More than 100 writers slam JCB Literature Prize ‘hypocrisy’ over bulldozer demolition | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: More than a hundred writers, translators and publishers have written an open letter accusing the ‘JCB Prize for Literature’ of hypocrisy, saying the British bulldozer manufacturer that finances it is playing a “major role in the horrific destruction of homes ” throughout India and Palestine. They said the BJP government has consistently used JCB bulldozers in a “systemic campaign” to demolish Muslim homes, shops and places of worship in several Indian states – “an ongoing project disturbingly dubbed ‘bulldozer justice’.”
The letter was released two days before the winners of the ‘JCB Literature Prize’ were announced on November 23.
In an open letter signed by celebrated poet and critic K Satchidanandan, poet and publisher Asad Zaidi, poet Jacinta Kerketta, poet and novelist Meena Kandasamy, and poet and activist Cynthia Stephen, the writers said that JCB (India) is a wholly owned subsidiary from British construction equipment manufacturer JC Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB), one of the most influential donors to the British Conservative Party.
“The use of JCB equipment within far-right Hindu supremacist projects in India is no surprise in this context,” the open letter said.
JCB bulldozers are also responsible for the demolition of houses and the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, as a result of a contract between JCB’s agent and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Kashmir”.
The JCB has established a literature prize “focused on marginalized and diverse writers” while remaining “complicit in destroying the lives and livelihoods of so many as a form of ‘punishment'”, the report said.
“As writers, we will not accept such insincere claims of support for the literary community. This award cannot wash away the blood on JCB’s hands. India’s emerging writers deserve better,” they said.
Several writers from Palestine and West Asia, including Palestinian novelist Isabella Hammad and poet Rafeef Ziadah, Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, Iraqi poet and novelist Sinan Antoon and Omar Robert Hamilton, novelist and director of the Palestinian Festival of Literature, are among also to the signatories.
Irish novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, novelist Andrew O’Hagan and novelist and screenwriter Nikesh Shukla are also among the signatories.
‘How ironic it is that the term JCB is more popular in India as the machine that contributed to the demolition of literally hundreds of thousands of homes of the ordinary citizens of India in certain states of India. To see this term associated with a very ‘prestigious’ literary award for Indian literature is surreal.
“Heavy earth-moving equipment is like a knife. It can be used to build infrastructure for human comfort, but in recent years it has been used more often to destroy the lives of the poor and marginalized. We condemn such hypocrisy on the part of the company and those presenting the award,” said poet Cynthia Stephen.
Writer and journalist Zia Us Salam said: “JCB has become a symbol of state-sponsored hatred and intimidation of minorities and marginalized groups in Modi’s India. It is trying to gain legitimacy with the literature prize.”
“This has nothing to do with promoting freedom of expression, diversity and pluralism. As writers, it is crucial that we speak out against this blatant violation of human rights,” he said.