If you don't already know, what's been happening with Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, here are a bunch of articles to provide context - not just with that particular article, but all the other articles and the section titled 'Key Developments'.
Today, Perumal Murugan was forced to sign an agreement with, I think, four differen organisations we can safely call 'Hindu', and this is what he has said:
This is tragic; not just because when there are immoderate, impulsive outpourings of support for a magazine none of us has read half a world away, none of the few voices raised since the end of December was loud enough or carried enough clout to make a difference to his leaving Tiruchengode, or to avert this disastrous silencing; but also because we have no right to demand Murugan's bravery, to ask that he be resolute in the face of threats to his life. If the author has to die for him to live, who are we to say he must not?
Anyway.
I'm just putting this out there because I've spent all day so upset about this.
Some measure of - I don't know what - was achieved by listening to David Shulman talking about the concept of truth in the Kambaramayanam. It seemed to speak down the centuries to what has happened today. But I don't yet know how to put all of that into a clear post. All I know is that scholarly expositions of what appear to be abstractions have real, political context and resonance and I was glad to have it, to think upon and find a way to understand what I feel about this whole thing, which is different to how I felt about it this morning.
Until then, here it is, this silence, a grammar of which Shulman promises to write one day.
Today, Perumal Murugan was forced to sign an agreement with, I think, four differen organisations we can safely call 'Hindu', and this is what he has said:
This is tragic; not just because when there are immoderate, impulsive outpourings of support for a magazine none of us has read half a world away, none of the few voices raised since the end of December was loud enough or carried enough clout to make a difference to his leaving Tiruchengode, or to avert this disastrous silencing; but also because we have no right to demand Murugan's bravery, to ask that he be resolute in the face of threats to his life. If the author has to die for him to live, who are we to say he must not?
Anyway.
I'm just putting this out there because I've spent all day so upset about this.
Some measure of - I don't know what - was achieved by listening to David Shulman talking about the concept of truth in the Kambaramayanam. It seemed to speak down the centuries to what has happened today. But I don't yet know how to put all of that into a clear post. All I know is that scholarly expositions of what appear to be abstractions have real, political context and resonance and I was glad to have it, to think upon and find a way to understand what I feel about this whole thing, which is different to how I felt about it this morning.
Until then, here it is, this silence, a grammar of which Shulman promises to write one day.
5 comments:
Poor soul had not understood the deepest of The deep philosophies and culture of the land in it's wast sense and gone ahead to become a creator with utmost ignorence so he paid a price for his deed!
Well, Who should be condemned?
Natarajan: Not at all sure what you mean by 'the deepest of The deep philosophies' that Murugan has allegedly failed to understand or what it has to do with his being hounded by Hindu groups so he's had to leave home and stop writing.
Since you want to know who should be condemned, I'd say it's those people who caused him to stop writing and remove all of his published works from the market.
I had two people on my feeds mention this story. Everybody else was renaming themselves Charlie.
I'm tempted to delve into the Muslim-Hindu aspect of both stories, but I think it's more about 'ghar ki murg'.
Freedom, eh?
I read some comments in the Caravan article. Boy, they made my head hurt really bad.
??!: to be fair, on twitter, lots of people were talking about Murugan. The guys who weren't on his side were the dist. admin, the cops and the guys who were doing all the bandhs and things. But then we know the state doesn't really want people to write what they want, right?
km: i try hard to not read comments below any piece. not unless i want a dose of rage to fuel me through the day.
Post a Comment