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Tamil translation of 'Why I am an Atheist' banned

· Erode

Tamil translation of 'Why I am an Atheist' banned
Kudiyarasu Magazine edited by Periyar. E. V. Ramasamy, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Bhagat Singh's 'Why I am an Atheist' in Tamil was banned by the Madras government, which also arrested the translator and the publisher.

The Madras government repeatedly banned Periyar's journal Kudi Arasu, citing sedition and the spread of communism. In 1935 it prohibited the Tamil rendering of Bhagat Singh's essay Why I am an Atheist. P. Jeevanandham, who translated it, and E. V. Krishnasamy, who published it, were both arrested. The case showed how hostile the authorities were to the rationalist and leftist literature of the Self-Respect Movement.

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