“Rise of Hindutva ensures clash between classes gets sidelined”

How do you differentiate a writer from his activism? You don’t and you can’t. For KP Ramanunni, winner of the Sahitya Akademi award from Kerala, activism is an extension of his writing. He writes to express his conviction and his writing comes from the agony that the world should have been a better place. “Why does the world still have all the crimes and why do people follow ahimsa. The lives of people should have been better. My writing is a struggle to make the human life better,” says Ramanunni.

The author, who won the award for his Daivathinte Pusthakam (God’s Own Book), gave his prize money of ₹1 lakh to the mother of Junaid Khan, the teen stabbed to death on a Mathura-bound train from New Delhi in June 2017 on the eve of Eid. In this book, the author has Prophet Muhammad and Lord Krishna as protagonists and he also brings in Jesus Christ, Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler. All of this is in the backdrop of a blackhole, which is on its way to consume our planet. But, this is not the only book where he has theorised his concept of communal harmony – Ramanunni has done it since his first book, Sufi Paranja Katha (What the Sufi Said). It was the love story of a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl. He followed it up in his other books and even in a recent article he wrote in a weekly Madhyamam. This led to fanatics even sending him a letter threatening to chop off his limbs.

Excerpts from the interview he gave to National Herald on Sunday:

Q. Your book falls in the category of sci-fiction with time travel; the characters have been taken out of our religious and historical contexts to become protagonists. What made you make these characters (Krishna and Mohammed) the protagonists?

A: The pressing need of the time made me choose the novel’s plot and theme. Those who read me will certainly know that the vision in Deivathinte Pusthakam is not imported; it had grown and matured in the fertile soil of Ponnani. I acknowledge that Lord Krishna and the Prophet were never featured together in any of the world’s languages, but both of them are represented in the text neither for the creation of a strange plot nor for the love of narrating a tale of yore. Past comes into every literary work to face and address the present. So it is in Deivathinte Pusthakam too. The character of Lord Krishna critiques the demonised Hindu culture. The Prophet declares a pact-less war with Islamic terrorism. This is the contemporary political mission of Lord Krishna and the Prophet in Deivathinte Pusthakam.

My work was in fact, avenging the western modernity that never took into account the democratic and revolutionary faces of religion, but treated the religious prophets mechanically, cutting their feet as and when required to fit them into the shoes.

Q. How do you see this novel of yours vis-à-vis your other novels?

A: This novel is totally different from my other novel and also different from other novels in Malayalam. Time, space or place always forms the core of most works. In my novel, the time is from Dvapara Yuga of Krishna to the 21st century. And the ‘place’ is all the countries – India, America and Iraq. The whole universe is coming as the place in my novel. In these 700 pages, it is the trial of human history. The notion of Hindu and Muslim harmony is also there in my earlier books What the Sufi said and Jeevithathinte Pusthakam (The book of Life). In this book, I’m theorising the communal harmony concept.

Q. Two years ago, many Sahitya Akademi winners returned their awards protesting the atmosphere of intolerance in the country. Do you see any change now?

A: Two years ago, it all began with the killing of MM Kalburgi, who was a Sahitya Akademi Award winner. The first to return his award was Hindi writer Uday Prakash and it was followed by many others including Malayalam poet K Satchidanandan, who resigned from the Executive Council. Even last year Gauri Lankesh was killed. That intolerance continues. Writers are now accepting different ways of protest.

People are saying there will be a clash between religions because they want to sideline the clash between classes. The actual clash is between haves and the have-nots. Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilization theory, where he argues people’s cultural and religious identities will be the source of conflict, only added to the chaos. People should realise, all the religions have the same belief at the core of it. The novel warrants communal harmony, so when I get an award for that novel, it is my moral responsibility to bring out that idea.

Q. By giving your award money to Junaid’s mother, did you make a political statement?

A: The award I have been conferred has actually been given to me by using the taxpayers money. So, it has actually been given by the people of the country. So, me giving the money to Junaid’s mother is a message to the country and the writers’ community, more than a protest. There is no point fighting over these things.

