What is the purpose of art and literature if it does not question? 

– A first-person account by author and journalist Neeta Kolhatkar

The last two days have been an eye-opener for me, regarding literary festivals and cancel culture. Nowadays a new trend seems to be, to invite speakers and cancel the event, citing ‘unseen and unfortunate circumstances’. This sadly, is a growing trend across the world as the scale for listening to ‘others’ is measured subjectively and not based on ethics and values.

I have been a journalist for over 35 years and a published author, as I have written “The Feared: Conversations With 11 Political Prisoners”. I had a memorable book launch. Now, my book had interviews of 11 political prisoners from across decades, from the Emergency to now. These are harrowing stories of prisons across our country, right from Tihar to Manipur to Kerala and our very own Maharashtra prisons. Among those interviews is Anand Teltumbde, an IIM alumnus and professor. He is among the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case and is currently out on bail.

After my book was published, his book “The Cell and The Soul”, a prison memoir, was published.

Both of us were invited by the organisers of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2026 to be speakers on a panel “Incarcerated: Tales from Behind Bars”. The moderator was Naresh Fernandes, the editor and founder of Scroll news portal. I was looking forward to this discussion and was pleasantly happy this particular subject was chosen.

My book has received sensitive and good reviews; it was written in the words of every interviewee, with no interpretation from me. Moreover, I had spoken to a few family members of the incarcerated. Those who have never been incarcerated or had a family member incarcerated cannot fully understand the mental health and psychological aspects of incarceration. I was glad I had been given an opportunity to speak about this at the festival.

Sadly, a little after of the midnight of 3 February 2026, the wheels began churning. Little did I know there was a campaign by right wing trolls working behind our backs to ensure this session would be derailed.

First, some background: On January 8, a Pune-based businessman and staunch follower of right-wing ideology, Tushar Damgude, had first filed a First Information Report against the speakers and organisers of Elgar Parishad that was held on 31 December 2017 in Shaniwarwada, the heartland of Brahmins of Pune. On 1 January 2018, violence had broken out in Bhima Koregaon and Damgude’s FIR was used to arrest alleged Maoist supporters across the country. The 16 accused in the case included Prof Teltumbde; lawyer and human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj; Prof Shoma Sen; poet Varavara Rao; Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Fr Stan Swamy; writer and journalist Gautam Navlakha; lawyer Surendra Gadling; Prof Rona Wilson; Prof Hany Babu; Dalit activists Sudhir Dhawale, Sagar Gorakhe, Ramesh Gaichor, and Jyoti Jagtap; student researcher Mahesh Raut; and activist Vernon Gonsalves.

Arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, they suffered prolonged incarceration. The 84-year-old Fr Stan Swamy died in 2021 due to complete negligence by the prison authorities and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government. While the rest are out on bail, lawyer Surendra Gadling continues to remain in jail.

Soon, urban elite were suddenly exposed to the dark side of the prisons, which till then was an unspoken subject.

As far as I know, Damgude wasn’t in the forefront in the case after the initial years, but of course he and other right-wing trolls continued to be active online, naming and targeting their opponents and pushing the authorities to take action against the people they target.

This is how, last week, Damgude and another troll, Shefali Vaidya, who claims to be a researcher and media person, but who is clearly ill-informed about literary festivals, along with their army of jobless trolls, pushed Mumbai police to take action.

https://x.com/i/status/2018938342843527316

A little after midnight on Feb 3, I received a message on WhatsApp about our session being cancelled. I was ordered to pull down all social media posts regarding it; else, it would derail the entire literary festival. I was horrified. My immediate reaction was ‘WTF!’ Soon, by the morning of February 4, the picture became clearer. Right-wing trolls, some of whom are reported to be close to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, had ensured that Colaba police and top officers cancel this particular session from the festival. The Mumbai police, BEST, and BMC, are on board as supporters and partners of the festival.

