Bulldozer demolitions: More than 100 writers slam JCB literature prize’s ‘hypocrisy’

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| Photo Credit: The Hindu

More than a hundred writers, translators and publishers have written an open letter accusing the ‘JCB Prize for Literature’ of hypocrisy, saying the British bulldozer manufacturer company, which funds it, played a “major role in the horrifying destruction of homes” across India and Palestine.

They said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has consistently used JCB bulldozers in a “systemic campaign” to demolish Muslim homes, shops and places of worship across various Indian States — “an ongoing project disturbingly named ‘bulldozer justice'”.

The letter was released two days before the winners of the ‘JCB Prize for Literature’ were announced on November 23.

In an open letter signed by celebrated poet and critic K. Satchidanandan, poet and publisher Asad Zaidi, poet Jacinta Kerketta, poet and novelist Meena Kandasamy, and poet and activist Cynthia Stephen, the writers said JCB (India) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British construction equipment manufacturer JC Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB), which has been one of the most influential donors to the British Conservative party.

“The employment of JCB equipment within far-right Hindu supremacist projects in India comes as no surprise in this context,” the open letter read.

JCB bulldozers are also responsible for home demolitions and settlement expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, owing to a contract between JCB’s agent and the Israeli Ministry of Defence, thus playing a “key role in Israel’s continued attempts at ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and demolitions in Kashmir“.

“The JCB has created a literature prize “aimed at marginalised and diverse writers”, while simultaneously “remaining complicit in destroying the lives and livelihoods of so many as a form of ‘punishment’,” it said.

“As writers, we will not stand for such disingenuous claims of support for the literary community. This prize cannot wash off the blood on JCB’s hands. India’s up-and-coming writers deserve better,” they said.

Several writers from Palestine and West Asia, including Palestinian novelist Isabella Hammad and poet Rafeef Ziadah, Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, Iraqi poet and novelist Sinan Antoon and Omar Robert Hamilton, novelist and Director of the Palestinian Festival of Literature are also among the signatories.

Irish novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, novelist Andrew O’Hagan and novelist and screenwriter Nikesh Shukla are also among the signatories.

“How ironic that the term JCB is more popular in India as the machine that has aided the demolition of literally hundreds of thousands of houses of the common citizens of India in certain States of India. To see it associated with a very ‘prestigious’ literary prize for Indian literature is surreal.

“Heavy earthmoving equipment is like a knife. It can be used to build infrastructure for human comfort, but in recent years has been more used to destroy the lives of the poor and marginalised. We condemn such hypocrisy on the part of the company and those administering the prize,” poet Cynthia Stephen said.

Writer and journalist Zia Us Salam said, “JCB has become a symbol of State-sponsored hate and intimidation of minorities and marginalised groups in Modi’s India. It is trying to gain legitimacy with the literature prize. This has nothing to do with promotion of free speech, diversity and pluralism. As writers, it’s critical that we speak up against this flagrant violation of human rights,” he said.