Amid the debate over alleged intolerance, the publisher of Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, who had announced his "death" as a writer earlier this year following a series of protests by Hindutva outfits against his book "Madhurobhagan", today opposed "subjective" interpretation of the right to free speech.
"The right to free speech has been interpreted very subjectively, and has been conveniently modified by individuals to suit their interest," said Kannan Sundaram, founder of the Tamil Nadu-based publishing house Kalachuvadu Pathippagam which has brought out all novels by Murugan.
He stressed that aside from two constraints -- not to defame anybody and not to provoke violence -- there should not be any restriction on the right to freedom of expression.
Sundaram was participating in a discussion on Creativity and Censorship at 'Samanvay' the ongoing Indian Languages Festival here today. He was joined by historian, author and translator A R Vankatachalapathy besides Sri Lankan writer, poet and activist Sharmila Seyyid.
"When people say that I support Venkatachalapathy's right to express himself, what they mean is that Venkatachalapathy is saying what I want to hear and he must have the right to express what I want to hear. That is the unsaid part of that support," Sundaram said.
Earlier, in January, Murugan announced he had renounced writing and would only be a teacher after he came under attack from Hindu groups for his novel.
Murugan had then said, "Writer Perumal Murugan is dead. He will continue to live as a teacher." It triggered a wave of outrage and concern from fellow authors and activists.
Sundaram cited an earlier speech titled 'Freedom of Expression' delivered by Marxist historian Aijaz Ahmad in one of the earliest protests by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association, held in support of the 48-year-old writer.
"I read the whole speech and from my perspective, the speech was against freedom of expression in every manner," Sundaram said.
"If you take the speech literally, it meant should the Communist party come to power by thumping majority, they are well within their express rights to ban a series of novels. That's what it says - we support novels that we agree with, and we won't support those that we don't agree with and in that case, it might be necessary to ban those novels," he said.
Ahmad, who was present in the audience emphasised the
need for "normative" standards to control free speech, asserting that he was not in favour of absolute speech.
"I said there is no absolute right to free speech and that in India there is no attack on free speech as such. There is attack on certain kinds of speech - progressive speech, reformist speech, secular speech. There are all kinds of hate speeches on which there is no attack," Ahmed said.
Well known Carnatic musician T M Krishna pointed out that most people viewed the freedom of expression from two extreme prisms - one being absolute and the other being none while "the reality obviously exists in between".
"The idea of rationality itself is not a simple normative point but is nuanced. What we are looking for is a society where we can have a conversation about everything. Where each of us listen to other people in a certain acceptability."
Krishna said the solution lay in creating an environment where those conversations could occur.
The festival also gave out the ILF Samanvay Bhasha Samman to Murugan for "Madhorubhagan", which was accepted by Sundaram on behalf of the author.
"On accepting the award, Perumal Murugan sent out a pained statement signed as P Murugan. In it, he stated that he is now acting as the shadow of writer Perumal Murugan. If P Murugan himself is now a shadow I feel like a phantom limb. It itched while I watched majoritarian mafias in action but restrained myself in the absence of Perumal Murugan," Sundaram said.
The publisher said he had "read with pleasure and admiration for the last 25 years" the prolific writer, poet, research scholar, literary critic and chronicler.
"In the last 12 months, I have read only his painful emails and gut-wrenching statements. Living in a country where people with hurt sentiments outnumber book readers, I feel, my status, both as a publisher and a citizen, is being undermined.
"I can be a complete publisher only when I can publish the unself-censored writings of Perumal Murugan and many other gutsy writers. And fearlessly indulge in what Kalachuvadu does best - dissent, provoke, infuriate and hurt sentiments," he said.
