I don't know why it took me so long to write this one. I have been meaning to write about this for quite some time. The freedom of expression not only speech is the need of the hour. This has been included as the fundamental right of a citizen of India in our constitution under the Article 19.
What was your thought when you had heard the news of the death of Mr Perumal Murugan? What made him to announce that he had already died. He had written a book named 'Madhorubhagam' in Tamil which was released some 4 years back. At that time, there were no issues. But When it was translated to English and released last year, some sections of the society raised flag against the book condemning the writer and the book's contents. He was threatened and he had had to run for his life literally.
I do believe that for an artist nothing is more painful than seeing his art destroyed or desecrated. So when the copies of the book were put into fire, there burnt not only the paper but the man himself. How are we getting identified in this world? The means of identification of a human is by his mind only. The centre of everything is our mind. So when the mind's acts are destroyed , it is as good as killing the man himself.
Our body is a biological material. It will decay one day or the other. When Mr Perumal Murugan told that he had died, it meant that the society that we are living had destroyed his mind. He is now living just as a machine. The excruciating pain that he had endured and is still enduring has no limits. It is too big a sorrow to express and to assimilate. The society had killed him mercilessly and we are living witnesses of this heinous act.
This is not one stray incident that has happened. The killing of Mr Narendra Dabholkar is another one that I want to emphasize. He was a rationalist reforming people against the evils of superstitions and black magic. He drafted the Anti Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance in Maharashtra. He was lobbying for the bill to get passed in the assembly for many years.Not a single debate were made on that draft. But, ironically, the Maharashtra cabinet promulgated the bill within 4 days after his death. It took his life to clear the bill. He was shot at point blank and was died on the spot. Still, the miscreants are at large. Long live the Police system of this country.
I want to stress about the intolerance that our society has. Because of this, we had lost Mr Salman Rushdie, Mr M F Hussain and many more. We didn't spare Mr Kamal Haasan also. Adding to these, there are many who don't want to come out in public about the harrasments they suffered.
The killing of RTI activists, rationalists, scientists, writers, artists etc is the vogue of our time. After all of them are removed, what are we going to do? Becoming a Saint? Preaching Religious principles? I could not suppress my laugh when I imagined myself as a saint or a religious man. It would be the last thing that I want to do in this world. And if I do that it would be the biggest irony of me and I would become the greatest hypocrite of this world.
I don't want to criticise our whole society or the government. At least we are not living under a draconian government or military dictatorship or under the rule where all our day to day activities from farting to fucking are scrutinized by the government. We are the biggest democracy and we are proud of it. But we should not dwell on the past or satisfy ourselves by seeing those who are below us. We are better off than most of the countries. Alas, we have so much to improve.
What was your thought when you had heard the news of the death of Mr Perumal Murugan? What made him to announce that he had already died. He had written a book named 'Madhorubhagam' in Tamil which was released some 4 years back. At that time, there were no issues. But When it was translated to English and released last year, some sections of the society raised flag against the book condemning the writer and the book's contents. He was threatened and he had had to run for his life literally.
I do believe that for an artist nothing is more painful than seeing his art destroyed or desecrated. So when the copies of the book were put into fire, there burnt not only the paper but the man himself. How are we getting identified in this world? The means of identification of a human is by his mind only. The centre of everything is our mind. So when the mind's acts are destroyed , it is as good as killing the man himself.
Our body is a biological material. It will decay one day or the other. When Mr Perumal Murugan told that he had died, it meant that the society that we are living had destroyed his mind. He is now living just as a machine. The excruciating pain that he had endured and is still enduring has no limits. It is too big a sorrow to express and to assimilate. The society had killed him mercilessly and we are living witnesses of this heinous act.
This is not one stray incident that has happened. The killing of Mr Narendra Dabholkar is another one that I want to emphasize. He was a rationalist reforming people against the evils of superstitions and black magic. He drafted the Anti Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance in Maharashtra. He was lobbying for the bill to get passed in the assembly for many years.Not a single debate were made on that draft. But, ironically, the Maharashtra cabinet promulgated the bill within 4 days after his death. It took his life to clear the bill. He was shot at point blank and was died on the spot. Still, the miscreants are at large. Long live the Police system of this country.
I want to stress about the intolerance that our society has. Because of this, we had lost Mr Salman Rushdie, Mr M F Hussain and many more. We didn't spare Mr Kamal Haasan also. Adding to these, there are many who don't want to come out in public about the harrasments they suffered.
The killing of RTI activists, rationalists, scientists, writers, artists etc is the vogue of our time. After all of them are removed, what are we going to do? Becoming a Saint? Preaching Religious principles? I could not suppress my laugh when I imagined myself as a saint or a religious man. It would be the last thing that I want to do in this world. And if I do that it would be the biggest irony of me and I would become the greatest hypocrite of this world.
I don't want to criticise our whole society or the government. At least we are not living under a draconian government or military dictatorship or under the rule where all our day to day activities from farting to fucking are scrutinized by the government. We are the biggest democracy and we are proud of it. But we should not dwell on the past or satisfy ourselves by seeing those who are below us. We are better off than most of the countries. Alas, we have so much to improve.
