Chennai: Tamil writer Perumal Murugan created nationwide flutter on Tuesday took to Facebook to declare that the writer in him is dead after being hounded by saffron outfits who have accused him of scandalising the image of Hindu women, Lord Shiva and the temple town of Tiruchengode.
“Writer Perumal Murugan is dead. He is no God. So there is no question of resurrecting himself. Nor does he believe in reincarnation.
From now on, Perumal Murugan will survive merely as a teacher, as he has always been,” the dramatic post read, fuelling nationwide debates (especially on Twitter and Facebook) on freedom of expression. Though not on the same page, some have even drawn parallels to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris that left 12 people dead.
The 48-year-old writer, a Tamil professor at the Government Arts College in Namakkal in the state, also announced that he would withdraw all his novels, poems and other writings with immediate effect. Besides, he also offered to compensate his publishers and readers if they incurred losses and asked people to leave him alone.
Murugan said readers, who had bought his books, can consign them to flames, and he would compensate them if they wished so. He further said this post would remain on his Facebook page for just two days and then he would also withdraw from social media.
The whole trouble started in December when activists of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh burnt copies of his 2010 book Madhorubagan (One Part Woman), alleging the book insulted the Kailasanathar temple, Shiva and female worshippers in Tiruchengode, a town situated 400 km from Chennai.
Sources close to Murugan say there was considerable pressure on the writer ever since saffron outfits stepped up protests against him. The writer has been receiving threats and there was pressure on police to file an FIR against the writer.
Sources also indicate the police, instead of taking action against the culprits, asked Murugan to leave Tiruchengode, where he lives, for Chennai.
Murugan took the sensational move late Monday night after the writer and Sangh Parivar activists reached an agreement at a meeting chaired by district revenue officer VR Subbulakshmi at Namakkal. Interestingly, he tendered his apology for hurting the sentiments of the people of Tiruchengode.
Murugan noted that the miseries of the childless couple and the consensual free sex to which the female character in the novel agrees to in a bid to have a child are mere works of imagination.
THE CONTROVERSY
The controversial book, Madhorubagan, which has an English translation published by Penguin in 2013, is set around 100 years. The deity of the temple is Shiva in the form of Ardhanariswara. In the novel, protagonists Kali and Ponna remain childless for 12 years after marriage. After trying out all rituals, the woman finally agrees to pressure from family members to have sex with a stranger as was the custom in the temple.
‘CULTURAL CLIMATE NOT CONDUCIVE’
“It’s too personal a decision, but it’s really unfortunate.” That’s how Tamil writer and playwright Indira Parthasarathy described Murugan’s decision to stop being an author. He added, “An unfortunate cultural climate is prevailing in India. What can an individual writers like Perumal Murugan do? There is no collective support for authors in India, like in Europe.”
