‘We are passing through a state of fear’: Poet Satchidanandan opens up at MBIFL
Poet K Satchidanandan shared his reflections on art, literature and politics through his personal observations while speaking on the theme Beginnings at the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters.
He said that when he was asked to take over as President of the Sahitya Akademi, the first condition he laid down was that he was not affiliated to any political party. Writers, he asserted, cannot march in a line. He had made it clear that he would speak openly about what he felt, calling right as right and wrong as wrong, without hesitation. These points were conveyed to M A Baby. Satchidanandan remarked that there were moments when even Baby may have wondered whether granting him so much freedom was necessary — a situation he said he had unfortunately created.
He said that whenever he supported popular struggles such as ASHA workers’ protest, he often found himself opposing the party’s official position. “But I was always on my own side. I still believe that I raised my voice for people,” he said. While he identified himself within Left ideology, he maintained that he would not hesitate to criticise when criticism was warranted. He referred to the term “critical insider”, once used by U R Ananthamurthy, who employed it to describe the act of criticising Hinduism from within the religion itself.
Satchidanandan said that literary conferences and festivals organised under the patronage of political parties must be assessed based on their intentions, and if the intent was genuine, such initiatives certainly deserved encouragement. Speaking about the present Indian context, he said his mind was often drawn to stories and reports related to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. He recalled an anecdote in which a tourist returning from Hitler-era Germany, when asked who ruled the country, replied that Germany was ruled by fear. “We are passing through a similar state,” he said.
“There is fear in writing, fear in speaking, fear even in posting on Facebook,” he said, adding that his social media accounts had been banned three times. Yet, he asserted that he would not retreat in fear. He observed that politics, beyond terms such as CPM, CPI, Congress or BJP, essentially concerns power. Indian society — and even Kerala society — is often governed by various forms of dominance, including racial dominance, caste dominance, the dominance of a majority religion, patriarchy and technological dominance, often described as technocracy.
He also said that while people are constantly concerned only about human beings, they fail to think about the other living beings around them. He added that his works reflect attempts to view nature in his own way.
The collected volumes of Satchidanandan’s complete works are being published by Mathrubhumi Books. He was speaking at the festival with the release of the first volume, Beginnings, as its backdrop. Writer and journalist Shabitha moderated the discussion.