Flogging the oft-quoted theory that the right can’t act and the left can’t write, Jnanpith Award-winning Kannada writer U.R. Anantha Murthy has been quoted in today’s Hindu as saying this:
“It is difficult to find even a single intellectual among right-wing forces. Similarly, it is not easy to find even a single collection of good poetry or a good novel from the right-wing stable.
“The right wing failed in developing the thinking process that is pluralistic in nature.
“There are many intellectuals among the Left-wing forces and there are fine literary works from them because of their unbridled thought process.”
Read the full article: URA slams right wing forces
churumuri 
Is this a prelude to URA’s formal joining the Red parties?
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Anaanthamurthyavaru right,left, centre, back , front (hittilu, jagali) yella kaDe iraballavru, hiriyaru, avaru judgment koTTa mele bereyavaru appeal maaDuvantheya illa. avaru angella yaasna maDde yaaLakilla. papernaage barlebeke intha isya. Jai Ananthamurthy ki! Andare budhdhi andre yenu…ivaechanena …
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anybody here know what are the left leaning poems that URA is talking about?
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URA and intellectual? This bozo is a 3rd rate hack, a cheap one-shot quickie who knows nothing about any intellectual tradtion not even the Indian tradtion. This man may have won a Jnanapith. But even if he takes 15 janmas he will not be able to write even a few verses of a beauty like Sri Ramayana Darshanam or Parva. The ‘left’ is full of ignoramuses besotted with their own medicrity.
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Amen!
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Someone asked me this (a non-Kannadiga) obviously. How is it we see
NDTV interview with UR Ananthamurthy
CNN-IBN asking URA on what Kannadigas feel
FTII asking URA to give a speech
FTII asking URA to give a speech
A local college asking him to give a speech (Oh yes, he comes to Pune rather often)
Outlook interview with URA
India Today interview with URA
Columns by URA in Indian Express/TOI
URA making keynote speech…
Give SLB is every bit as good as URA, how is it they ( the non-Kannadiga world) see him so infrequently? Hardly any mainstream newspaper, magazine, TV channel asks him for the “Kannadiga sentiments” etc. I doubt even people who call themselves well-read outside KA would have heard of SLB. Yet, URA seems to have become Karnataka’s unoffical ambassador. (Sort of).
In other words, is it a reminder that those who are poor at marketing-authors included-lose out? Simple index: how many of SLB’s books have been translated into English? How many of URA’s?
P.S. In a larger point which has always mystified me, how is it that the maxiumum amount of literature translated from any Indian language is in Bengali? For a foreginer who wants to read Indian language literature, it is easiest in Bengali as the largest number of translations have taken place in Bengali. It is next to impossible in Marathi/Kannada/Oriya etc. This is beside the point, but why is this so? How is Kannada does not get the same treatment? Why do Bengalis translate so much more? A sense that their literature needs to be shown to the world?
What say?
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wow! only URA and The Hindu can talk this kind of crap!
The Hindu has no other work than blasting the Right. and so is for URA. they make a good combination. Arakere Jayaram has been kicked out by comrade N Ram…why should URA not be made Karnataka’s editor of The Hindu in his place, so that both URA and The Hindu can work together for the growth of communism in Karnataka by helping and supporting Naxalites and contribute to the “rich literature” in the left ?
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I agrre URA is not a to notch writer, but stop looking at this argument as a CPM vs BJP match. Perhaps this needs to be seen as a liberal, egalitarian world view , a conservative ideology and which of the two is likely to produce better literature? Its a no brainer huh? Where would you put Munshi Premchand, MT Vasudevan Nair, Ritwik Ghatak, Mahasweta Devi, Jayakantan, Niranjana et al.
The very notion of mentioning the Ramayana Darshanam and Parva in the same breath is a very foolish one to say the least. Whilst the latter has an interesting narrative and nothing more the former is pure poetry. BTW Parva was a novel in prose and I dont know whether the ‘verses of a beauty’ were meant for only the Ramayana Darshanam- and was it also an indication that Kuvempu might have been ‘right’ like the author of Parva- well ha ha ha- what a way to remember the author of Shudra Tapaswi and Beralge Koral.
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It is somewhat funny to see that the leftists and intellectuals, who otherwise oppose monopoly, hegemony etc., claim monopoly over intellectual property! It will be also useful if Mr. URA gives a definition of the word “intellectual”.
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Gaby!
A great post.
VBH
Nice one. According to URA, an intellectual is an “intelLeftual’
URA is the Devegowda of literary world!
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Gaby,
The verses were meant only for Kumvempu’s brihatsamhita, and since I couldn’t come up with a word for both the epics; I simply used the term verse. And Yes, I know that the one is poetry and the other is prose. URA in yet another show of ignorance puts everything on the left-right spectrum, a method of classification that is completely inapplicable in the Indian context. Unless the subject of inquiry is rooted in the Western Christian tradition there can be no left vs. right absolutely. Kuvempu and SLB can be called right because their writings are firmly grounded in the Indian intellectual tradition, its philosophy and its aesthetic. Rather than simply borrowing a framework from 3rd hand renditions of 2nd hand English translations of continental though of the late 19th century as URA the ignoramus does. At the same time SLB and Kuvempu are left because of the way they freely analyse and set the two mahakavyas, respectively in the eternal human context. URA’s literature is the pathetic ramblings of an ill read frontbencher who hasn’t gotten over the first flush of enthusiasm of some kaara-saara khichdi. As for popularity SLB is arguably India’s most widely read author of the last 3 decades, with his works having been translated into all Indian languages. Needless to say URA’s books aren’t even good for raddi while SLB’s books are snapped up like hot cakes. The likes of URA are simply useful idiots and native informants who can be relied upon to trash their own. There is plnenty to criticise in India, our abysmal state of public health, our rapacious political and bureaucratic class, and our slavish attachment to mediocrity. But then there are people who criticise and work to make things better, while otrhs exist only to criticise and live off the applause.
