Those who have watched the dance-drama called Ramanattam will not forget a peculiar clownish character in it. This character, who makes the audience laugh by making faces at them with a grimace, is called a coward by the ordinary viewers. But the learned among the viewers call this peculiar character ‘one with the tongue of lightning.’ What they mean by this is that the Ramanattam clown is a character with a tongue that can move with the speed and suddenness of lightning, taking sharp turns and streaks. In other words, such people are quick in making repartees. It may be on the assumption that persons quick in retorting may be timid that the clown is called a ‘coward’ by the ordinary people. Since cowardice is a sign of weakness and it can undermine constancy, the cowards are normally booed at. The coward in Ramanattam awkwardly feigns the actions of a mighty king, thereby provoking laughter in the audience.

Copycats of the Ramanattam clowns are found among our newspapers as well. Having failed to hit the nail on the head, they themselves become objects of their own ridicule. It was by donning the costumes of such a clown that the ‘Western Star,’* one of our own kind, came on stage yesterday, producing laughter in us. The editorial of this clown of a newspaper yesterday is nothing but the grotesque actions of the Ramanattam clown. It is by way of a warning to his fellow editors that this concerned editor has published his editorial. However, the cowardice, which is quite noticeable in it, clearly shows where he stands. This editor* opines that just saying that nothing will ever change for better unless the government officials themselves change positively is not enough; what is of utmost importance is bettering the style of criticism being followed by the newspapers themselves. An editorial in this paper recently said that an irresponsible opinion piece stuffed with damaging praise and reprimand in equal measure has made the atmosphere of this land toxic and, therefore, it behoves upon all of us to stop the spread of this malaise before it plunges the land into restlessness and crises. We have published in another column an English article written by a valued writer lamenting the paper’s lack of courage to name the paper that it has chosen to attack. Our knowledge of Malayalam papers being brought out in this state is in no way inferior to what this fellow traveller in journalism has grasped about them already. We do not know which paper can be faulted for publishing damaging praise and for a reckless reproach without taking the fallout into account. There are some Malayalam papers that live by showering unwarranted praise on the Diwan and other government officials. While some papers focus on unkind criticism, some others wield the weapons of reproach alone; even so, there are some papers that care to point out the undesirable and desirable elements of governance in equal measure. Nonetheless, we have not seen any paper as having handled praise and reproach to serve certain ulterior motives. The ‘Western Star’s’ discovery of them appearing together in a certain paper may be a demonstration of its inability to name the erring paper right away or it can be the result of an awkward tongue a la the Ramanattam clown. True to what our correspondent says, the damage caused by a ‘forked tongue’ can be more disastrous than what is caused by calling a spade a spade. To remain a forked tongue is the sign of a great mental illness; and it is not befitting the role newspapers are supposed to play as representatives of people. On the other hand, those who call a spade a spade are like those great enemies who come out in the open and fight, and the forked tongued ones are like the despised enemies who would like to shoot their arrows from behind a screen. What our fellow newspaper says about the atmosphere of our state having been infected with poisonous worms is true. If newspapers are responsible for bringing about such a situation, it can be traced back to ill-conceived editorials of clownish journalists with forked tongues, as in the present case. On the other hand, if it is because of the actions of government officials, it is due to the immoral activities of a Diwan like Mr. Rajagopalachari. We somehow feel that instead of setting out to act the role of a Ramanattam clown, it would do much good to our fellow journalist if he found time to warn the corrupt government officials against their erroneous ways and suggest ways to rectify them neatly. If they are reprimanded by somebody for their undesirable behaviour, know that once they correct their erroneous practices, the ground for reprimand will also be gone.

Notes by the translator:

*Name of a newspaper

*Refers to the editor of Svadeshabhimani newspaper