After Kalburgi, Dalit student attacked for anti-Hindu writings in Karnataka

There seems to be no end to incidents of violence against rationalists in the country. Barely three months after renowned writer MM Kalburgi was shot dead in Karnataka, a young Dalit writer was attacked on Thursday.

Huchangi Prasad, a journalism student at Davanagere University, was attacked on 22 October for his writings on caste.

Prasad is the author of Odala Kicchu - a book on caste-related atrocities that was published in 2014. According to media reports, the 23-year-old was attacked by an unidentified men on in central Karnataka for his "anti-Hindu" writing.

As per Prasad's complaint, a man came to the university's Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe hostel claiming that Prasad's mother had been hospitalised following a heart attack. He claimed that he would take Prasad to the hospital but instead took him to an isolated area where the author was attacked by a group of men.

Prasad managed to escape by running into the woods nearby. He later returned to his hostel and filed a police complaint.

"They surrounded me and started to push me around. They said my writings were anti-Hindu as I talked about the caste system. They even put kumkum all over my face. They pulled out a knife and said they will cut my fingers off so I can never write again," Prasad told The Hindu.