Tamil writer Perumal Murugan may have gone silent but he was much talked about at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, with a full session dedicated to the manner in which his voice was silenced. The participants blamed the Centre for allowing “fringe elements” to define the thin line that divides the right to expression enshrined in the Constitution from the non-absoluteness of this right. Karthika V.K., publisher and chief editor of Harper-Collins Publishers India, said she was told that the controversy was engineered by the BJP. She was speaking at a session on ‘Is the commerce of literature today killinggood writing?’ Perumal Murugan’s book 'Mathorubagan' came out in 2010, but the controversy was raked up now because the law did not protect writers, she said. Suggesting that writers should stop bothering about “hurting the sentiments” of others, novelist Nayantara Sahgal said it was time to exercise the freedom of expression and speech as guaranteed in the Constitution.
Recalling a resolution passed at the fifth edition of The Hindu’s Lit for Life last week, Ms. Sahgal underscored the need for forming a collective of writers and publishers who could speak in one voice for writers like Perumal Murugan. Not in total agreement with Ms. Sahgal on the right to expression , broadcaster Mark Tully said no right was absolute, and there was a thin, but difficult, line dividing this freedom and insult to people’s religion and sexuality. “Genuine and creative literature should draw this line instead of allowing politicians to decide,” he said, terming deplorable the State government’s backing of “hooligans” out to silence the writer instead of protecting him. Tamil writer and independent researcher C.S. Lakshmi (Ambai) said more important than commercialisation of writing was whether “we would be able to write at all or not” after the Perumal Murgan episode, and whether any publisher would risk publishing books. She said Perumal Murugan was married to a Dalit woman, and his community wanted to ex-communicate him but could not do so under this pretext.
