THE CENSOR BOARD WITHIN
Perumal Murugan, the Tamil
writer was once interviewed by Barkha Dutt, ex-NDTV. I had never heard of him
as I have never heard of many other famous writers. He was hounded by some
Hundutwa forces for his novel Madhurobhagan which was translated into English
as One Part Woman. He stopped writing for some years and now has penned some
poems. He recently said that he continues writing and that is all he can do but
has imposed self censorship on him -self.
During the course of the
interview he indicated that there is one censor sitting inside him that
cautions him to select his words and opinion. He is a great writer and thinker.
But he too had to keep his mouth shut for a good time and now he is cautious
what to write or say and what not.
Does not it sound
familiar? Don’t we have this censor
within us that forces us not to say something? Can we name it fear or decency
or something else?
The question is here in
different words. How often you stopped sort of saying something unpleasant but
stopped at the nick of hour because the censor inside stopped you? How often
you wanted to cry loudly but the censor inside stopped you? How often you
wanted to sing at the top of your voice in a running train or bus or plane but
the censor stopped you? How often you wanted to say ‘go to hell’ but the censor
stopped you? These are and many other pointers lead to find out who this censor
is.
Naming it ‘fear’ seems to be
most appropriate. We keep our mouth shut for fear of law or for fear of people
more powerful than us like the Government or the police or some high ranking
official or some moneyed man who can teach us a lesson for our stupidity. The
latest debate about nationality is recent case.
Naming it ‘decency’ also
looks fine. We keep our mouth shut for not to annoy someone dear to us or
simply for the sake of decency in our behavior. There is no point annoying or
hurting the feelings of others so we keep silent or indifferent even though we
feel like saying a spade a spade.
What do you say?
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