Bulbul's Reference Was Only a "Metaphor," According to the Author's Wife

on Sep 09, 2022

Following the uproar over a line from a class 8 Kannada second language textbook on V D Savarkar that went viral on social media for apparent "glorification" of the independence warrior, the author's wife issued a statement clarifying that the bulbul imagery in it is "nothing but a metaphor."

"Kalavannu Geddavaru" is a travelogue published by author K T Gatti about his journey to the Andaman cellular jail, where the Hindutva leader was imprisoned.

The author states of Savarkar's jail cell, "there isn't even a keyhole in Savarkar's cell, yet nevertheless, bulbul birds used to come soaring inside the cell and sat on their wings Savarkar used to visit his country every day and return."

Some social media users and others criticized the travelogue writer and the Karnataka government in response to this passage in the chapter. Gatti's wife, Yashoda Ammembala, said in a statement that her husband is "indisposed" and cannot speak on his behalf, but she can share some relevant details.

She stated, " concerning the bulbul imagery dispute, it is self-evident that it is nothing more than a metaphor. Much of the misunderstanding appears to be caused by the passage's lack of context/reference, which might be attributable to an author's oversight or an editing error."

"We don't know if the metaphor of Savarkar riding over bulbul was the author's creation or if it is a story he picked up from any book or local source, but we can say for certain that the bulbul image per se did not spring from the author's imagination," she said, adding that many well-wishers of her husband had reached out asking for clarification and that the family was not aware of Gatti's work being included in the textbook until this controversy broke out."

Some social media users, however, have stated that the allusion to bulbul appears to be a lyrical phrase or a metaphor utilized by the writer as part of his narration and should not be taken literally.

Some sought to mock what was mentioned in the paragraph by tweeting photographs of caricatures of Savarkar sitting on a bird, while another portion termed it the "worst type of political propaganda" and "destruction of the education system."

Ammembala noted that the article included in the 8th standard Kannada non-detailed textbook is a chapter from Gatti's 1996 travelogue, "Nisargakanye Andaman," and that "it has been incorporated in the Kannada textbook as an example of "Pravasa Sahitya (travel literature)."

"Please keep in mind that it is part of the language curriculum, not the history curriculum; as a travelogue, it is not intended to be a source of historical facts," she explained. Ammembala went on to say that there is no mention of Savarkar in any of the author's writings to suggest he had any information about Savarkar besides what is presented in the book and that Gatti's account of Savarkar in the book contains nothing more than experiences of his Andaman jail experiences, and there is no reference of the nature of his role in the freedom struggle or any detail about his ideology.

"Approximately 30% of the chapter comprises quotations from the book 'Swatantrya Veera Savarkar' (Mathoor Krishnamurthy, 1966). Savarkar's autobiography is also mentioned in the bibliography "She stated.

"Those familiar with K T Gatti's literature are unlikely to assume that the metaphor was intended to glorify Savarkar by an admirer of his ideology, and may not need any clarification regarding this," she said, recommending that those unfamiliar with his worldviews and interested in learning more read some of his works.