Men and Matters 2007/10

Noted Kerala writer-activist MN Vijayan dies Web posted at: 10/4/2007 8:43:18 Source ::: The Peninsula / By John Mary

Critic, teacher and anti-imperialist campaigner M N Vijayan died while addressing a press conference in Thrissur yesterday. He was 77. Prof Vijayan felt unease before the conference, convened in the backdrop of a magistrate rejecting a defamatory petition filed by Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad against Padhom, a Malayalam magazine, which he had edited for a controversial spell even while holding charge of the pro-CPM Desabhimani weekly. He had a glass of water and before he could complete, “You need the kind of language to be heard as Barnard Shaw had said…” he sank to one side, on the dais. Prof S Sudheesh, cofounder of the magazine, held him from falling down. Media persons rushed him to hospital but he had breathed his last on the way, following a massive heart attack. Condolence messages poured in, recalling the versatile personality. But CPM State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, a former student, in a terse message, eulogised him as “a good university teacher” but recalled his love-hate relationship with the CPM and his “fierce animosity to Communism in the last days”. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan mourned the “irreparable loss”. Poet ONV Kurup and Prof Sarah Joseph described his end “peaceful like the falling of a leaf and what one could aspire for”. Incidentally, the press release issued by Prof Vijayan at the press conference, had the effect of a parting shot. “Withdraw Parishad activists from various echelons of Government”, Vijayan ticked off the pro-Left organisation for one last time, against rushing in to savor spoils of office. Prof Vijayan had captivated the campus for decades with his orations, suffused with radical thoughts on almost all disciplines of life. He had been an undying votary of freedom in thought and speech. “Life is learning”, he had said in the course of a TV interview. Prof Vijayan started his political life as a member of the Indian National Congress but had identified himself with the

Men and Matters 2007/10

socialist group in the party quite early on and remained close to Communist Party of India and later the Communist Party of India (Marxist). But in later life, he distanced himself from the dominant faction in the CPM, led by Vijayan. While being actively pro-Left, he had criticised Left parties for being “near-comatose, unable to resist neo-capitalist systematic designs to make development an apolitical agenda”. His reference was to the demand within a section of the CPM to keep party-ism out of the grassroots development agenda. In his last years, he formed the AntiColonial Front along with like-minded pro-Left activists, which was after his long innings as the president of the pro-CPM cultural outfit-Pu Ka Sa- the Progressive Arts and Literary Society. Vijayan stepped into Malayalam literature in the 1950s by writing on the works of poet Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon. He combined Marxian social realism and Freudian psycho-analysis. His critique of Meghasandesam and the critique, “When deserts bloom” on the works of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, are of a literary genre unique to Prof Vijayan. In his later years, especially after retirement from teaching profession, Vijayan spent much of his creative energy as a frontline campaigner of the far-left cultural positions. Vijayan Mash, a 45-minute documentary by the debutante film-maker Sofia Bind, narrates the convictions and concerns, using visuals and his own words. The documentary throws light on his early days, especially his being beaten up along with friends at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, for hoisting the Tricolor on the night of August 14, 1947. The film-maker tries to bring out the persona that influenced the contemporary Kerala culture as a radical thinker, literary critic, teacher and cultural commentator. He is survived by wife and two children.