[rajnish manga]

Perumal Murugan
पेरुमाल मुरुगन

It is a travesty of a democratic society in which religious bigots run amok to gag the voice of a renowned author to such an extent that he gave up writing altogether. It is a pity that he has forbidden his publishers from selling his books, asked the booksellers and his readers to consign his books to flames. Further, he has assured the publishers that he would compensate them with the production cost and the cost of unsold books. He was also willing to compensate the booksellers and readers too. Is it the progressive society which claims to thrive on the ideals of-

असतो मा सद्गमय, तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय , मॄत्योर्माअमॄतं गमय ।

हे प्रभु! असत्य से सत्य, अन्धकार से प्रकाश और मृत्यु से अमरता की ओर मेरी गति हो ।

O Lord! Lead me from the untruth to truth, darkness to light and death to immortality.

तमिल लेखक को डर है कि कहीं उनका हश्र भी सलमान रूश्दी तथा तसलीमा नसरीन वाला न हो.

In my opinion, what is happening is atrocious, to say the least. Sometimes people force a publisher to disown a published work of a renowned indologist (ref. Wendy Doniger's book) and at others, they want to stop the exhibition of a cinematic masterpiece (recently the target was PK) and now they have coerced a scholar and a writer to commit literary harakiri.