Censorship – The Arts

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the State government to ban the article ‘Tamizhai Andal’ penned by lyricist Vairamuthu for a Tamil daily, forfeit all copies of the article, and prevent it from being reprinted, published, circulated, marketed or sold.

The petition had been filed jointly by advocates M. Mohideen Ibrahim and G. Prabhu, painting contractor A. Victor and software engineer K.V.S. Kannan, who also claimed to be a scholar in Tamil literary work Nalayira Divya Prabandam sung by 12 Alwars of Vaishnavite philosophy.

Filing a common affidavit on behalf of all of them, Mr. Ibrahim, 45, a lawyer with four years of experience in the Bar, quoted verses from the Bhagavad Gita, Quran and the Bible and said that all religions preached oneness, universal tolerance and expected the proponents to strive to live in peace and harmony with one another.

In the present day context, though the Constitution permited healthy, constructive, honest and dignified criticism, Mr. Vairamuthu had, in the guise of praising Goddess Andal, one of the 12 Alwars, “misquoted the shrine hymns and pasurams (verses) of Annai Andal and misinterpreted the same according to his whims and fancies”, the affidavit read.