Fifty-three historians came out strongly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday for not making any reassuring statements about the “highly vitiated atmosphere” in the country, reported the Press Trust of India. The group included leading scholars such as Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, KN Pannikar and Mridula Mukherjee, who signed the joint statement released by Sahmat, a platform for politically and socially conscious artistes in the country.

The historians said physical violence is being used to quell differences of opinion, and "arguments are met not with counter arguments, but with bullets". This was purportedly a reference to the Dadri lynching and the ink attack on former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sudheendra Kulkarni. The statement also questioned Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's comments that the protestby several writers who had returned their Sahitya Akademi awards was a "manufactured paper rebellion". The historians claimed Jaitley's advice that the writers stop writing altogether was "as good as saying that intellectuals will be silenced if they protest”. Moreover, the historians said they were worried the current government was creating a "a manufactured image of the past” that suited their ideology, while disregarding chronology and rational methods of enquiry.

The statement comes a day after 10 filmmakers returned their National Awards over the appointment of Bharatiya Janata Party member Gajendra Chauhan’s to the Film and Television Institute of India. Earlier on Thursday, Padma Bhushan recipient scientist PM Bhargava also announced his decision to return his award.