Now Reading: Literature is more powerful than history: Su. Venkatesan
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Literature is more powerful than history: Su. Venkatesan
Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer and MP Su. Venkatesan has said that literature created using history as a tool leaves a more powerful impact than history books. Speaking at The Hindu office on…
Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer and MP Su. Venkatesan has said that literature created using history as a tool leaves a more powerful impact than history books. Speaking at The Hindu office on Friday, he said history is a tool and what happened yesterday continues to happen today, so it makes little difference whether one writes about a 2,000-year-old story or a contemporary one.
Venkatesan, whose debut novel Kaval Kottam won the Sahitya Akademi award, contrasted history books with literature, saying a single short story by Manto about the India-Pakistan Partition conveys more pain than numerous history books on the subject. He said his second novel Veerayuga Nayagan Velpari draws on knowledge of the Sangam era, including astronomy and maritime wisdom.
On artistic liberty, he said established historical truths cannot be entirely altered, and liberty lies only in how events are reenacted. Asked whether being a writer or a public representative is a better tool for social change, he said literature's impact and lifespan are monumental, while an elected representative provides immediate relief, and the two cannot be compared.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Venkatesan, a CPI(M) MP from Tamil Nadu, has long argued that historical narratives are a political arena, especially in a state where Dravidian parties have reclaimed Tamil history from Brahminical readings. His remarks echo debates around the portrayal of the Sangam era in school textbooks and cultural festivals, where the government has increasingly foregrounded a particular version of Tamil heritage. The key tension is whether literature can reshape public memory faster than official history writing. With the Centre pushing a national education policy that standardises syllabi, Venkatesan's assertion that recreating heritage is a political act directly challenges that centralising impulse. The larger question is how far artistic liberty extends when the government itself funds or censors historical narratives through bodies such as the NCERT or ICHR.
The Sahitya Akademi awards for the next cycle are expected to be announced in December 2026, and Venkatesan's comments may influence how historical fiction is evaluated by literary juries.
Source: thehindu.com
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