A day after prolific Tamil writer Perumal Murugan declared the writer in him as "dead" and was forced to draw him in exile, a group of 39 eminent academicians, artists and social activists has come forward to defend him and his alleged controversial novel "One Part Woman" titled Madhorubagan in original Tamil.
A day after prolific Tamil writer Perumal Murugan declared the writer in him as "dead" and was forced to draw him in exile, a group of 39 eminent academicians, artists and social activists has come forward to defend him and his alleged controversial novel "One Part Woman" titled Madhorubagan in original Tamil.
Murugan was virtually forced to withdraw his novel Madhorubagan, first published in 2010, by Namakal district administration on Monday following street protests by caste-based groups. The protesters, mainly from the Kongu Vellala Gounder community, a dominant caste in western Tamil Nadu, was agitating since December, alleging that Murugan's novel has insulted the women of the community and degraded a Hindu deity.
Calling it a shocking and serious blow to the freedom of expression, the group consisting intellectuals like Prof Irfan Habib, Arjun Dev, Saeed Mirza, Vivian Sundaram, M K Raina etc. has called upon Tamil Nadu government to protect the writer, his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression and creative integrity from extra-constitutional cultural censors.
The group under the banner of Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) said in a statement, "This motivated retrospective and retroactive literary witch hunt and inquisition of the novelist has been abetted by the police and the district administration in the form of a so-called 'peace meeting' to which Perumal Murugan was summoned on January 12."
"The proceedings of the meeting, as reported by the lawyer friend who accompanied him, resembled that of an arbitrary katta panchayat (khap panchayat), brow-beating the writer into a humiliating unconditional apology for what he had written, and into promising to retract whatever supposedly gave offence. All that the police could or would do to protect Perumal Murugan was to advise him to stay away from Tiruchengode for his own safety."
"Can we allow a set of unidentified rabid and fascistic forces to kill the soul of a writer thus?... We call upon artists, writers, intellectuals, readers and the concerned public at large to rise to the defence of democracy imperilled by this unwarranted and vile abrogation of an author's right to write,'' it said.
Murugan has also received unexpected support of solidarity from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) whose treasurer M K Stalin said, "Let the vested interests who are encouraging these repulsive acts against a book that was published four years ago remember that, Tamil Nadu and its people will not condone violence in the name of religion and we will not allow anyone to infringe on our right to free expression."
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