A group of 41 writers including those who had returned their Sahitya Akademi awards, today wrote to the National Academy of Letters urging it to build on the resolution passed during its recent emergency meet and respond in a "strong, humane and robust" manner to situations. Noting that the resolution could have come earlier, the writers urged the Akademi to rethink how it can truly support its constituency of all writers in India and, by extension, the people of the country.<br/><br/>The letter also accounts that the, Akademi can play a real and positive role by being independent and autonomous. The authors, of the letter include Nayantara Sahgal, Ashok Vajpeyi, Ganesh Devy, Githa Hariharan, Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, K Satchidanandan, Keki Daruwalla, Krishn Sobti, Sara Joseph, Shashi Deshpande and Waryam Sandhu, among others.<br/><br/>At least 36 writers had one after another returned their state awards in protest against the Akademi's "muted response" to killings of writers and rationalists, besides on incidents such as the Dadri lynching and blackening of Sudheendra Kulkarni's face in Mumbai.<br/><br/>Five writers had also stepped down from the literary body's official positions.