Don’t bow down to religious fanatics!!!

In the case of Ambedkar cartoon, the inclusion of that cartoon injures the already stigmatized community by maligning the savior of the community. In a period of assertion of identities, we should not tolerate distortion of history in the name of cartoon or illustrations. Hence we asked for its removal. But in the case of the exclusion of ‘Andal’ story from the syllabus of MSU, the academia is yielding to the perceived threats of right wing extremist groups. The incident of dropping the Short story ‘Andal’ by D.Selvaraj from the syllabus of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, surrendering academic freedom in the face of right-wing political pressure, was against the very spirit of secularism which promotes space to distinct ways of thought and ideologies. Deleting the short story of D.Selvaraj, a socially committed Tamil writer whose novels mostly discuss Dalit issues, peasant struggles, plight of tea plantation workers etc is an act that is deeply disturbing, an instance of academic policing. Such a knee-jerk measure will only encourage sectarian politics and deny a space that allows a free exchange of ideas, and helps shape critical minds.

Tamil culture possesses a long-standing fable tradition with anthropomorphised gods and deities as characters that can stand as commonly recognized types of human behavior. As part of that tradition of pouring in modern insights into classical religious myths, the Short story ‘Andal’ shows a fluidity of the Dravidian style of interpreting religious myths in a folklorist way. Indeed, Periyar EVR has written many interesting tales about the religious myths which no fundamentalist can digest. It is very regressive and unfortunate that M.S University has withdrawn the short story from its curriculum following the footsteps of Delhi University which removed A K Ramanujan's essay 'Three Hundred Ramayanas' and Mumbai University which removed Rohinton Mistry's novel 'Such a Long Journey.’ It is the duty of the University to disseminate the true knowledge and diversity to the students rather than succumbing to outside forces, both political and social. Looking at the larger context, it hardly comes as a shock that the administration has arbitrarily removed D.Selvaraj’s ‘Andal’ by giving up all values of liberalism, secularism and democracy.

The university’s decision to scrap the short story was an instance of a secular institution buckling under the pressure of right wing organisations. This proves that the academic space has become very vulnerable today posing a great threat to academic freedom, creativity and critical acumen. The more the university bans intellectual creativity, the more it becomes a breeding ground for alliterates. It is a shame that in a pluralist nation, a secular university has reached such a pass that it has to think on what to include so as not to generate controversy. As an alumnus of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and an academician, I strongly believe that every act which is inimical to the open exchange of ideas must be resisted by the academic community.

For your reading the new brief “Varsity denies maligning Andal in Tamil syllabus” [The Hindu 28-06-2012]

The Manonmaniam Sundaranar University has categorically denied media reports that the curriculum for first semester Tamil language contained a short story maligning Andal, the poet-saint of Srivilliputtur, and that it was removed following opposition from various quarters.

Andal, the only woman poet among the 12 Alwars, composers of Vaishnavite devotional poetry, is revered as a saint and worshipped as a deity in Vaishnavite temples.

A report on Monday alleged that ‘Nonbu,’ a collection of short stories, which was approved by the Board of Studies , had offensive and sacrilegious remarks against Andal. Even as various organisations started warning that they would go on an protest, the MSU authorities received a large number of e-mails condemning the university “for including controversial information” about Andal in the syllabus.

A senior faculty member of the MSU said the Board of Tamil Studies, which met here recently to finalise the curriculum for first semester Tamil Language, decided to include writer D. Selvaraj’s ‘Nonbu’, a compilation of 14 short stories, including a story on Andal, published by New Century Book House (NCBH) seven years ago. After a couple of members expressed reservations over the inclusion of ‘Andal’ in the curriculum owing to certain views expressed in the story, it was decided to include ‘Saraswathi’ in its place.

Since the Board of Studies had to seek permission from the publisher for replacing ‘Andal’ with ‘Saraswathi,’ a formal letter was sent to NCBH and the publisher accepted the proposal. Now, the curriculum does not contain ‘Andal’ and, in its place, ‘Saraswathi’ has been included.

“Against this backdrop, rumours are being spread with ulterior motive that the MSU curriculum had maligned ‘Andal’ by including a controversial story in the syllabus,” the faculty member said.

Ten copies with the story of ‘Saraswathi’ had been printed and one copy was recently sent to the Chairman of MSU Conveners’ Committee and Law Secretary G. Jayachandarn. “He is satisfied with the content of the curriculum as there is no reference in any place maligning Andal,” said the faculty member.

Endorsing the faculty member’s views, Registrar S. Manickam said ‘Nonbu’ was not published by the MSU and instead, it had included it as a portion of the syllabus after obtaining permission from the NCBH.