Mangalore, April 5: Mangalore University has decided to further abridge writer H. Nagaveni's controversial novel, “Gandhi Banda”. The decision has come in for criticism from the writer who has alleged that the move is nothing but an attempt to censor the novel.
Writers U.R. Ananthamurthy and Chandrashekar Kambar have urged the university not to withdraw the book.
Vice-Chancellor of the university T.C. Shivashankar Murthy said that following a representation from the University Kannada Teachers' Association that teachers were finding it difficult to complete the novel in one semester as it was too bulky, the university sent the matter to the Board of Studies for Kannada.
He said that the novel, prescribed for the third semester of the BA course, had 190 pages and the teachers wanted it cut down by around 30 pages. This in itself is an abridged version of the original novel that was actually around 400 pages. It has been published by the university.
Meanwhile, there were demands from certain quarters that portions of the novel were controversial. Both issues were placed before the board, which recommended that “the novel be shortened and, in the process of editing the novel, objectionable contents may be removed”, Mr. Murthy said. The board's recommendation had been approved by the Syndicate, Mr. Murthy added.
Ms. Nagaveni said that this was nothing but an attempt to censor her novel, which had been critical of oppression of the “lower castes” by “upper castes”. The Vishwakarma community was particularly opposed to the novel, which it claimed showed them in a bad light. Ms. Nagaveni has, however, maintained that the “objectionable portions” had to be seen in their context.
Chairperson of the Board of Studies for Kannada Abhay Kumar K. said that the board was likely to complete the process of abridging the novel in a month as it should be ready for the next batch of students.
He said: “We will approach the author and edit it with her permission.” Ms. Nagaveni, however, said that she would not remove the “objectionable content” from the novel. “By asking me to edit the novel, the university wants me to provide the stick to kill the snake,” Ms. Nagaveni said.
About the reason for removing the “objectionable content” when the stated goal was to shorten it, Mr. Kumar said that when certain words were used by the characters of the novel when they spoke to each other, it was natural for them to use certain words. However, he claimed that some words could not be used by the writer.
A university lecturer who requested anonymity said that the full novel had been prescribed for the post-graduate students of the university in the past.
He felt that objections to the novel had been made out of context. If it was being objected to now, possibly some of the teachers who are teaching the novel may belong to the communities which objected to it, he said.
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