பின்தொடரும் நிழலின் குரல் [Pinthodarum Nizhalin Kural]

by Jeyamohan

சோவியத் ரஷ்யாவின் வீழ்ச்சி நம் காலகட்டத்தின் பெருங்கனவொன்றின் சரிவு. அத்தகைய எழுச்சி வீழ்ச்சிகளாலானதே வரலாறு. அப்படியெனில் இக்கனவுகள் கொண்ட கோடிக்கணக்கான பலிகளுக்கு என்ன அர்த்தம்? இலட்சியவாதம், தியாகம் ஆகியவை வரலாற்றின் பெரும்பரப்பில் எப்படிப் பொருள்படுகின்றன? ஓர் இடதுசாரி அறிவுஜீவியினூடாக இவ்வினாக்களின் அலைகள் குமுறி ஓய்வதன் கதை இந்நாவல். மானுட அறத்தின் அடிப்படைகளைக் குறித்த ஒரு தேடல்.

1067 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

B. Jeyamohan (also credited as Jayamohan) is one of the most influential contemporary, Tamil and Malayalam writer and literary critic from Nagercoil in Kanyakumari District in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

He entered the world of Tamil literature in the 1990s, Jeyamohan has had impacted the Tamil literary landscape as it emerged from the post-modern phase. His best-known and critically acclaimed work is Vishnupuram, a deeply layered fantasy set as a quest through various schools of Indian philosophy and mythology. His other well-known novels include Rubber, Pin Thodarum Nizhalin Kural, Kanyakumari, Kaadu, Pani Manithan, Eazhaam Ulagam, and Kotravai. His writing is heavily influenced by the works of humanitarian thinkers Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Drawing on the strength of his life experiences and extensive travel around India, Jeyamohan is able to re-examine and interpret the essence of India's rich literary and classical traditions.
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தந்தை பெயர் எஸ்.பாகுலேயன் பிள்ளை. தாத்தா பெயர் வயக்கவீட்டு சங்கரப்பிள்ளை. பூர்வீக ஊர் குமரிமாவட்டம் விளவங்கோடு வட்டம், திருவரம்பு. தாத்தா அடிமுறை ஆசான். ஆகவே சங்கு ஆசான் என அழைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கிறார். அப்பாவின் அம்மா பெயர் லட்சுமிக்குட்டி அம்மா. அவரது சொந்த ஊர் குமரிமாவட்டம் விளவங்கோடு வட்டம், திருவட்டாறு. அப்பாவுடன் பிறந்தவர்கள் இருவர். தம்பி எஸ்.சுதர்சனன் நாயர் தமிழக அரசுத்துறையில் வட்டார வளர்ச்சி அலுவலராக இருந்து ஓய்வுபெற்று இப்போது பத்மநாபபுரத்தில் வசிக்கிறார். அப்பாவின் தங்கை சரோஜினி அம்மா திருவட்டாறில் ஆதிகேசவ பெருமாள் ஆலய முகப்பில் உள்ள பாட்டியின் பூர்வீகவீட்டிலேயே வாழ்கிறார்.

அப்பா முதலில் வழங்கல் துறையில் வேலைபார்த்தார். பின் பத்திரப்பதிவுத்துறையில் எழுத்தராக வேலைபார்த்து ஓய்வு பெற்றார். அவரது பணிக்காலத்தில் பெரும்பகுதி அருமனை பத்திரப்பதிவு அலுவலகத்தில் கழிந்தது. 1984ல் தன் அறுபத்தி ஒன்றாம் வயதில் தற்கொலை செய்துகொண்டார்.

