The following discussion paper was circulated in the Mumbai (North-West) Chapter meeting.

As the editorial in Freedom First in the January-March issue says "open society is the objective of our movement." Particularly we should be aware of the dangers to this open society that we are facing in our country today. We must oppose this threat in all forms, particularly in the realm of the mind and safeguard our freedom with all our might. As the edit says at the end",the crusade for the open society has to be fought with widening mind and widening heart and all men who love to think freely and act openly are among its fighters".

Today we see that attempts are made from fundamentalists of all types to restrict this freedom and thereby threatening 'truth'. In every sphere of our lives, from freedom of religion to freedom of choosing one's life style. Opinions uttered by individuals are attacked by self styled moral Vigilantes at will, Books, plays, dramas, films, music, academic texts, scholars, journalists are all open to attack by such groups, and are , many times silenced by force and non appearance of free thinking and liberal people.

Three recent instances are pointers to these dangers:!) Mr.Alyque Padamsee was recently gheraod by Shiv Sainiks who objected to his dislike of the name 'Mumbai'. He,it seems said that since he was born in Bombay, Bombay was the name he preferred for the city. A perfectly justified remark made from a personal inclination. It has no political or any other connotation.

Another example is that of the attack made on Romila Thaper,the very well known and reputed historian of ancient Indian history in particular. She has been nominated as the first holder of the KLUGE Chair at the US library of Congress. Instead of appreciating the honour done an Indian historian of world renown she has been castigated as a 'pinko and fake historian' and an avowed antagonist of Indian Hindu civilizations'. An offensive petition is being circulated in the internet for the last few weeks against her. In fact Romila Thapar has written in depth on ancient Indian history and in,no way has she denigrated Hinduism or early Indian civilisation.. Fortunately liberals round the world have sprung to Romila Thapar's defence and a signature campaign supporting her has also been initiated.

Words have sprung to Romila Thapar's defence and a signature campaign supporting her has also been initiated.

A third recent example is from a CBSE text book. Like so much interference in the production of the NCERT text books, which have fortunately more or less been successfully opposed by rational and Liberal thinkers, this one case again shows the triumph of liberal thinking over fundamental thinking. The CBSE had removed Munshi Premchand's novel ;Nirmala' from the class 12th Hindi syllabus and substituted a work by Mridula Sinha, one time General Secretary of the B.J.P. Mahila Morcha. She is well known for her antiquated utterances on the place of women in Indian society in contrast to Premchand's espousal of democratic freedom for women and the downtrodden. Nirmala is a powerful social comment and a cry from the novelist's heart against the grip of tradition. After much protest and criticism the CBSE board reinstated Munshi Premchand's novel. To deprive school children of Premchand would have been a terrible disservice to the young.

The above examples are only a drop in the ocean, and is a warning about what is happening. The Liberal Group must take an active stand on any attack on freedom of thought and belief. We must stage a collective protest against any such action and try to enforce the law against obstruction and attacks by fundamental activists. The police who remain dormant on such occasion should be exposed and forced to do their duty. Even 10 to 15 of our members gathering at a spot to protest such action will be a deterrent and it will enable us through networking with other similar groups to form bigger protest groups later on.

Mani Kamerkar