Perumal Murugan episode

The Perumal Murugan episode is disturbing for multiple reasons. The obvious one is about the freedom of expression. The more dangerous part is this ability of groups to cherry pick any part of an artist’s oeuvre and outrage against it at any point in time. The third and an important aspect which we see happening all across India is the state’s inaction when it comes to religious or caste matters.

The book which is now in the center of controversy is four years old. Someone took it upon themselves to suddenly outrage against the book because they understood that the current political climate is very helpful for such a protest. Their calculations proved right. The state didn’t come down strongly on the protesters and in the end the author had no choice but to capitulate.

I still remember those M.F.Hussain paintings. I am not calling them controversial because they was no controversy when he released those paintings. Infact those paintings were carried in the most popular English weekly of those time, ‘The Illustrated Weekly’. Infact the then editor (I think it was Pritish Nandy) wrote glowingly about the paintings. Suddenly decades later some fringe groups took offense, the state looked on tolerantly and those groups were able to intimidate M F Hussain. This inaction of the state at various places — be it when Shiv Sena’s intolerance in Mumbai, the MIM’s intolerance against Tasleema in Hyderabad — is a matter of great concern to the ordinary people. It is almost as if any wrong done in the name of religion and caste will go unpunished due to every government become weak in face of electoral calculations.

In this era when the print media and visual media are in the grips of big corporates who do not want to go against the government and movies don’t take up any serious issue, only writers can be the conscience keepers of the country. By destroying the works and the spirit of Perumal Murugan, we are destroying our own conscience. This is definitely not good for all of us in the long run.

There is only a limit to which a writer can withstand the assault. It is for people like us to stand behind him during this hour of crisis. It is also time for us to tell the state that instead of standing behind fringe groups they should stand behind the artists. While I understand that certain group of people could be hurt because of the novel, there is no way we can support silencing a sincere writer. Our socitey will be poorer because of this.