Were Their Fears Unfounded?

When Modi came to power almost 18 months ago, writers had voiced their fear and apprehension of what was to come. In open letters and petitions, many distinguished people from academia as well as the film fraternity had raised caution about voting in a non-secular party, and what Rushdie called a "bullying government".

Outlook had carried pieces by thinkers from various fields where they spoke about their fears of what India under Modi might be like and about the strong possibility of a steep rise in attacks on India’s multicultural ecosystem.

Now as writer after writer returns his/her Sahitya Akademi award to protest the "shrinking space for free expression and growing intolerance towards differences of opinion" in the country, we look back at those sum of fears...

• Illiberalism Will Destroy Our Ecology Of Ideas: Sidhhartha Mukherjee
• Silence Is Deafening, Are My Fears Unfounded?: Nandita Das
• Remember Rule Of The Recall: Ganesh N. Devy
• India Can’t Be Unicultural: Mahesh Dattani
• Regressive Wave Won’t Hold: Govind Nihalani
• We Have To Expect The Worst: Toorjo Ghose
• Forward Into The Past?: Swara Bhaskar
• Through A Lotus-Eyed Lens: Ram Rahman
• Voting For A Chimera: T.M. Krishna
• Rule Of Misogyny?: Urvashi Butalia
• Them Again: Chetan Bhatt