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M. N. Vijayan | |
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| Born | (1930-06-08)8 June 1930 Lokamaleshwaram,British Raj |
| Died | 3 October 2007(2007-10-03) (aged 77) |
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| Years active | 1952–2007 |
| Spouse | Sharada |
| Children | 3 |
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| Awards | 1982 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award |
Moolayil Narayana Vijayan, popularly known asVijayan Mash (8 June 1930 – 3 October 2007) was an Indian academic, orator, columnist and writer ofMalayalam literature. Known for his leftist ideals and oratorical skills, Vijayan was the president of thePurogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham (Progressive Association for Art and Letters) and served as the editor ofDeshabhimani. He published a number of books of whichChithayile Velicham (The Light in the Pyre) received theKerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Literary Criticism in 1982.
M. N. Vijayan was born on 8 June 1930 to Pathiyasseril Narayana Menon and Mooliyil Kochammu Amma at Lokamaleshwaram, a small village nearKodungallur inThrissur district of the south Indian state ofKerala.[1] Vijayan got his family name,Mooliyil, throughmatrilineal succession.
Vijayan's schooling was at Pathinettarayalam Lower Primary School and Government Boys High SchoolKodungallur after which he did his graduate and post-graduate studies atMaharaja's College, Ernakulam to earn a master's degree in Malayalam literature from theUniversity of Madras. He also studied law at theGovernment Law College, Ernakulam and was associated with theStudents Federation of India during his college days.[2] He started his career in 1952 as a lecturer atThe New College, Chennai and later moved toUniversity College, Thiruvananthapuram, but his stay at Thiruvananthapuram was short.[3] In 1960, he joinedBrennen College,Thalassery as a member of faculty at its department of Malayalam and served the institution until he retired from service in 1985.[4]
From 1960 to 1999 M. N. Vijayan stayed at Dharmadam, Thalassery. Vijayan worked as the editor of the cultural weeklyDeshabhimani owned by theCommunist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)). He was President ofPurogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham (Progressive Association for Art and Letters) andAdhinivesha Prathirodha Samithi (Council for Resisting Imperialist Globalisation), a leftist think-tank based inKerala which collaborated with the CPI(M).
He was removed as editor of Deshabhimani when leaders of the provincial Communist Party felt he did not adhere to the party line. He opposed the policy of some state level leaders and other leftist intellectuals to accept foreign funding of political work.[5] He was also for a time the editor of the controversial periodicalPadom, notably criticising a Kerala state government program called People's Campaign for Decentralised Planning (People's Plan) and its creatorThomas Isaac.[6] Vijayan andProfessor Sudheesh's articles inPadom against the "people's plan", a program aimed at decentralisation of power, became a controversial issue. Later a Kerala court ruled that the allegations of foreign funding of theKerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) had been proven by Sudheesh and Vijayan.[7] Vijayan and Sudheesh had startedPaatom in 2000, and started to attack CPI(M)'s social democratic stands and attitude towards World Bank and IMF.[8] He resigned from Purogamana Kala Sahithya Sangham as a result of a disagreement withM. A. Baby, then in charge of the CPI(M).
The cultural programmeManaveeyam of CPI(M)-ledLDF government ofKerala was criticised for the extravagance of the programmes and the elitist audience to which the ps catered, and also for the fact that the "people's art and culture" gave way tobourgeois concepts under the influence ofneoliberalism. Vijayan also led an ideological debate againstsocial democratic deviations. When the leader ofKerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (a pro-CPI(M) Science forum)M. P. Parameswaran went ahead with his "theory of the fourth world" campaign, it was alleged that a theory that had been opposed by the late ideologue of the party,E. M. S. Namboodiripad, was now being resurrected after his death. Vijayan and his followers resistedP. Govinda Pillai's controversial critical remarks againstA. K. Gopalan, Namboodiripad and others on ideological grounds. Though, initially, CPI(M) leadership was forced to expel Parameswaran[9] and Depromote Pillai from the state committee because of the high reputation that Vijayan enjoyed among the party supporters, writers and the literate, later thesocial democratic group got control over the CPI(M) organisation.[10][11] There were similar attacks against other left-leaning intellectuals likeDr. B. Ekbal (leading to Ekbal's expulsion from CPI(M)) who were trying to re-examine the direction of left-wing politics in Kerala.
