© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
When it’s time,
The era of the Poo Nagam
Wouldn’t just avenge those
That wreaked havoc on us,
But also, who remained as
Silent witnesses!
It is with these ominous lines that DMK MP Dr Sumathy’s poem Poo Nagam concludes. The MP, also known as Thamizhachi Thangapandian, translated the poem from Tamil to English and distributed its copies among fellow parliamentarians as the video of an assault of two Kuki-Zomi women in Manipur sent shockwaves across the country.
Sumathy, 61, is a first-time MP from Chennai South. An English professor at Queen Mary’s College before shifting to politics in 2019, she is also a Tamil literary expert and her literary interests as well as political lineage have helped her carve out a niche in Tamil politics. Her father is the late DMK MLA V Thangapandian and her brother is Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu. Sumathy, according to DMK insiders who see her more as a literary figure than a politician, brings an “academic perspective” to her politics. She is believed to be close to fellow DMK MP Kanimozhi, the sister of Chief Minister M K Stalin.
Her writings are deeply influenced by her native place Virudhunagar, a rain-shadow region. Her poems defy traditional literary norms that romanticise verdant landscapes and instead focus on the tough life of local people, lending her work an authentic flavour of her homeland.
Here is a translation of her poem:
Which holy river of this country
Could wash the stains of flesh clean from our rapes?
Which Gods of this country had paid heed
When we were disrobed?
Which forums of this country
Resonated the grief of our cries?
Which doors of this country should we knock,
To free ourselves from the nightmares,
To lend ears to our injustices?
To which conscience of this country should we protest to,
Pointing to which of the hands that destroyed us,
And to which pair of legs that disgraced us?
To which law of this country
Should we remind that
Our soil and race still remain
Within the map of India?
Which holy scriptures of this country
Will heal our unhealed wounds,
Caused by those that tore our souls and crushed our bodies?
Those who ignore it as mere laments…
Our blood stains are mighty enough
To remove the glowing gilt of
The chairs of power!
We wouldn’t let our wounds to turn into scars,
But nurture them into fury!
We will bloom in the flowers of this country
As Thousand Neelis!
When it’s time,
The era of the Poo Nagam
Wouldn’t just avenge those
That wreaked havoc on us,
But also, who remained as
Silent witnesses!
(Poo Nagam is a mythological creature, a tiny snake that lives in flowers and is extremely venomous; Neeli is a mythological woman character who exacted revenge on those who wronged her)
