Published Jul 13, 2023 | 5:05 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 13, 2023 | 5:05 PM
Malayalam Cartoon by G R Santhosh Kumar
Barely a few hours after the death of Milan Kundera, the exiled satirist of totalitarianism, there was an outpouring of grief in Kerala — a state which has had a consistent readership base for the author’s works like The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and others.
Readers from different walks of life took to social media to describe how the famous writer — who died on Tuesday, 11 July, in Paris, aged 94 — had redefined their aesthetic sensibility.
Several of them recalled that Kundera grew up in Czechoslovakia as an ardent Communist supporter — part of a generation that came of age during World War II when most of Czech lands were under Nazi control.
Milan Kundera. Photo: Supplied
They also elaborated on how Kundera and others, disillusioned with the liberal democratic system from before the war, were drawn to the political system of Prague’s liberators — the Soviets.
But many of them conveniently forgot to mention that Kundera was later declared an outcast after he protested the morphing of Communist rule into a totalitarian regime where the values of liberty were often sacrificed.
Even those extolling the virtues of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera’s most famous work, omitted to mention that it was a portrayal of the Prague Spring — a period of widespread protest in Czechoslovakia against the Communist state.
The reason is obvious. Most of these social media mourners belonged to, or owed allegiance to, Kerala’s ruling CPI(M) and its alliance partner, the CPI — the mainstream Left in India.
For them, the death of their favourite writer comes at a time when even fellow travellers have started to accuse the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala of displaying dictatorial tendencies, of stifling the media, and seeking to curb free speech.
The cyber wing of CPI(M) — manned by “cyber comrades” — is active on social media, cursing, threatening, and intimidating anyone who has anything critical to say about the government.
It was in this context that the Left readership of Kundera skirted uncomfortable questions by not going into the factors which forced Kundera into exile after being disillusioned with Communists in his erstwhile home country, now split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Critics of the Left were quick to point out the hypocrisy of mainstream Kerala Communists almost worshiping Kundera even as they remained mute spectators to — if not active supporters of — the political violence or intimidation the CPI(M) tends to unleash when challenged.
Dr GR Santhosh Kumar, a physician-turned-social critic known for his occasional political cartoons on social media, soon highlighted the hypocrisy in his own unique way. He posted a cartoon on Facebook showing three presumed comrades holding knives, machetes, and other weapons sitting together and crying aloud, “Kundera…” (See top image).
The cartoon sparked a heated social media debate on whether Communist governments, even under functional democracies, were turning totalitarian, and whether their supporters failed to realise the anti-democratic contours these governments have assumed.
Social activist Tomy Mathew Vadakkancheril chose to put the developments into perspective.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Kerala’s Communists are known for endorsing Communist totalitarianism in theory and practice. They term it as an inevitable process of history. It is the cultural league of the ruling party in the state that is now rising in unison to give a red salute to Kundera. This is an obscenity to the core,” he said.
Journalist-turned-novelist Anoop Parameswaran also recalled how, despite his popularity in the state, Left intellectuals in Kerala have, over the years, described Kundera as anti-Communist. He said Kundera’s opposition to totalitarianism was the sole reason.
“This had its fallout. Such an attitude caused Kerala’s literary scene to lag six decades behind. We still read the old literature that does not require any questioning,” he observed.
CPI(M)’s Malayalam mouthpiece Deshabhimani — which has carried many articles in the past detailing how Kundera ignored global Communist obligations by turning against the government in the then Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia — was matter-of-fact in covering the author’s death.
The front page carried a small obit that did not dwell on the political interpretations to Kundera’s changed perspectives.
However, the Desabhimani obit lacked crucial details, like how Kundera was kicked out of the party in 1950 for “anti-party activities” but re-joined in 1956, only to prefer exile in the 1970s.
An appreciation of Kundera’s literary contributions by noted critic Sajay KV found a place on an inner page, but that too remained silent on the writer’s anti-Communist position.
In the article, Sajay pointed out that Kundera was almost at par with Grabiel Garcia Marquez in terms of popularity among Keralites. Like Marquez, Kundera too prompted Malayalam publishing houses to bring out translations.
There were, of course, those for whom Kundera opened up new perspectives on Left politics.
“He was a writer who helped many in my generation to have a reality check on Soviet Communism. We stopped dreaming about its permanence after reading his works. He was a rare talent who fought totalitarianism with creativity,” wrote writer and critic NE Sudheer on Facebook.
Laughable Loves
“Kerala will not forget Kundera. He will continue to be the symbol of our fight against forgetting, using memory as a tool,” said Sudheer.
“It’s quite interesting. Kundera won critical acclaim by combining his politics with the themes of love and exile. His anti-Soviet subversions invited strong retributions from Left circles of the state. Now they are pouring their mourning into social media without touching or interpreting his politics. It’s strange,” opined J Devika, noted academic and writer.
Even among ordinary Keralites, who may have never read any of his books, a quote from The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is familiar: ”The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
People often quote the sentence, mainly at literary events and public meetings. Malayalees started liking the statement ever since noted editor and book reviewer KC Narayanan used it to begin a review of Prakruthi Niyamam or Law of Nature, a critically-acclaimed Malayalam novel by CR Parameswaran explaining the degeneration of Communism in Kerala over the years.
It would be wrong, however, to say Kundera influenced, and was discussed only by the Communists in Kerala and their detractors.
When asked about what brought them together as husband and wife, young Congress leader KS Sabarinathan and his wife and IAS officer, Divya Iyer, said in a magazine interview that it was their love for the works of Kundera.
During a chance meeting as a people’s representative and a civil service officer, Sabarinathan and Divya started talking about their literary preferences.
When Divya revealed her love for the works of Kundera, Sabarinathan wondered how an MBBS doctor-turned-IAS officer developed such a passion. He said it was a rarity. Divya said she, too, felt it strange that a Congress politician was interested in the Czech writer.
They fell in love and married later, thanks to continued discussions on Kundera and his literary works, recalled Divya.