அம்மா பி. விசாலாட்சி அம்மா. அவரது அப்பாவின் சொந்த ஊர் நட்டாலம். அவர் பெயர் பரமேஸ்வரன் பிள்ளை. அம்மாவின் அம்மா பெயர் பத்மாவதி அம்மா. அவரது சொந்த ஊர் திருவிதாங்கோடு. நட்டாலம் கோயில் அருகே உள்ள காளி வளாகம் அம்மாவின் குடும்ப வீடு. அம்மாவுக்கு சகோதரர்கள் நால்வர். மூத்த அண்ணா வேலப்பன் நாயர், இரண்டாமவர் கேசவபிள்ளை. மூன்றாம் அண்ணா மாதவன் பிள்ளை. அடுத்து பிரபாகரன் நாயர். கடைசி தம்பி காளிப்பிள்ளை. அம்மாவுக்கு இரு சகோதரிகள். அக்கா தாட்சாயணி அம்மா இப்போது நட்டாலம் குடும்ப வீட்டில் வசிக்கிறார். இன்னொரு அக்கா மீனாட்சியம்மா கேரள மாநிலம் ஆரியநாட்டில் மணமாகிச்சென்று அங்கெ வாழ்ந்து இறந்தார். அம்மா 1984ல் தன் ஐம்பத்து நாலாம் வயதில் தற்கொலைசெ

Reviews

[S Ashok · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Limits of Reason

Pin Thodarum Nizhalin Kural is fundamentally a novel about the limits of reason or rationality. We live in this 21st century where we predominantly use the tools of reason to understand the world around us. We make countless choices and we generally assume that its through application of reason we arrive at them. But is this true, are humans so perfectly reasonable in their believes and actions ? In Pin Thodarum Nizhalin Kural (The voice of the shadow) the central character Arunachalam is a communist worker, a man deeply educated in the Marxist method. Marxism is the application of reason in understanding societies and humans in general. Yet in the very chapter we are introduced to Arunachalam, he seems to be in a quagmire, because he had stepped out of the house using his left leg. A totally irrational belief but an act that seems to bother him quiet very much. This is who Arunachalam is , a man in the outside is an orthodox Marxist, who boasts in the perfect rational application of the Marxist method, one who lectures his party workers on the philosophy. Yet inside he is like any human being controlled by beliefs and forces beyond reason.
We have a brilliant moment in the earlier chapters where Arunachalam gets angry about her wife being flirtatious with a young man, he is really embarrassed to have this feeling over which he has no control. Nagammai, Arunachalam's wife understands him better than he himself thinks to be, she does not buy into the Arunachalam that he badly wants to sell to her. Through these initial chapters we see that Arunachalam is a person with many layers, inside the Marxist exterior there are realms of his personality that he is not aware of.

In this scenario he happens to come to know of an incident in the past that completely changes his world view. The rock on which that he had made his life seems shaken, the unshakeable beliefs that he seems to have had over the party crumble before his eyes. He comes to know of a man named Veerabadra pillai who in the past had been a important member in the party. He seems to have been erased from party history. His presence forgotten, no one seems to even remember his name. Yet he had once been a close friend of many senior party functionaries. In this journey Arunachalam finds out the truth about this man. In a sense he becomes part of that lineage which links him to Veerabadra Pillai, who is in turn associated to Bukharin the soviet Marxist who was unfairly killed as part of the Stalinist purges.

Arunachalam comes to know of Veerabadra Pillai through works he had left behind. It is through this articles, plays, short stories, poems we understand the pain that Veerabadra Pillai had to suffer. Veerabadra Pillai becomes Arunachalam's shadow, whom was himself followed by Bukharin as a shadow. There are some key themes that comes back to us over this novel that I will list below.

1. Conscience beyond reason
Time and again this question comes to us, is conscience driven by reason or beyond it? We can throw words, facts and figures, mind splitting logic but the voice of conscience is never subdued. There are two characters who are completely driven by the worship of reason, one is Kathir a party functionary who explains to Arunachalam how the past belief in total revolution are no longer valid. His ideas and thoughts are provocative, he completely shatters Arunachalam. But as you hear to his sophisticated argument one is never convinced by it. His logic never can satisfy, compare it with the words of Christ who comes at the end of the novel, his words are grand and twisted but they are far from truth. The other character who epitomizes this rational approach is SM Ramasamy although he is critical of the excesses of Marxism. He considers justice as a social contract, a rational institution, he does not share the emotional upheaval that Arunachalam undergoes on learning about Veerabadra Pillai. His rationality makes him distant to the suffering of people. Or even his empathy seems like a rational act. This novel beliefs in justice that is rooted beyond reason, it considers justice as the representation of the divine in this world.

