Veril Pazhutha Pala

The man was inseparable from the writer - he lived according to the values and tenets he wrote about. He was ready to extend help to needy writers. He could interfere in a street fight if he thought injustice was being done, and by the same token, be brutally (and tactlessly) vocal about his views in public. He had his fracas with fellow writers like Asokamitran, or Vannanilavan, and the late Komal Swaminathan. Tiruppur Krishnan recalls how he reproved Samuthiram for accusing the Sahitya Akademi of prejudice towards South Indian writers (when the SA's awards were recommended by regional writers themselves), and for bringing casteism to his condemnation of Asokamitran. But neither this, nor similar experiences prevented Samuthiram from continuing to indulge in polemics and name calling. Often on the same stage, he was capable of subsequent apologies for blunders or shortsightedness. Krishnan attributes this tendency to Samuthiram's "hasty and unsophisticated sort of innocence." Samuthiram's style and craftsmanship have been disparaged as simplistic, didactic, unsubtle. Some have denounced him for trying to pass off plain propaganda as progressive writing. Samuthiram himself often declared that he wrote not for the upperclass elite, but for the victims of social and political oppression. However, fellow writer Pa Jayaprakasam sums up the prevalent view: "You could not question Samuthiram's sincere commitment to the cause of the deprived and the destitute." GOWRI RAMNARAYAN