Sir — Perumal Murugan, who is celebrated in academic and literary circles as a pioneering Tamil chronicler, has now decided to bid farewell to writing after being relentlessly hounded by fundamentalists and casteists.
A community has accused Mr Murugan of portraying its women in poor light, since the characters in one of his books are from their community. But the writer has clarified that his depiction of the ritual in the novel was based on research. To be muzzled into silence by the self-styled cultural and moral czars, is indeed tragic and unwelcome.