Narayan appeals to writers to study the life conditions of tribespeople

Kerala society has killed many ‘Madhus’ in the past and Madhu is not the last of a tribesperson to be thus murdered. Tribespeople were considered expendable by the so-called civilized society, said Narayan, the author of the novel Kocharethi, at a session on 'Writing from the Margins' at the Krithi International Festival of Books and Authors here. He was referring to the attack on Madhu, a tribal youth at Attappadi in Palakkad a few weeks ago.

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Anyone could rob the tribesperson of his land as he has no documents to back his claims. Besides, the larger society was strong enough to chase him out of his land, he said at the session with writer Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar. Mr. Narayan appealed to those who attempted to write on the lives of tribespeople to study their life conditions.

Mr. Shekhar spoke on the difficulties he had faced as a writer from within the community and expressed the opinion that there was no need to differentiate creative writing under different labels.

Freedom of expression

Carnatic vocalist and social activist T.M. Krishna condemned the recent attacks on the statue of Lenin in Tripura and of social reformer Periyar in Tamil Nadu. The attacks represented the worst case of vandalism and constituted attacks on freedom of expression. He was speaking at the session on artists and society at the Krithi festival.

Ban on books

Are we living in the last golden hour, asked novelist N. S. Madhavan, while delivering the keynote address at the book festival here. He said India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a secularist, banned Ramayana Retold. But today books were not banned by governments but by mobs. Writer Perumal Murugan was silenced by a conservative society, he said.