Making an issue of a non-issue

ASHOKAMITRAN'S "Anthological antagonism" (The Hindu Literary Review dated December 17, 2000) attempts to divert public opinion from a burning issue to a cold non issue.

Aroundt 60 writers in Chennai held a meeting to protest, not against the recently released Naveena Thamizh Sirukathaigal compiled by Sa. Kandasamy as made out by Ashokamitran, but to protest against favouring one individual with more than one assignment - compiling short stories for the last millennium.

The protest was registered through public meetings, articles and TV interviews. The writers feel that by assigning more than one collection to Sa. Kandasamy, the Akademi is denying the same to the other talented people. The protest was made by senior writers, poets and important functionaries of various literary organisations. Ashokamitran should have tread a neutral path as a senior writer, considering that the protestors included senior figures like Vallikannan, Vikraman, Dr. Dhayanand, Francis and poet Senkutuvan.

His contention that every activity of the Sahitya Akademi is made public through its bulletins, periodical reports and journals is incorrect. These communications are not made available to the majority of the writers. Sa. Kandasamy's fourth assignment - to compile the Naveena Thamizh Sirukathaigal - was known only after the book was released. The decision of the Akademi to give him one more assignment came through the casual remark of a person associated with the Akademi at a recent seminar in Chennai.

Ashokamitran's statement that the agitating writers should compile their own anthology of short stories by spending the amount meant for the protest meeting is adding insult to injury. Worse, he compares Hitler's Germany with Lenin's Soviet Union and Mao's China. Marxism and Fascism certainly cannot be spoken of together.

Fortunately the justice denied us by Ashokamitran may come from the Akademi itself. We understand that the Akademi has deferred the decision to give Sa. Kandasamy one more assignment pending the next meeting of the Tamil Advisory Committee.

The National Book Trust, India has also given assignemnts to compile Tamil poems and short stories to Gnanakootham and Prabhajan respectively. We are taking up this matter with the NBT to give the assignements to two committees rather than individuals since this may bias the collection.

All that we demand is that a public institution supported by the government should not be allowed to be secretive, partial and high handed.

VALLIKANNAN,

Convenor, Joint Action Committee of Tamil Writers, Chennai

Ashokamitran replies:

To criticise a book is not unusual, but to raise a hue and cry even before it is formally commissioned is abnormal. Granting the already published anthology is wanting, the best answer will be to put up a new flawless book or at least give the ideal list of writers and stories. To condemn the new anthology in toto is not doing justice to the 35 writers. Many of them belong to one progressive group or other.

Totalitarian regimes do swear by various philosophies, ways of life ..., but they have all functioned in much the same manner. The tragedy is not with the manifestos but with the manifestations.

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