Terming the murder of scholar M.M. Kalburgi an assault on freedom of expression, writer C. Veeranna on Saturday said that his [Kalburgi’s] murder would not stop his views from spreading. The heinous act of killing would influence many more scholars to follow his ideology, he said.
Mr. Veeranna was speaking after inaugurating a seminar on Kuvempu’s literary works organised by A.V.K. College here.
“Kalburgi, Dabholkar and Pansare were killed for expressing their views. If someone is against the views expressed by them, the only way to respond to their opposition is put it in writing. A knife or a gun cannot be the answer,” he said.
When Kuvempu wrote plays like “Smashana Kurukshetra” and “Shudra Tapasvi” about 50 years ago, he too had attracted criticism from different quarters. However, nobody went to the extent of killing as it was happening now. “In fact, Kuvempu was the first writer, who influenced independent thinking and propagated rationality through his works. People say that India has a glorious past of 5,000 years. But for all those years, the Shudras were kept away from education. Shudras could get education only after the British came to rule the country. I wonder, how many Kuvempus would have born in this land if all sections of people were provided with proper education in the last 5,000 years,” Mr. Veeranna said.
Referring to Kuvempu’s vishwamanava sandesha , Mr. Veeranna said that his message to treat every individual equally was noble. “His message was to break all the barriers and treat every individual as a human being. This idea should reach the younger generations,” he said.
The seminar had been sponsored by the University Grants Commission. J. Shylaja Kumari, principal of the college, and office-bearers of the college management committee participated.