Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday placed 'Manorama Hortus' - a three-day art and literary festival organised by Malayala Manorama from November 1 to 3 - in the context of the growing intolerance of artistic freedom in the country. He then held up Kandathil Varghese Mappilai, writer and the founder of Malayala Manorama, and his efforts at literary mobilisation through Bhashaposhini Sabha in the early 20th century as the finest example of how literature could be pulled back to its position of glory.

"Hortus is being held at a time when there are serious threats to freedom of expression. It has become impossible to articulate many things in a democratic nation like India," the Chief Minister said while inaugurating Manorama Hortus in Kozhikode beach on Thursday, October 31.

"We know that many creative minds who had boldly and truthfully expressed themselves have been killed," he said. At such a critical juncture in our lives, the Chief Minister said it was not enough to possess imagination and talent. "It is also important to fight for the manifestation of such gifts. And this should be done collectively," he said.
The Chief Minister lamented that writers of our time had not demonstrated such courage. "They have been silenced," he said.

"Hortus should become a platform where writers and artists could fearlessly express themselves. Works that are redolent with social awareness should emerge," he said. "Brilliant literary works have always been great symphonies of human love. They prompt people to come together," the Chief Minister added.

It is in this backdrop that Pinarayi recalled Kandathil Varghese Mappilai's seminal role in forging a literary movement. "Hortus is also a reminder of Malayala Manorama's historic links to Kerala's reformation," he said.

The Chief Minister said that 45 years before the Temple Entry Proclamation, Kandathil Varghese Mappilai had rooted outcaste and communal discrimination in Malayalam literature. "At the meetings of Bhashaposhini Sabha, he made the backward and Dalits sit alongside kings and chieftains and Brahmins," Pinarayi said. "This was a historic episode in the growth of Malayalam literature," the Chief Minister said. And through Bhashaposhini Sabha, he said Varghese Mappilai succeeded in stringing together writers of various tastes into a unified literary movement.

He said it was Kandathil Varghese Mappilai who had first realised that the future of literature was not in poetry but in prose and channelled the land's literary energies to that end. "That was a time when it could be said with the least bit of exaggeration that 11 out of 10 Malayalis were poets," Pinarayi said.

Kozhikode Mayor Beena Philip, who presided over the function, said that not just art and literature but various facets of human existence would come to life at Hortus. Adding to this observation, Malayala Manorama executive editor Jayant Mammen Mathew said that Hortus would open the garden of an exotic variety of thoughts.

Hortus director and writer N S Madhavan said that the sea shore where Hortus is held was a place where, through generations of give and take, a culture was formed. 'Religious have reached our shores from the sea. Novels, stories, cinema, and even prose came that way. Even words like 'kasera', 'mesha' and 'kathaku' have Portugese influence," he said. "It is this give and take that will be reflected in Hortus," he said.
Polish writer and translator Marek Bienczyk, Manorama's editorial director Jose Panichipuram and Santa Monica managing director Denny Thomas Vattakkunnel were also present.

Manorama Hortus, which will be held from November 1 to 3, will witness 130-odd discussions and debates on literature, art, cinema and music across 130 venues erected along the Kozhikode beach. Over 400 guests from the country and around the world, including political luminaries like Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and Tamil Nadu deputy Chief Minister Udayanidhi Stalin will attend the event. Writers from Korea, Poland and Africa will participate.