A Burnaby-based Punjabi-language author was presented with Lifetime Achievement Award for keeping alive the idea of secular India and standing up against bigotry through his art and literature. Nadeem Parmar wrote 2025, a novel depicting the growing threat of Hindu extremism in India. The story reveals the agenda of the ruling BJP government in New Delhi.
Ever since Narendra Modi came to power as India’s prime minister in 2014, attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have spiked.
Members and supporters of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India and the online magazine Radical Desi, which covers alternative politics, honoured Parmar on Saturday (November 30) at the Strawberry Hill Library in Surrey. Parmar later took questions, shedding light on challenges he had to face to get his novel published, due to fear of censorship and imprisonment in India.
Among those who handed him the award were prominent Sikh scholar Puran Singh, his wife Harjeet Kaur, and social justice activists Parshotam Dosanjh and Harbir Rathi.
Those who spoke at the occasion included Pakistani Canadian activist Saif Pannu, human rights defender Sunil Kumar, Sikh and activists Kulwinder Singh and Kanwaljit Singh Gill.
The event started with the screening of a 34-minute movie on the late Hemant Karkare, a brave and honest Indian police officer who had exposed the network of Hindu nationalists involved in terrorist activities.
Produced by a Dalit activist Texas Gaikwad, “Salute to Hemant Karkare” is available on YouTube, but banned in India. A criminal complaint was also slapped against Gaikwad for making this low-budget film, which was difficult to finance.
The movie received a huge round of applause at the end of the screening, which commemorated the16th anniversary of Karkare’s death. He died during a terror attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
Many believe his killing was a part of a design to silence him permanently to protect those patronized by Modi government.
Radical Desi cofounder Gurpreet Singh spoke at the event honouring Nadeem Parmar. Follow Pancouver on Twitter @PancouverMedia and on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
