Press Release
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For Immediate Publication

​A clarion call for battle against the atrocities inflicted on Dalit community by authors and artists in Maharashtra.The people of Maharashtra have been numbed by the killings in Sonai, Pathardi, Parner, Patoda, Gondia. In all these incidents, authors, playwrights, director, artists and activists have given a call for battle against the killings of Dailts in the state.

The first step this direction is through the campaign “Against Dalit murders – United  We Stand   A

​protest march will be conducted from 10 December, 2014 (International Human Rights Day) to 20 December, 2014, from Ahmednagar to Mumbai via Pune. Many Indian and international authors and artists will participate in the concluding ceremony of the yatra in Mumbai.

On 9 November 2014, a decision was taken in Pune in the presence of many notable artists, authors, playwrights and activists from the state. Artists and writers like Ranganath Pathare, Sushma Deshpande, Ramu Ramanathan, Urmila Pawar, Usha Ambhore, Raosaheb Kasabe (philosopher), Atul Pethe, Nandu Madhav, Vandana Bhagwat, Avdhoot Dongre, Keshav Waghmare, Nagaraj Manjule, Anand Patwardhan, Nagnath Kotapalle, Vidyut Bhagwat, are trying to reach out to the humaneness in the hearts of youth and people in towns and villages. These artists hope to achieve this through their art with which they hope to prevent hate crimes against the Dalit community.

During the ten-day yatra, cultural groups and artists will perform theatre sketches, bharood and gavlan (folk forms for social awareness), people’s ballads, street plays as well as street corner meetings to spread the word about the movement and end communal/ caste differences.

On 9 November in Pune, senior writer, Ranganath Pathare said “No art is born without pain.”

He added, “Currently anti Dalit crimes are at its peak. One has to stop such terrorism. We cannot sit in peace in such circumstances. The whole society has to come together to maintain and preserve freedom, equality, fraternity and the tenets of democracy.”

Playwright and director, Sushma Deshpande said, “In this land of Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar, it is a necessity to put an end to

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abuse against Dalit community. With the yatra, we are entering into a battle to end communal differences.”

Writer Urmila Pawar expressed that the activists working to end the communal difference will gain a new force with this support from the artists.

As a follow up to the meeting on 9 November, a meeting has been called on 19 November 2014 at S M Joshi Socialist Foundation, Pune Auditorium from 2pm to 6pm. The agenda is to plan a long term strategy. An appeal has been made to all the artists, activists, intellectuals, journalists and academics in Pune to participate in this meeting in support of the cause.

On 22 November (from 12 am to 5 pm), the first meet will be organised. A Seminar to the resistance of the Terrorism of Caste: Atrocities against Dalits and Women from Dalit Communities . The discussants are Arundathi Roy, Nagaraj Manjule, Anand Teltumbde and others.

“Against Dalit murders – United  We stand 

Conveners of the Committee –

for further information contact- [email protected]