Tamil writer Perumal Murugan and his novel ‘Fire Bird’, whose English translation by Janani Kannan won the 2023 JCB Prize for Literature award.

I picked up Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s Fire Bird (translated into English by Janani Kannan) when it was nominated for the JCB Prize for Literature 2023, an award the book has gone on to win. It wasn’t Murugan’s first nomination for the JCB award. Earlier this year, his book Pyre was nominated for the International Booker Prize 2023. In my first brush with Perumal Murugan’s writing, I was about to uncover what drew readers to his work year after year, and what made his writing essential to the literary traditions of India.

A literary death and ressurection

Perumal Murugan announced his death as a writer on Facebook on January 2015: “Perumal Murugan the writer is dead. As he is no God, he is not going to resurrect himself. He also has no faith in rebirth. An ordinary teacher, he will live as P. Murugan. Leave him alone.” This announcement came after violent protests against Murugan’s most powerful book, “One Part Woman,” which chronicles caste and patriarchy in rural India. Murugan wrote about an ancient ritual that allowed childless women to sleep with men other than their husbands in the hope of getting pregnant. After a court ruling cleared his name, Murugan returned to writing as powerful as ever. He was later nominated for the International Booker Prize 2023 for his book Pyre.

The anatomist of caste and power in India

Perumal Murugan has been called the anatomist of caste and power in India. As reflected in Fire Bird, his writing interrogates the structures of patriarchy and hatred in rural India. Fire Bird is the tale of the human struggle in the search for permanence and a sense of belonging. If man is indeed a social animal, then Murugan intends to capture the society that builds men and communities.

Murugan tackles subjects such as poverty, caste and the lower status of females in India. His writing often generates violent reactions from Hindu nationalist circles. Angry crowds have turned up, in the past, outside his home, demanding punishment.

Fire Bird

What makes a family? Why does the familial unit disintegrate in rural India? How does land play a role in it? Such are the questions that lie at the centre of Fire Bird. Originally written in Tamil as Aalanda Patchi, Fire Bird captures the nature of suffering caused by the displacement of human beings. This displacement could be a result of family feuds, political conflict, or even the search for food. But all human beings desire permanence and stability, and migration comes at a cost. Migration costs people loss of resources and even the loss of relationships. Families disintegrate as people are forced to move away. This is the story of Muthu and Peruma who find themselves cast out of their family following a division of land and resources among four brothers. Muthu receives the smallest share of land and resources as he is the youngest son of a farmer. But Muthu’s troubles don’t stop there. He comes home one day to find out that Peruma has abruptly left for her father’s house. When he confronts Peruma, he learns that his elder brother attacked her while Muthu was away. His elder brother had molested Peruma. That was when Muthu decided to move away and look for new land to sustain him and his family.

Murugan also captures the patriarchal cruelty of Indian families. Muthu and his family are at their most vulnerable due to the land division. Division of land had led to the division of family and Muthu has lost faith in his family. Periannan, Muthu’s elder brother, takes advantage of Peruma’s vulnerability and harasses her. When Peruma decides to complain to Muthu’s mother about Periannan’s violent attack, her mother-in-law belittles her pain and shames her. She says that in most families the elder brother has the right to sleep with the wives of younger brothers. The reader realizes that what looks like a traditional family unit from the outside is actually riddled with shameful secrets of patriarchy.

The novel connects on a deeper level with readers as most of us have witnessed or experienced migration in some form or other. Murugan captures the anxieties that follow such displacements, and he chronicles how they shake the foundations of human life and belief systems. Muthu grows up beloved by his family as he is the youngest child in the family. Yet, when land is divided, he is given the smallest share. Nobody seems concerned about his well-being or about the well-being of his family. This disillusions Muthu and he is forced to break ties with his family members.

Perumal Murugan’s mastery of craft lies in his treatment of ordinary topics that make up life: the animals that provide sustenance to man, the relationship between humans and land, and the flavours of simple foods like kali. These create a framework for telling stories that are simple yet have a universal appeal to them. Murugan explores the many things land means to a farmer- sustenance, stability, dignity, and belonging. This same land can also become a source of contention for a family- it can make or break familial bonds.

The politics of language

English enjoys the highest status in Indian publishing. Tamil along with languages other than Hindi and English is referred to as vernacular or regional language. Even in the hierarchy of translation, Bengali often sits at the top. Murugan calls this “language oppression” which ignores the fact that Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world with a rich classical heritage. It is spoken by about 100 million people in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore, he told The Guardian. Murugan’s work has now been translated into multiple languages by highly talented translators. Janani Kannan’s translation restores the tonality of the Tamil Text of Fire Bird.

Another one of his translators, Kavita Muralisharan, wrote about translating Perumal Murugan’s Amma for Firstpost: ‘His dialect was a delight to read, but difficult to translate, especially for someone like me who has been brought up in an urban society, with no clue of either the agriculture that his family so lovingly practised, or the culture associated with his Kongu region.’

It did not come as a surprise when Perumal Murugan and Janani Kannan won the JCB Prize for Literature 2023. “Janani Kannan’s translation carries into English the rhythms not only of Tamil but of an entire way of being in the world,” the jury said. Thought-provoking and insightful, Fire Bird tells stories within stories.