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“It’s not just writers and artists. We are in a situation where a retired Admiral in the Navy has written with concern to the President. These are developments where people are individually responding to the intolerance and hatred that is spreading in the country,” said eminent litterateur Nayantara Sahgal on Thursday, in a reference to the growing concern being expressed by writers, artists, scientists and filmmakers on what they term as a growing tide of intolerance in the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of the TATA literature festival in Mumbai, Ms. Sahgal said, “I met a sabzi waala yesterday, who told me ‘inko sirf ladaai karna aata hai’. If Akhlaq could be killed in that manner, it could happen to anybody. Common people are thinking, kal kya hone waala hai” (I met a vegetable vendor, who told me that these people [Hindutva elements] only know how to fight. If Akhlaq could be killed in that manner, it could happen to anybody. Common people are thinking, what is going to happen in future?)

Asked if she thought these were concerns shared by the Indian urban middle class, given its political and economic importance to the BJP’s mandate, Ms. Sahgal said, “I don’t think you can categorise people in that way. There are sensitive people in every class and in every caste. The country is disturbed by the hatred going around. The problem is that this is not Hinduism. It’s Hindutva. Because the present rulers are reverting back to Vedic times for everything. Instead, why don’t they sit down with historians to discuss our past? This is the time for people to sit around a table and debate and discuss these matters.”

Ms. Sahgal said that it was the intellectuals in the country who were taking the lead in countering Hindutva.

“I think the intellectuals are in the battle now. Historians, writers, artists, filmmakers, scientists — these are intellectuals in their fields. And they are rising up from across India. I think this is a sign of great hope. This is more than a chink of light in a very dark situation.”

According to Ms. Sahgal, concerns about the rising intolerance in India had gone beyond the Indian shores.

‘World phenomenon’

“Writers from 150 countries have supported the writers’ movement here. U.K. artists — the most famous ones — are concerned about the rising intolerance in India. It is becoming a world phenomenon precisely because Indian intellectuals are standing up.”

Ms. Sahgal said that the political vacuum left by the fall of the organised Left “is being filled by the kind of political combination we are seeing in the Bihar election”, referring to the grand alliance headed by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad. “That kind of combine can work and is working. That’s why, I think, the Bihar election is being watched with such intensity. People are thinking, if the BJP can be defeated there, then that will be an indication that people are very unhappy with the way things are going. They are talking development, but on the ground, it’s communal.”

She said that if the BJP won, “then, they will take that as a mark in favour of what they are doing. But we must realise that the forces to counter Hindutva are developing also outside of politics.” This, according to Ms. Sahgal, is what we are seeing today and it is, for her, a cause for hope.