Since then, intolerance for anything perceived as affronting Hinduism has grown sharply, especially on social media. In 2012, for instance, Salman Rushdie was prevented from making an appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival after Muslim fundamentalist groups threatened to storm the festival. The current National Democratic Alliance government and its predecessor, the United Progressive Alliance, as well as the governments running the specific states where the problems have arisen, have repeatedly taken this position. The administration has been unwilling to support the case for freedom of expression, citing the possibility of law and order problems. Both Hindu and Muslim extremists have, over the past few years, launched threats of violence that have forced writers to back down. This dramatic ‘suicide note’, from a writer whose fiction has made him something of a flag-bearer for caste issues in Tamil Nadu, burst upon an India where artists and writers have been coming under increasingly intolerant and strident attacks for perceived slights in their works. I request all caste, religious groups and political parties not to involve in any protests or create any problems since all the books are withdrawn. Perumal Murugan will not participate in any literary functions in future.ĥ. If anybody has incurred a loss and they approach with the grouse, they will also be compensated with the loss amount.Ĥ. Those who have already purchased Perumal Murugan’s books have all the right to burn them. Murugan will take care of the necessary compensation for that.ģ. I request the publishers Kaalachuvadu, Natrinai, Adayalam, Malaigal and Kayalkavin who published Perumal Murugan’s books to stop selling them. None of his works will be sold to the public anymore.Ģ.
Apart from Perumal Murugan’s compilations and publication of books, the books, novel, short-stories, essays and poems written by him will all be withdrawn by him. Hence Perumal Murugan has taken a final decision which is as follows:ġ. Different groups and individuals will persistently create problems for his other novels too…
This problem will not end with Madhorubhagan novel alone. I sincerely thank the press, media, readers, friends, writers, groups, political parties, party leaders and students who fought in support of Perumal Murugan and his freedom to write. The person who lives here after will just be an ordinary cheap editor Pe. Murugan’s release for Writer Perumal Murugan He thanks all the well-wishers for supporting him on social networking sites. Later Perumal Murugan will be relieved from all social networking site activities. Note: Dear Friends, the information below will remain as my status message for two days.
He writes the status as Perumal Murugan, the person, talking about him the writer. On 12 January 2015, this statement appeared in English on Murugan’s Facebook page: His announcement came in the wake of violent protests among local groups in his home town, Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, against his 2010 novel Madhorubagan, which was published in Aniruddhan Vasudevan’s English translation as One Part Woman in 2014. An acclaimed voice of marginalised communities divided along caste lines in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Murugan wrote six novels – three of them translated into English – four collections of short stories, and four of poetry, before abruptly declaring himself dead as a writer. The 48-year-old Tamil language writer from India, Perumal Murugan, could never have imagined that he would have to draw an end to his literary career with a public announcement to the effect that the writer in him had died.