians. That hatred is to be opposed specially because it has the power to reproduce itself in the weak minds of many who will then use their muscles to act upon it. That hatred is to be opposed because it both draws upon and feeds the malign plan that the Hindu Right has for the destruction of all that is civilised about India and, thus, the destruction of India itself.
Mukul Dube can be reached at uthappam@gmail.com