Social status of minorities and women will be the key yardsticks of a democratic society, poet-critic K. Satchidanandan has said.
Delivering the keynote address at a national seminar commemorating Ayyappa Panikkar organised by the Malayalam Department of Calicut University at Tenhipalam on Monday, Mr. Sachidanandan said the status of the intelligentsia and artists would be yet another key yardstick to measure a democratic society.
Those burning books today would do it to their fellow beings tomorrow, he said.
Mutilated views
He said ideologues like Karl Marx, who joyously quoted Shakespeare and Greek tragedies, too should be remembered in view of their approach to reading and literature. Basic Marxian literary views were later mutilated, he said.
The freedom of artists and litterateurs was the real yardstick to measure the freedom of a democratic society, he said. “When writers are being annihilated, it indicates the current status of our democracy,” he said.
Calicut University Vice Chancellor K. Mohammed Basheer inaugurated the seminar. Malayalam teacher L. Thomaskutty presided. Faculty member Umer Tharamel welcomed the gathering. Anil Vallathol proposed a vote of thanks.