While we pulled down the posts, scroll.in was the first to publish this news. I was livid and ranted on social media. Now, interestingly, the director of the festival took objection to this particular post and was asked through a source to pull it down. My source was asked why I had posted it as it was calling attention to the cancellation.

I was already upset but this really got me thinking. Why are the organisers scared? I am a journalist and if I believe I should keep people informed, which is exactly the responsibility of media as per the Constitution of India and the primary way for citizens to be informed, I decided to share the news of the cancellation of the panel discussion with the Network for Women in Media, India and Mumbai, of which I am a member.

The abrupt calling off of the session has also got me to question a few issues: What is art, journalism, writing if it does not ruffle feathers and create social dynamics?

As a journalist, I am not here to pander to people in authority. In my experience, most people are frightfully scared of police and prisons. Most of the time, they are not even aware of which prisoners are guilty and they do not differentiate between convicts and undertrials. I was going to speak about these issues.

Of all the media coverage of the cancellation, I felt the quotes from police officers of Colaba police station in this report in the Hindustan Times was at least honest. An officer of Colaba police stated, “As the talk was in controversial issues and against the government, senior police officers decided not to allow the programme. The organisers of KGAF were informed about it.”

The other issue I want to raise is the stand adopted by the organisers and manner in which the discussion was cancelled. What is the point of a festival of art and literature when you want to maintain status quo in our society? We are a divergent and unequal society and we have grown up always taking pride in unity in diversity. And here we have zero patience and courage to present divergent and could be opposing views. My question to the organisers is what is the purpose and meaning of art and writing if it does not question? Just put up installations henceforth, is my sincere advice to them. It is democratic to allow protests, criticism and may be some would have come over and demanded it to be shut, as an extreme possibility. But buckling under the police pressure has deflated the purpose of art and literature.

Now comes the issue of culture of cancellation. This trend is spread across educational institutions, corporate offices and now literature festivals in different countries. We have routinely been reading about talks and discussions being cancelled under pressure of threats from right-wing trolls. People are being forced to live in a culture of fear and silence. They plan these events, send out creatives, invitations and then cancel. It is ludicrous and disrespectful to the speakers.

I took the effort to prepare and research my presentation. I got statistics on prisons and undertrials. After they retire, judges complain of judicial failure regarding the release of undertrials. They say prisons are plagued by undertrials not being released and that state funds are being depleted. What they don’t tell us is that it is a big breach of human rights of those people who are left languishing in jails. How many citizens are aware of this issue?

Forget the general public, how many journalists know that our Ministry of Home Affairs in the Union Government does NOT have updated figures when they have replied on a question on undertrials in the Rajya Sabha. It is such a tragedy of our country that we are being denied the right to be informed.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

On December 2021 – 36,828 prisoners
Average occupancy rate of 149%
No. of undertrials – 86%

Reasons for high number of undertrials: Prisoners Statics Report of India,

*Lack of knowledge of bail law
*Lack of quality legal aid services
*Financial system of bail
*Delay in legal trials
*Failure of Judiciary

On Dec 4, 2024, Ministry of Home Affairs in Rajya Sabha gave statistics regarding prisons, till December 2022. (Not even till 2024)

Maharashtra
Total no. Of prisoners – 41,070
No. Of undertrials – 32,883
No. Of convicts in prisons – gone up by 64%
Just in 2022, total number of increase of convicts increased by 8.59%
Maharashtra prisons have highest no. Of undertrials belonging to other states – 5263

National Legal Services Authority: until 2024

Total no. Of prisoners – 41,784

Total no. Of undertrials -34,085
Total Percentage – 81.6

I think this is my basic responsibility – to inform citizens and I had wanted to share this through my talk. This opportunity has been denied to us. This cancel culture has many deep levels. Again, this reflects on the caste in our society. The Brahmins had previously, always controlled education, knowledge and imparting them. They never allowed backward castes to get educated, to question and change the dynamics. Today it is about being informed. Again, it is being controlled by the Brahmins, believers of right-wing ideology who want to control the type of information that should be shared, discussed and accepted.