Sunday, January 25, 2015

Why is the freedom of speech a delusion? - Perumal Murugan Edition

Recently I had the chance to attend the literature fest Lit For Life conducted here in Chennai. I'm glad I did, as some insightful conversations aside, one of my biggest takeaways was the issue surrounding the Tamil author Perumal Murugan.

I hadn't heard of him before, understandably, nor the seemingly brutal way that he'd been silenced. And I know this isn't the first time something like this happened. The First Amendment to the Indian Constitution basically paved the way for fanatics of all kinds to deter any material that has the slightest hint of offence to their beliefs. It's interesting when you see that the USA did the exact opposite of this on their first amendment. Here's the full text of it -
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
The above in my opinion is the ideal stance unless you want to be an extremist. In India, you could add caste, community in addition to religion. These are the primary areas where most of the "offence" seems to be targeted at. Needless to say, that one loophole in our constitution is archaic, doesn't really fit in a secular country like ours and makes exploiting the same very easy.

So what's Perumal's story? His Tamil book (now translated into English as One Part Woman) that came way back dealt with the predicament of a childless couple who's woes may well come to an end in the local temple's festival surrounding the God Ardhanareeshwara. The rules are relaxed for one night where consensual union between any man and woman is allowed. I don't know how it ends as I haven't read the book yet but I could tell from the synopsis that it's going to deal with the battle between social convention and intimate personal anxiety. It has all the makings of a riveting book that's totally unprecedented in Indian fiction. Where does all this outburst stem from then? Apparently it's the authors utter disregard for caste system in his book. Possibly the remarks over a fact that a woman during the ritual may well sleep with a man of lower caste. It's utterly disgusting that caste is a crux of debates even in the 21st century. Without pointing any fingers, the government for the most part seems to only pour more oil in the lamp. But I'm digressing.

What I really wanted to underline is that a person's freedom to put his mind on paper is something that should never be challenged. If the intent has really been to offend, it still doesn't give anyone the authority to mentally and physically cause hurt to that person. You have the freedom of speech if you want to retaliate, but not a freedom of violence. It's sad that a voice has now been silenced. I fear this will cut off some more radical voices. And India needs every single one of them it could muster. Now more than ever.  

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