<nettime> from india: save mallika

[Drazen Pantic <drazen@xs4all.nl>]

SAVE MALLIKA, EXPOSE THE VILLAINS

We are extremely pained and disturbed to know that
Mallika Sarabhai, one of the finest creative
performance artists of contemporary India,and a
committed humanist with a wide range of
emancipatory concerns, has been forced to go into
hiding to save her life from the murderous Hindu
fundamentalists of Gujarat who have threatened to
kill her and to burn down her famous Darpana
Academy along with her aged mother, the great
dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai.

The threat has come in the wake of Mallika
Sarabhai's interventions in the recent tragic
happenings in Gujarat, her attempts to bring peace
to the terror-torn state, and to expose the
perpetrators of the genocide in Gujarat including
photographing of the mopping up operations just
prior to the Prime Minister's visit to the state intended
to save their patronizing Chief Minister.

This threat is the latest in a series of similar
incidents aimed at disrupting peace and legitimizing
violence against the minorities and terrorizing the
liberal public, and committed artists and
intellectuals.

We take this threat to Mallika Sarabhai as a threat to
our own lives, to the creative and pluralistic cultural
traditions of our people, to the secular fabric of the
country and to the fundamental freedom of speech
and expression.

We appeal to all peace-loving people and all artists,
writers and intellectuals to intervene immediately to
defend the basic freedom and to join the struggle for
religious amity, cultural plurality, secular polity, and
democratic and just governance.

We appeal to the Government of India and the
President of the Republic to take immediate steps to
book the criminals, to reestablish the rule of law in
Gujarat, and to forestall a communal conflagration
across the country that is the evident agenda of the
communal terrorists.

K SATCHIDANANDAN

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