Junaid was killed only because he was a Muslim. There was no other accusation against him. According to Hinduism, when a sin is committed, a penance has to be done. When Junaid was killed by fanatic Hindus, the sin falls on all Hindus. I am a true Hindu, a believer. So, I have to do my penance. I also want to show what the character of a true Hindu should be. In that way, I am making a political statement in this prevailing atmosphere of intolerance. I am reminding what is ‘Bharatiya’ civilisation – it is one of tolerance, co-existence. Some fanatics are trying to destroy that tradition to make it very intolerant. By showing love to people of other religion, it is a political statement.

Q. Is humanism at the core of your literary creation?

A: Yes, human values are there at the core of my writing. The term has a misleading meaning though. It is a western concept – without taking in consideration the different identities of third world countries. In that western concept of humanism, the real human is an aristocratic white man in the model of a real human being. In that concept, men of other races and women are not present. Humanism, in those terms, is limited and exclusive. I am not interested in that concept of humanism.

According to my concept, it is extremely inclusive. Everyone has their liberty to have their own different cultural identities. With all their different cultural identities, they should be treated equal.

Q. What are the core beliefs of the Hinduism you follow and what do you think Hindutva has done to Hinduism?

A: Hinduism is a way of life and is plural and inclusive. Swami Vivekananda said Hindu culture is the mother of all religions. That is its true nature. Vivekananda declared that what India needs is a Muslim body and a Vedanta mind. Probably, Mahatma Gandhi had this in mind, when he stated that he is a Muslim because he is a Hindu and if one of his eyes is Hindu, the other is Muslim. Ramkrishna Paramahansa practiced Islam too. Sree Narayana Guru also considered the Prophet as a great man. Hindutva followers are now trying to distort it; they are going against the grain of the religion. They want to make it monolithic. There are different types of Hinduism and Hindutva is killing it.

Q. You received a letter threatening to chop off your limbs. What led to people sending you such a letter?

A: It was my long article in Madhyamam titled Priyappetta Hindukkalodum Musleengalodum Oru Viswasi (To my dear Hindus and Muslims, from a believer) that triggered the extremists. In fact, that article was written in a very humble tone. There are no historical or factual reasons for Hindus and Muslims to quarrel. It was the British who created conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, creating the misconception that Muslim is the antonym of Hindu. This act was necessary for their survival. It is suicidal on our part to retain the Hindu-Muslim rivalry even after the British left India. Never in the history of the world did a nation that fostered communalism and racism prosper. See for instance, the plight of Iraq.

Philosophically, Hinduism and Islam have much in common—value of a word, a sinless approach to sexuality, purity and lent. With all its the multiple deities, Hinduism retains its belief in a single God. The puranas predict a coming of Mohammed, giving hints about Islam. Pandit Vedprakash Upadhyaya, a Bengali Brahmin, says that Prophet Mohammed is Kalki himself.

Q. Do you think if this book is translated, it would lose its essence and context?

A: It is without doubt that a translation will lead to a loss of many merits of the source text. Translation can especially harm culture-specific writings like that of mine. The crux of translation lies in appropriating the target language into the soul of the language of the source text. English Language has this ability, probably due to its universality. It is not just Indian-English that is evolving, but Malayalam-English and Tamil-English as well. Though there are limitations, translations serve as the passport and visa for the source text to visit other countries. There is a reader eagerly waiting. The writer’s chance of meeting him/her should not be denied.

I’m embarrassed to claim that my book is a great work that deserves to be spread universally. It is not up to me to evaluate the worth of the novel. But setting aside all personal considerations, I strongly feel that the themes dealt with in Deivathinte Pusthakam are nationally and internationally relevant.

Many who have read the novel have enthusiastically discussed the possibilities of translating the text into other languages. Let’s see.