|
Intellectual liberty, creative freedom -
what beautiful concepts! Idealistically
speaking, writers should express what their
blood feels to be true. For art dies a
gloomy death the moment its creator turns
insincere. And true literature "can only
exist where it is created, not by diligent
and trustworthy functionaries, but by
hermits, dreamers, rebels and skeptics" (Zamyatin,
I am afraid). Yet, time and time
again, authors who dared to write honestly
have been branded as heretics or madmen and
punished.
The list of writers who suffered for their
works is long. Lamentably, many of the names
have been forgotten. Like the touching end
of the fiery orator and writer Labienus,
whose works were among the twenty thousand
books burned during the reign of Augustus.
In despair, Labienus refused to eat, pined
and died. Or of Dr Leighton, who paid dearly
for his book Zion's Plea Against Prelacy.
Placed on a pillory, he was branded and
whipped. His left ear cut off, nostril slit,
and he was fined £10,000 and imprisoned for
eleven years. Only to be ironically told on
release that his imprisonment had been
illegal!
The great Daniel Defoe faced a kinder
sentence in comparison! His pamphlet The
Shortest Way with the Dissenters was
labelled seditious and he was sentenced to
stand on a pillory in three places and
imprisoned for a year. Dr Benjamin Keth was
condemned to stand on a pillory, jailed and
his book burned by a hangman.
Moving from one country to another we
witness reoccurrence of the same crimes.
Averroes' books (save scientific ones) were
publicly burnt as his views on philosophy
and theology incurred the Caliph's
displeasure and the philosopher was exiled
(beautifully portrayed in Youssif Chahine's
movie 'Destiny'). Ironically, in the 13th
century, Siger of Brabant, Boethius of Dacia,
and Bernier of Nivelles were condemned for
Averroistic heresies at Paris, while in 1329
Dante was accused of Averroism (shortly
after he had died) and his book, De
Monarchia burned in Bologna by the order
of Pope John XXII.
So history tells us writers have routinely
been punished. The question is why? After
all, these people were not criminals. Are
artists feared for they command "dangerous
weapons of subversion". Handled with
intelligence their work is like a lethal
stone used by David, capable of bringing
down Goliaths of the world system. Or is the
persecution a tool to terrorize a society
into submission? Used by the rulers to
silence their critics. As witnessed in
Stalin's era of social realism,
non-conformist artists were either
imprisoned or killed.
Several authors suffered terribly under this
totalitarian regime. Some like Serge and
Zamyatin managed to leave the country,
others such as Mayaakovsky and Yesenin
committed suicide. Those who refused to
change, like Babel and Pilnyak, were
executed orthey died in labour camps. On one
hand these writers could have opted for a
comfortable life, as artists were among the
highest paid professionals in Soviet Union,
provided they were minions of the state. On
the other there were the horrors of the
Gulag. What courage to choose the latter!
These brave dissenters' struggles represent
hope for humanity. If nature has produced
power hungry mongrels that debase themselves
for personal gains; it has also given birth
to individuals who dare fight for their
ideals.
Ironically, when writers were being
persecuted in Soviet Union for not being
dedicated to the ideals of a communistic
regime, another fascist government killed
one of the greatest Spanish poet and artist
of the twentieth century for his supposed
leftist leanings. Federico Garcia Lorca was
seen by the right-wing forces as an enemy.
The thirty-eight year old author was shot in
Granada without a trial (he is presumed to
be buried in a grave that he was forced to
dig up himself). Lorca's writings were
outlawed and burned in Granada's Plaza del
Carmen. Even his name was forbidden. Yet,
the young poet quickly became a martyr, an
international symbol of the politically
oppressed.
The physical and mental persecution of the
writers by the state has also routinely been
accompanied by the burning of books and
libraries. For example, in 213 BC Confucian
books were burned as an extension of the
original plans to consolidate the Qin
dynasty. In the third century AD, mass
burning of books took place at the famous
library in Alexandria, which was destroyed
in the civil war that occurred during the
reign of Aurelian. One hundred years later,
a daughter library in the temple of Serapis
was also destroyed, this time by the early
Christians. In 1240 the Bishops of France
convinced King Louis IX to declare the
Talmud to be an evil work. Around 12,000
copies were burned, a task readily carried
out by Dominican monks.
Come to our present times and you will find
humans still indulging in book burning - be
it the Nazis (on May 10, 1933 alone, 20,000
books were destroyed), the destruction of
Jaffna Library in 1981 or the devastation of
the Baghdad libraries earlier this year.
They wrecked any illusions that the 21st
century is anymore 'civilized' than the
'barbaric past'.
Every age has had its ego-maniacs who
zealously brand themselves as the guardians
of culture and morals with the real aim to
command power over the masses. Their natural
enemy is the writer. As the Indonesian
writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who was
imprisoned for fourteen years without a
trial, aptly said of a writer, "He cries
out, resists, even rebels." Despite the
odds, the writer attempts to write honestly,
challenging the society with unusual ideas.
After all, an idea which does not provoke
the intellect is unworthy of being called an
idea at all!
However, in the present day scenario, what
is more worrisome than the persecution of
writers or the burning of books is the
diminishing desire for intellectual liberty
amongst the intellectuals themselves.
Well-educated people react cynically or
indifferently to the oppression. What
short-sightedness on their part! For
repressing writers destroys literature. And
a society without literature is a clipped
bird, unable to soar towards any heights of
intellect. With writers controlled tightly,
no clashing of opinions is left. No
criticism, no truth. Nothing remains but
gloomy, boring and useless stereotypes. What
a suffocating existence! Surely, this
couldn't be called 'living'?
|
