Tamil Writer Perumal Murugan Will Publish 200 ‘Secret’ Poems
After his self-imposed exile in 2014, he started writing the poems for himself.
Eminent Tamil writer and professor Perumal Murugan announced what seemed like his own death on Facebook on 1 December 2014, when he wrote “Author Perumal Murugan is dead. He is no God. Hence, he will not be resurrected. Hereafter, only P Murugan, the teacher, will live”.
In what seems like a resurrection, Murugan has announced that he will publish 200 poems, which originally he wrote for himself, in an interview with the Indian Express.
Six years ago, the writer started receiving death threats for (One Part Woman), a book he had written. The book triggered street protests by caste groups. The Kongu Vellala Gounder community, which is particularly influential in Tamil Nadu, had accused Murugan of degrading their women and insulting Hindu deities.
A peace meeting brokered by the Namakkal district administration followed his 2014 post, post which the professor agreed to withdraw his novel.
When he went on a self-imposed exile in 2014, he started writing his ‘secret’ poems which he will publish as Kozhayin Paadalkal or Songs of a Coward.
In July 2016, the Madras High Court called the forced withdrawal of the book as an illegal action and dismissed all criminal cases against he author that had been filed by caste and religious groups.
The writer hopes that the poems will heal the wounds inflicted upon him.
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