Plea against Sahitya Akademi's award to novel adjourned

Madras High Court today adjourned a plea opposing Sahitya Akademi's Translation Prize in English 2016 to Aniruddhan Vasudevan's "One Part Woman", a translation of Perumal Murugan's controversial Tamil novel 'Maadhorubaagan', to be given away on August 26.
A division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Sundar, which held a special sitting to hear the PIL past 6 pm in view of the urgency of the matter and intervening holidays, adjourned the matter by one week without giving any immediate relief.
Earlier, the counsel for the petitioner sought time to get instructions with regard to submitting the original Tamil version of the novel in the court.

Petitioner has also sought a stay on the conferment of the award on August 26.
The PIL by M Loganathan, managing trustee of Kongu Kalvi Valarchi Arakkattalai in Coimbatore, has challenged Sahitya Akademi's decision to grant the award to One Part Woman in view of the controversial contents of the original Tamil novel.
The award, announced in April, is scheduled to be given at a function in New Delhi on August 26.

The petitioner submitted that the novel, originally written by Murugan, had triggered a controversy and the local administration had banned it in 2016.
The novel made a particular reference to the Arthanareeshwarar Temple in Tiruchengode where people belonging to Kongu Vellalar were the predominant community.

Alleging that the novel depicted the community women-folk in bad taste, there were protests and agitations, following which the publisher withdrew the novel.
However, when the matter came to the Madras High Court, it set aside the ban order.
The translation in English of the controversial novel do not deserve any award, that too the one instituted by the great institution like Sahitya Akademi, the petitioner contended.
The three jurists, who evaluated the translated version of the novel, were prejudiced and biased in selecting it for the award, he charged.