Literary critics have been unfair to writers with a social consciousness , says Baragur Ramachandrappa

The Hindu

30-06-2025

Writer Baragur Ramachandrappa said, literary critics have been unfair to writers with a social consciousness. They tend to think that such writers are less creative than others.
He was speaking at an event where he was presented with an award, instituted by the Basavaraj Kattimani Trust, on Monday by Minister for Public Works Satish Jarkiholi.
'The progressive writers, women novelists and popular writers were looked down by critics. Writers like A.N. Kru, Basavaraj Kattimani, and Niranjana were discarded for decades. They were branded as popular literature and not creative literature. But they fail to see that they had fuelled a massive growth of readers. Serious theatre can not an identity that is isolated from professional theatre. Mr. Kattimani and Niranjan's novels were recognised decades after their death. It does not mean they were writers of low quality. But it was because the critics did not have the required sensibilities. But then, things changed over time. Kannada has produced a rich harvest of great critics,' he said.
He said he was very happy to receive an award in the name of Basavaraj Kattimani. 'Mr Kattimani produced one of the boldest works in Kannada as he was fearless. That courage came from his personal integrity. It is very difficult to write such novels again,' he said.
He called for continued friendship among writers, despite ideological differences. 'Nowadays, we have forgotten that. We tend to turn our friends into enemies just because they follow ideologies different from ours. Conversation should go on among people of different ideological groups,' he said.
He gave examples of Ram Manohar Lohia and Jawaharlal Nehru. 'They were strong critics of each other. But they were never enemies. They continued to be friends,'' he said.
Several years ago, B.S. Yediyurappa, who was in the opposition, strongly opposed a Bill about displacing forest dwellers and sat on dharna. The Bill was moved by Forest Minister B. Rachaiah who came around and agreed to the points raised by Mr. Yediyurappa. But in the last decade, we have lost this art of agreeing to disagree. We are trying to use language rooted in feudal mindset, he said.
He said there was a lot of prejudice against people like him, but he rose above it. 'I never thought I would be a writer. The insults suffered in childhood due to my caste and my poverty made me a writer. I became a socialist before studying sociology, due to the prejudice and insults I suffered,' he said.
Ravindranath Tagore inspired me through his works and paintings. I began to read and write only to get recognition from teachers and classmates. I took it as a challenge and began wide reading and writing. I copied a song from the film Ohileshwara of Dr. Rajkumar and wrote a poem about a classmate who dropped out of school. That became very popular in school, he said.
He recalled all his teachers from middle school to university, like M. Nagabhushan, H.S. Biligiri
Chidambar Dixit, H. Narasimhaiah and Satyanarayan. If not for them, I would never be a reader, let alone a writer, he said.
Trust chairman Yallappa Himmadi, members, Rani Channamma university Vice-Chancellor, C.M. Tyagaraj, Kiran Gajanur of Central university of Karnataka and others were present.