2.Truth beyond reason
The novel also places truth over reason. The party is constantly hiding the past, never openly accepts its past mistakes. It justifies every mistake in the past hoping that the future revolution will compensate for it. For the party it is the end that justifies the means. In the hope of establishing the socialist society if few million people have to be killed so be it seems to be the guiding principle. I was constantly remembered of Gandhi and his approach towards Truth, for Gandhi it is the means that matters most. By choosing a violent path in order to achieve the revolution the soviet communism was doomed from the beginning. As Bukarin, SM Ramasamy argue in this book over and over again there are certain fundamentals like justice, truth that should be common to every human being and they are non negotiable.

3. Feminine vs Masculine
There is a continuing discourse in the novel, about the feminine and masculine aspects of revolution. The feminine aspect understands, assimilates differences and produces something organic. Its based on love and compassion, the masculine should be rooted in this feminine. The revolution in Russia was all about the masculine it could not resolve its difference through love and understanding. The teachings of Gandhi and Jesus are rooted in this feminine, their thoughts seem like idiosyncratic and naïve but the greatest of thinkers sometimes are child like.

As we finish the novel we ourselves get deeply disturbed by these questions. We ourselves share the anguish and deep rooted suffering of Arunachalam, Veerabadra Pillai, Bhukarin. The novel's form of using these writings from past is very effective in creating this confusion. Personalities merge and across time they feel that shared pain, which eventually the reader feels it. In the extraordinary ending when Jesus gives those answers to Bhukarin it answers us too.

It is an extraordinary novel that is a rewarding read always.

[Krishna · Rating 4 out of 5]

உன் தியாகங்கள் அனைத்தும் ஒரு நாள் அர்த்தமற்று போகும். உன் இலட்சியங்கள் காலம் எனும் கொடுந்தீயில் சாம்பலாகும்,நீ வெறுமை அடைவாய்.வெறுமை என்பது ஏதுமில்லா வெறுமையல்ல, நீயேயல்லா வெறுமை.. இதுவே பின் தொடரரும் நிழலின் குரல் என்னில் விட்டுச் சென்ற நிழல். நூலின் குறிப்புரையில் கூறியது போல் இது ஓர் இடதுசாரி அறிவினூடாக சோவியத் ரஷ்யாவின் வீழ்ச்சியை ஆராயும் நாவலெனினும், தனி மனித அறம் பற்றிய தேடல் நாவலின் முக்கிய தளங்களில் ஓன்று. தமிழ் நாவல்களில் முக்கியமானது.குறிப்பாக கம்யுனிசம் பேசும் நாவல் வரிசையில்.

[கடவுள்களின் அன்புக்குரியவரான முதலாம் மணிமாறர் · Rating 5 out of 5]

ஒரு கருத்தியலுக்கு முழுமுற்றாக அடிமைப்பட்டு போன ஒருவனை அக்கருத்தியல் என்ன செய்யும் என்பதை பொட்டில் அடித்தார் போல் நிறுவியுள்ளது இப்படைப்பு.

[Mahe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a noval about the origin and the spread of the idealogy of socialism and communism in the state of Kerala.
The story revolves around an individual, his life from joining the Communist Party in Kerala and the developments thereafter in idealogies and strategies and its impact on his personal life. It clearly portrays the transition of the socio-centric fundamental idealogy to the individual centric survial tactics from time to time as a need of the hour in the hierarchical movement in the party. This novel clearly walks us through the 'power corrupts' philosophy.

[Harish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A conflict of ideals, a battle of wits, culminating in madness and redemption...beautifully captures the fallen dreams of a communist.

[Deepti Srivatsan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very laborious read. It was very interesting until about 50%. After that it seemed to spiral into chaos.