Write to Be Free

Controversies pushed his back to the wall, but having won the 2020 JCB Prize for Literature, author S. Hareesh has vindicated himself and his writing

- Bhavya Dore

In 2018, when a section from Moustache—the debut novel by Malayalam writer S. Hareesh—was first serialized as Meesha for a magazine, right-wing groups threatened him and called for boycotts. They found a small passage on temple-going women objectionable. Hareesh, who works in the revenue department, withdrew publication, but later that year the Supreme Court dismissed a plea to ban the work. Moustache has since won the prestigious ₹25-lakh JCB Prize for Literature last month.

How did the novel Moustache take shape?

The main character, Vavachan, is based on a man who lived in my village. It is after hearing that this man had grown his moustache for the role of a policeman in a play and had refused to shave it off afterwards that I decided to write the novel. The other inspiration for the novel is the collection of folk songs known as ‘Chengannooradi’.

How do the land and landscape emerge as characters?

I was born and grew up in northern Kuttanad, Kerala—a place with several peculiarities. It is a place where the land was built up from lakes and swamps, where farming is done below sea level, a land that floods three times a year. Life here is amphibious, inextricably linked to its birds, fish and the agricultural calendar. From the time I began writing, I have wanted to write about this place. Vavachan’s story could not be told without also telling the story of the land. Pursued by his tormentors, it is to the labyrinthine land created by his ancestors that he escapes. I also have a special affinity to stories in which land itself is a character. We are embodied only through space and time.