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No doubt, retarded people like URA are getting recognized due to the acts of equally retarded media and the outdated leftist ideas
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And what about fancy plots in Bangalore? I believe this pompous pretender URA got himself a couple of fancy sites singing sucking up to the “progressive establishment” Of course fulltime bootlickers of the progressives like Vinod Mehta will never write about these things for sure.
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@kaangeya:
No offence, but not so sure about SLB being India’s most widely read writer. The three biggest readers in my estimation, in their own languages, in India are the Bengalis, Malayalis, Marathis and Kannadigas. The North Indians and Tamils, great love of their language notwithstanding, are not actually that well-read in their mother tongue. (Huge Generalization I agree, but its IMHO) The North Indians talk a lot about Hindi but are often not really interested in it. The Malayalis and Marathis do read a lot, and most probably have read SLB. The Bengalis firmly believe that the only Indian literature which is worth reading-or even qualifies as literature-is Bengali. They have a contemptous attitude towards Indian language writers other than Bengali writers. I have found them to be completely ignorant of writers in other Indian languages, and worse yet, even to justfy it by saying they don’t matter. Hence, of all Indian languages, the least amount has been translated into Bengali from other languages. This is not meant a diatreabe; instead I am pointing out that the likelihood of them reading SLB in Bengali is unlikely. You may disagree. Hence, I doubt he is the most widely read-even in the last three decades. My four choices for most probably widely read: (one each from N,S,W, E). Alongside that, I will place the best-known-not neccessarily best- writers in my estimation-i.e how well known they are. I am especially taking into account the world outside their state.
North: Nirmal Verma (Nirmal Verma)
West: Pu La Deshpande (Vijay Tendulkar)
East: Sunil Gangopadhyay (Manik Sarkar)
South: S.L. Bhyrappa (U.R Ananthamurthy)
M T Vasudevan Nair (Paul Zacharia)
Jayakantan (Ashokamitran, Ambai)
Telugu I leave for a more worthy person.
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Sugata,
A very useful insight. Except I would like to differ on Paul Zachy. I have read some Paul Zacharia’s posts in Outlook. He comes off as a Malayalee Kushwant Singh.
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Swamy kaangeya mahaprabhugale- i dont know where you get your definitions of ideology- from the flip-flop right-left you ascribe to Kuvempu and SLB possibly from military parade grounds:).
Anyway like I said earlier to me leftist means liberal, egalitarian philosophies that are based on social justice and secularism. By the same token rightist is a conservative philosophy that seeks to maintain a social status quo and promote the rights of the indiviual over community.
By this count jesus Christ would be leftist and Peter rightist. Gargi vachaknavi a leftist and Yaagnavalkya rightist. Similarly Kuvempu (remember sarvarige samabaalu sarvarige samapaalu) is leftist and SLB is rightist. There isnt anything Indian in any of this.
I have no idea of what you call ‘the Indian intellectual tradition’- does it include Kabir and Akka Mahadevi ? Being moored in the wisdom of my cultural traditions shouldnt I hope make anyone Rightist (shudder).
I reiterate URA is a crass writer and there is simply no comparison, purely from a literary PoV between Kuvempu (who’s works did not sell like hot cakes) and SLB.
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gaby,
your definitions are cute. but the question is whether URA uses the same definitions.
There is a difference between writing Choma’s story and then having the vision to foretell shortcomings in Stalin’s approach on one hand and telling Praneshaacharya’s story and being historically blind enough to contest elections under Stalin’s cronies’ banner on the other.
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TS thanks for calling my defs cute- I see them as sensible. God alone knows what URA had in mind as his defs. But all the ugly outpourings here are about the comrades in CPM/CPI et al and not about the leftist ideology.
Well I was only cpmparing SLB and Kuvempu since Kaangeya put them in the same bracket – now u want to bring in Karantajja as well- tell me where would you place him in the spectrum of political phiolosophy? Could that probing mind be the same league as obscurantists like SLB and a fool like URA ?!
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kaangeya
you are a typical case for a gossip monger who believes what we call in kannada ‘ili hodre huli hoytu anda haage’. URA BOUGHT one house by paying the required amount. No one gave it to him nor any fancy plots.
Do not indulge in guess work / mud slinging without, at least attempting to ask for facts if you dont know. Now that you have accused him PROVE it.
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Probably people have forgotten that he was allotted a site in Mysore in the New Kantharaj Urs Road, Kuvempunagar, and later that was discarded and then a flat in Bangalore and the Jnanpithee is telling that he is fed up of living in Bangalore and thinking of migrating to Mysore. People who leave their place of birth and come out for them all places are one and the same. They take shelter under the Indian Constitution and The famous Sanskrit saying that Udaara charithaananthu vasuddaivakuTumbakam – for a large hearted and generous individual the whole universe is his home. He has a right to settle down in a place of his choice. But let us ot be bothered by the reasons. After all no man is permanent and no principle is eternal.
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This is the best way to proclaim that I am an INTELLECTUAL since I stand in the left. Politburaue should think about giving him a seat.
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