Tamil Nadu’s proposed Pen Monument to Karunanidhi’s memory — the plan and the criticism

The Rs 81-crore ‘Pen Monument’, standing in the Bay of Bengal 360 m from the coast, was proposed by the government last year, and is expected to become a Chennai landmark on completion.

It has been planned as a representation of Tamil culture and architecture, and will incorporate regional motifs, architecture, and designs with Tamil heritage elements.

The Memorial

The Pen Memorial pays tribute to Karunanidhi, one of the most influential figures in Tamil Nadu and Dravidian politics who, apart from being president of the DMK from 1969 to 2018 and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms between 1969 and 2011, made significant contributions to Tamil literature as an orator, poet, and writer of non-fiction and fiction, plays, and films.

The memorial in the shape of a pen represents his many contributions to Iyal (poetry and literature), Isai (music), and Naadagam (theatre), the three fundamental pillars of both ancient and contemporary Thamizh, or Tamil, according to an official document.

Karunanidhi, the document says, ruled Tamil hearts and developed into a mass leader using the pen, a “symbol of [his] greatest talent and prowess”.

The design of the monument is based on the Veena, a traditional Carnatic music instrument that is handmade in Tamil Nadu with extreme precision, the document says. The Thumba is used to represent the pen pedestal, the neck portion the long bridges, the music hole a pen statue, and the peg the tensile canopy seating on the bridge.

The frets are used to represent the distance between the bridge’s columns, and the strings are used to represent the Meru or Kudira, according to the project document.

The design for the landscaped garden on the memorial pedestal is inspired by Sikku Kolam, a traditional drawing made by Tamil women in their homes, in which a geometric shape is created using dots and circles. Locally procured granite will be used for the memorial, the project document says.

The Access Bridge

The idea of a monument on water derives from the metaphorical catamaran to which Karunanidhi compared himself. The monument will be 42 metres tall and 2.60 metres in diameter, and will be accessible by a lattice bridge from the existing Karunanidhi memorial on Marina beach.

Two hundred and ninety metres of the 650-metre bridge will be above land (the Marina seashore), the remaining portion will be above water. There will be wave patterns on the parapet walls of the bridge.

The floor of the bridge will be made of non-slip material such as rough semi-polished granite to make walking safe even in the rainy season. Other proposed safety features include a public address system, emergency exits at strategic locations, life rafts and lifeboats, at least two buggies on site to support the elderly and special-needs visitors, and a display of meteorological information and warnings at the entrance.

Opposition, Challenges

An environmental impact assessment done by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has said there are no sensitive marine flora and fauna species such as coral reefs, sea grass, or Olive Ridley turtles in the vicinity of the proposed monument.

The water and sediment quality were found to be optimal, no plastic bags, wrappers, or pet bottles, etc., were seen floating on the surface, and the seabed was clear, according to the report.

The structures will be built on piles in a way that they do not interfere with fishing operations — the “peers of the bridges would have an adequate amount of space between them for the locomotion of fishing boats”, according to the project document.

In any case, fish were found only in deeper water farther away from the coast, and no fishing boat movements were noticed within a 500-metre radius of the
proposed monument, the document says.

The idea of the Pen Monument in the Bay of Bengal off Chennai is similar to the proposed 212-metre statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on a 15.96-hectare island in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai.

The grand memorial to Shivaji Maharaj was promised by the NCP-Congress in their 2004 election manifesto, but was taken up only under the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 2014-15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project on December 24, 2016 ahead of the 2017 local body elections.

The work order for the Rs 2,890-crore monument was issued in October 2018. Work was, however, stayed by the Supreme Court in January 2019 after a number of environmental NGOs and representatives of fishermen challenged the project.

The TNPCB report has claimed the Pen Monument “will leave an impression on people’s minds to improve their morality”, add value to tourism, education, culture, literature, and the economy of Tamil Nadu, and make Marina beach, which draws about 10,000 visitors a day, an international landmark.