Haunted by caste outfits and religious groups over his novel Tamil author Perumal Murugan announced in January 2015 that the writer in him was dead. “Author Perumal Murugan is dead. He is no God. Hence, he will not resurrect. Hereafter, only P Murugan, a teacher, will live,” he wrote on his Facebook wall. He also announced that he was withdrawing all his novels, short stories and poems and requested his publishers not to sell his books and promised to compensate their losses. He advised his readers to burn their copies of his books. At the end of this post he appealed to caste, religious, political and other groups to end their protests and leave the writer alone since he has withdrawn all his books.
People from an influential intermediate caste in the Kongu region of Tamil Nadu along with Hindu religious groups opposed to his 2010 novel Mathorubhagan (One Part Woman) alleging that it offended the women of the community and dishonoured a Hindu deity. The caste outfits and religious groups called for street protests against the author and later these protests culminated into a bandh in Namakkal, the author’s home town. The protesters even made over 10, 000 copies of the controversial section of the novel and issued them to protestors and women at home. The Namakkal district administration convened a meeting between the author and the protesters where the author was coerced to issue an explanation that he would do away with the disputed portion from the novel. The protesters weren’t satisfied; they wanted the novel withdrawn completely. Perumal Murugan posted his ‘announcement’ on Facebook that night.
A case was filed in Madras HC on behalf of Perumal Murugan by ‘Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association’. In its landmark judgement in May 2017 the HC vindicated the free speech rights of the author. The judgement also invalidated the settlement brokered by Namakkal district administration, dismissed the criminal complaints and the petition seeking a ban on the book. “‘The author Perumal Murugan should not be under fear. He should be able to write and advance the canvas of his writings… Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write,” said the judgement.
Emboldened by the judgement Perumal Murugan decided to return to his writing. He has come out of his self-imposed exile with a book of poems titled ‘Kozhayin Paadalgal’ (A Coward’s Songs). “Someone has painted over my head-a pair of horns everyone can see-Someone has turned me-into a strange beast,” one of his poems reads. In his 30 odd years writing Perumal Murugan has published six novels, four collections of short stories, books of poems along with some titles in non-fiction. Now he is back at what he loves most in life, writing. While speaking on the purposes of writing he says that writing allows the writer to live the lives of others and it also helps him gain the ‘other perspective’. Hope he writes with new vigour and brings out the best in him in the form of books.
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