Vijayan did not attend many public meetings during his last years as a result of his ill health, but continued to write weekly columns inSamakalina Malayalam, anIndian Express group of publications,Janashakthi andMaruvakku. The column was originally published weekly inDeshabhimani until he parted ways with the paper. He was also the editor of the monthlyMaruvaakku.
Most of Vijayan's publications are compilations of his speeches and He was considered to be a powerful orator.[12][2] He usedpsychology,Marxism andsocial science as tools to analyse life and literature. Some prominent writers, includingM. Krishnan Nair andThinakkal Padmanabhan, have said that Vijayan's writings are difficult to understand, as he does not follow conventional grammatical structures.V. C. Sreejan criticizes Vijayan's style, arguing that it is densely figurative, hence vague and often meaningless. Vijayan was a pioneer of the use of psychological criticism in Malayalam literature, and influenced contemporary Kerala culture.[13]
Vijayan's works were nominated on several occasions for literary awards, but in keeping with a general aversion to institutionalism, he rejected any state-sponsored awards that he won.[2]
Though not a qualified medical practitioner, Vijayan worked for many years as apro bono counsellor, usingFreudian techniques. Many writers, intellectuals, journalists and political activists have described him as an intellectual mentor. The November 2007 issue ofSamayam Masika was devoted to articles by a variety of public figures about Vijayan and his influence, both on them personally and upon others, includingM. T. Vasudevan Nair (writer, film director,Jnanpith Award winner),N. Prabhakaran (writer, academic),Mohanan Cherukadu (writer),Appukkuttan Vallikkunnu (journalist),P. Surendran (writer), Dr.Abdul Azeez (Doctor),Kunhappa Pattanoor (poet),Umesh Babu K.C. (Poet and political activist),A. V. Pavitran (writer),Anil Kumar A. V. (journalist, political activist),Vatsalan Vatuseeri (writer),Prabhakaran Pazhassi (writer, Professor),Choorayi Chandran (Political activist, Educationalist),N. Shasidharan (writer).[14]
His studies on Vailoppilli, a well known Malayalam poet, and especially the poems "Mampazham" and "Sahyante makan", using Freudian techniques attained wide acclaim.[15] He was a staunch critic of communal organisations and he used a significant part of his oratory and writings to back Communist Party of India (Marx) in their ideological and material resistance against the invasion of fascist forces with venomous separatist aims in Tellicherry and Kerala. M.N.Vijayan, his wife and his residence at Dharmadam, Thalassey, provided a haven for people who faced psychological problems. With utmost affection Vijayan mash and his wife served them. He is the general editor of Nammute Sahityam Nammute Samooham (Our Society Our Literature), a four volume research book on literature and society of Kerala.
Vijayan became a mentor for many writers, leftist politicians and journalists. He was a critic of NGOs likeKerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad which polluted the sensibilities of Malayalees. Vijayan died while he was addressing a press conference in Thrissur, explaining how non- governmentally funded organisations likeKerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad function in Kerala, camouflaging their imperialist agenda by wearing a leftist mask. Parishath and its activities lost credibility when Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate dismissed the defamation case filed againstPaatom,[16] a magazine which exposed the fishy trails of such organisations. "You are selling your credibility... It is hijacking democracy ...",[17] Vijayan said about Parishath and its supporters in the last press conference. Thrissur Current Books and Akam Samithi Thalassey published the early works of M.N.Vijayan. Thrissur Current Books published the Complete Works of M.N. Vijayan in ten volumes under different titles, like literature, politics, culture, interviews, speeches, biography, memoirs, etc.[18] The first M.N.Vijayan library was inaugurated at Kannur. Govt. Brennen College Malayalam department has constituted the M.N.Vijayan endowment in 2010 for outstanding students of Malayalam literature.
Vijayan was married to Sharada and the couple had a son, V. S. Anilkumar, a writer and an academic working atKannur University and two daughters, Sujatha Balachandran, a doctorate degree holder in agricultural science and Sunitha Rajagopal.[19] He suffered a massive heart attack during a press conference atThrissur Press Club on 3 October 2007 and though he was taken toAmala Institute of Medical Sciences, he died the same day, at the age of 77.[20][21] His biography, written by K. Balakrishnan, was published byKerala Bhasha Institute in 2015, on the 8th anniversary of Vijayan's death.[22]
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