LETTERS

R.K. Narayan

Your tribute to the Grand Old Man of Indian English writing made interesting reading ("Malgudi's creator", June 8). The publication of rare photographs and documents added value to it. One could find the truth of life in R.K. Narayan's simple stories, which centred round ordinary men, women and children in the fictional town of Malgudi. Through his unpretentious style and diction, gentle irony and good-natured humour, compassion and hard-hearted realism, Narayan drew generations of Indians to the world of literature. His stories and novels became more lively when they were illustrated by his younger brother R.K. Laxman, one of the best cartoonists India has produced.

The Guide, which was made into a film by Dev Anand, brought Narayan the Sahitya Academy Award in 1960. It was for the first time that an Indian English writer won this award. One can also never forget the famous tele-serial "Malgudi Days", produced by Shankar Nag for Doordarshan.

Narayan's death has left a void in contemporary Indian English writing that is difficult to fill.

I have a copy of your issue dated October 18, 1996, which was published on the occasion of the 90th birthday of the legendary writer. I consider the latest issue as its second part and will preserve it for posterity.

S. Balakrishnan
Sonari, Jharkhand

To the world in general he was R.K. Narayan. To some of his family members and cousins he was Kunjappa. And to many of his other relatives and a few associates he was Hemappa. Whatever be the name by which he was known, he was a lively, witty, charming and simple personality. He will live in our memory forever.

S. Maheish
Chennai

Hats off to Frontline for the fine tribute to India's master story-teller. Narayan's demise marks the end of an era in English literature. In his autograph he wrote 'My books are my message' and I cherish the memory of those golden moments I spent with him in May 1996 at his Eldams Road residence in Chennai. His short (and sweet) story 'An Astrologer's Day' was part of the curriculum when I did my Engineering in Hyderabad. Perhaps the best way to pay tribute to him is to remember the plea he made in the Rajya Sabha and reduce the burden of the bags carried by children to school. Narayan will live in our hearts through his immortal creations.

T.D. Govindarajan
Mumbai

It was indeed a fitting tribute to the India's greatest writer in English in the 20th century. We have lost our most widely acclaimed writer and a humanitarian. Narayan will be fondly remembered for the small fictional town he created in his writings.

Abhijeet D. More
Nashik

R.K. Narayan was one of the greatest writers who proved to the world that Indians can handle the language as well as English-speaking writers. I condemn the tendency to label R.K. Narayan's writing style pedestrian and limited/conventional. I have always admired Narayan's deceptively simple prose, shorn of purple passage and completely free of sex or violence, which most writers exploit to hold the readers' interest. Narayan's writings are not influenced by the dictates of the market. Narayan fashioned a thoroughly 20th century prose of his own: simple, pared down, pellucid and devoid of pretentiousness.

Onkar Chopra
Ludhiana

Disqualification debate

I refer to "Politics after disqualification" (May 25).

Four Returning Officers in Tamil Nadu rejected Jayalalitha's nomination papers. She could not, therefore, fight the elections and become an MLA. But Kerala-born M. Fathima Beevi, a former Supreme Court judge, deemed it legal to swear her in as Chief Minister, even though she was disqualified from becoming an Assembly member.

In Kerala, the Returning Officer did not see anything wrong in letting R. Balakrishna Pillai fight the elections. Balakrishna Pillai consequently became an MLA. But Governor S.S. Kang, a former High Court judge, reportedly expressed his reservations about swearing him in Minister. A.K. Antony, therefore, had to remove his name from the list of Ministers and substitute it with that of Balakrishna Pillai's son.

It is unfortunate that other Governors and Returning Officers in the country have not had to face such mind-boggling situations. Yet another Governor might feel like refusing to swear in a convicted Minister's children as well. In a country where political legacies are deemed to be transferable from generation to generation, even to daughters-in-law, a Governor might deem conviction legacies also to be transferable!

All said and done, it is saddening that after five decades of federalism, the country is still unable to have equanimity of gubernatorial discretion.

R. Sajan
Desam, Kerala

English

William Safire's column ("Diploli-ngo discovers apoloregrets," May 25) caught my eye. We are told that the root of 'regret' is the old English word 'greaten', to weep. This little-known fact cleared up a linguistic mystery that had been puzzling me throughout my years at a Scottish university. It may be interesting for William Safire to hear that native Scots still use the old word "greetin" to mean crying or weeping.

Bethan Dailey
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu

The judiciary

With reference to ''What constitutes 'scandalising the court''' (May 25) it appears that the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, needs immediate review and amendment.

Scandalising or lowering the esteem of the courts is an abhorrent act that militates against the independence of the judiciary. But it must not be forgotten that fair comments and criticism do not interfere with or obstruct the course of justice. There are indications that the Contempt of Courts Act has been invoked against fair comments and criticism.

Had Mahatma Gandhi been alive, he would have been hauled up under the Act for his remark that "law has become the luxury of the rich and joy of the gambler". While piloting the Trade Unions (No.2) Bill, 1911, in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said: "The courts hold justly a high, and I think, unequalled pre-eminence in the respect of the world in criminal cases, and in civil cases between man and man, no doubt, they deserve and command the respect and admiration of all classes of the community; but where class issues are involved, it is impossible to pretend that the courts command the same degree of general confidence. On the contrary, they don't and a very large number of our population have been led to the opinion that they are, unconsciously, no doubt, biased."

In his address to the University of Cambridge Law Society, on November 18, 1920, Lord Justice Scrutton said: "The habits you are trained in, the people with whom you mix, lead to your having a certain class of ideas of such a nature that, when you have to deal with other ideas, you do not give as sound and accurate judgments as you would wish. This is one of the great difficulties at present with labour. Labour says, 'Where are your impartial judges?' They all move in the same circle as the employers, and they are all educated and nursed in the same ideas as the employers. How can a labour man or a trade unionist get impartial justice? It is very difficult sometimes to be sure that you have put yourself into a thoroughly impartial position between two disputes, one of your own class and one not of your class."

During the 1980s the Supreme Court ushered in a golden age by introducing the concept of public interest litigation. The 1990s witnessed the dilution of the epoch-making judgments of the 1980s. An elitist approach is discernible.

Purushuttam Roybarman
Agartala

ICSSR

Please refer to the article on pages 81-82 on the ICSSR in your issue dated June 8. I do not know how Prof. Sondhi identified me with a "Group of Seven" which was involved in the issue of Prof. Kiran Saxena's deputation to Stanford. I did not know anything about it, nor did I raise any "hullaballoo". For more than seven or eight months after March 2000 I did not attend any of the ICSSR programmes as no calendar of events was published in advance and I had other preoccupations during the ICSSR meetings in the latter part of 2000.

Regarding my proposal on 'oral history', I did not say Prof. Sondhi rejected it. The ICSSR wanted me to resubmit it, and I did not do so because I had second thoughts - that I should not be treated as a "beneficiary" of the ICSSR, so that I can be impartial. That is why I did not accept an invitation to depute me to a seminar in Japan by the ICSSR in June 2000. I had told this to your correspondent. No member scrambled for benefits.

There is no group of seven, but a majority of members who were present at the February 13 meeting wanted to question Prof. Sondhi "Whither ICSSR", and as we failed to get an answer we had to walk out. Our intention was to make the Chairman understand that he should not concentrate on international affairs, but on social sciences. All the members are social scientists of standing, but Prof. Sondhi thinks that he is too big to hear them. From the very first meeting he chaired, there were noisy scenes, and I had suggested to Prof. Sondhi that he may take the members into confidence rather than take arbitrary decisions. I did not know him earlier, but some members did, as they too were from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Dr. S.U. Kamath
Bangalore