Civil society forum SAHMAT today condemned the attack on noted Dalit writer and thinker Kancha Ilaiah, saying the "tide of hounding" intellectuals has become the new normal.
In a statement, SAHMAT (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust) said civil society must stand up against "goondaism" and demand security for Iliah, "before we have another Gauri Lankesh."
Lankesh, a veteran journalist, was gunned down by unidentified assailants outside her residence on September 5 in Bengaluru.
Ilaiah had on September 23 filed a police complaint in Parkal in Warangal, Telangana, alleging that four people attacked his vehicle in the town and tried to kill him.
The Arya Vysya community has taken offence over Ilaiah's book Samajika Smugglurlu Komatollu (Vysyas are social smugglers) and are demanding apology from the writer.
SAHMAT said the book in question is a reprinted version of a chapter titled 'Social Smuggler' from Iliah's earlier work called 'Post-Hindu India' published in 2009.
"The booklet at the center of this row, explains the age old centralisation of wealth in the hands of Baniya caste in cahoots with Brahmins at the expense of Dalit-bahujans and Adivasis.
"After the brutal murder of Govind Pansare, Narendra Dhabolkar, M M Kalburgi and the recent brutal killing of Gauri Lankesh, this tide of hounding the intellectuals to their brutal death is becoming a new normal," Ashok Kumari, Secretary of SAHMAT, said.
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