Hindutva group faces setback in Gujarat literature council elections

The Gujarati Literary Council has around 3,500 members across Gujarat, with 1,548 participating in this election.

In the elections held last month for the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, renowned storyteller Kirit Doodhat won the presidency of the Parishad for a three-year term by defeating government-recognized writer Usha Upadhyay by a large majority, as revealed in the vote counting that took place yesterday. Kirit Doodhat received 824 votes, while Usha Upadhyay received 566 votes. Thus, Kirit Doodhat was elected with a significant margin of 258 votes. Moreover, his panel was also elected with a large majority in the 40-member mediation committee of the Parishad.

It is being said that this result has once again prevented the Parishad from becoming a government-controlled body. The Gujarati Sahitya Academy under the Gujarat government has lost its autonomy, and many Gujarati writers have been struggling against it for the past one and a half decades. Despite the full blessings and support of the current president of the Academy, the staunch Modi supporter Bhagyesh Jha, Usha Upadhyay has lost the election for the presidency.

It is noteworthy that for the past two years, Usha Upadhyay has been promoted in various programs of Gujarati literature by the government Academy. Reports suggest that in just the past year, Usha Upadhyay attended around 40 literary programs organized by the Academy in various colleges and universities across Gujarat as a guest and speaker. The Academy has organized numerous literary events across Gujarat at a significant government expense in recent years, attempting to attract writers. Despite this, Gujarati writers did not give Usha Upadhyay the necessary votes, which is indicative. Hence, it is also being said that this is a personal defeat for Bhagyesh Jha.

The Gujarati Sahitya Parishad has about 3,500 members from across Gujarat, and 1,548 people voted in this election. Due to the unprecedented voter turnout, there were speculations that the saffron group would be able to seize control of the Parishad, but that did not happen.

Kirit Doodhat and his panel contested the elections under the name 'Parivartan Manch' against Usha Upadhyay and her panel. However, writers and literature lovers have once again rejected that saffron change, and it is believed that the government Academy, BJP, the BJP government, and RSS have been prevented from infiltrating the Parishad. Even more notably, Usha Upadhyay was a professor of Gujarati at Gujarat Vidyapeeth, established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, and remained completely silent when the Sangh Parivar took control of Gujarat Vidyapeeth.

It is also noteworthy that Mahatma Gandhi himself was the president when the annual conference of the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad was held in Ahmedabad in 1938.

The election of the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, established in 1905, was marred by significant controversy. This was due to some writers and literature lovers supporting Usha Upadhyay using highly inappropriate language on Facebook to ensure the victory of her 'Parivartan Manch'. For instance, Saurabh Shah, a well-known writer from Mumbai, whose novel inspired the popular film 'Maharaj' made about three years ago, highlighted sexual exploitation in the Vaishnav community of Surat in the name of religion. He openly supported Usha Upadhyay. He and journalist Jaswant Rawal from Nadiad, known for being a staunch supporter of Narendra Modi, believed that Usha Upadhyay would win. Saurabh Shah had already arrived at the Parishad premises in Ahmedabad with fireworks. However, the wisdom of Gujarati writers and literature lovers dashed their hopes!

Saurabh Shah, considered a contractor of Sanghi Hindutva, had previously used obscene language in his Facebook posts against secular individuals. Was this perhaps on the minds of the voters of the Sahitya Parishad? And did they also notice that he had supported Usha Upadhyay? Did Usha Upadhyay herself seek his support? Saurabh Shah shared a FB post by Jaswant Rawal on his Facebook page, calling all those supporting Kirit Doodhat “rude leftists and uncultured Congressmen and their illiterate followers.....and impotent,” which is also a fact. However, it remains unclear whether Usha Upadhyay justified this language or not, but her continued silence on this matter speaks volumes.

However, it has been said that renowned journalist, writer, and secular activist Prakash N. Shah was opposed by Kirit Doodhat when he contested for the presidency of the Sahitya Parishad six years ago. And Harshad Trivedi, who defeated Prakash N. Shah three years ago to become the president of the Sahitya Parishad, had Kirit Doodhat on his side. Now the question is how the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad maintains its identity and original form while advancing the work of literature without flattering governmental power.