Dear Amitav,

We are members of an internet mailing list concerned mainly with South Asian literature.

In light of the recent letter campaigns, online petitions, opinion columns and blogs variously urging you to reject the Dan David prize and/or condemning you for refusing to take such a position, we thought of writing to you expressing our admiration for your writings, especially for your responding to these with grace and firmness while sticking to a principled position.

We have no common position on the Palestinian question. We do have a common position on the need to expand the common ground that writers such as yourself seek to establish - a ground on which all human beings can celebrate their commonalities and negotiate their differences.

With regards

Manisha Amin
Farah Aziz
Amitabha Bagchi
Rumjhum Biswas
Razia Husain
Soniah Kamal
Anu Kumar
Karen Leonard
Latika Mangrulkar
John Matthew
Victor Rangel-Ribeiro
K. V. Bapa Rao
Ajit Sanzgiri
Denton Taylor
Ekta Thakur
Pamela Tweedy