Translator of Kalam's book kept off dais on a swami's request

THRISSUR: There was widespread outrage across Kerala and on social media after a woman writer who had translated APJ Abdul Kalam's last book was denied a seat on the dais at the book release function because a Hindu sect prohibits its swamis, one of whom was a guest at the event, to sit next to women.
The release of the Malayalam translation of the former president's book 'Transcendence: My Spiritual Experience with Pramukh Swamiji' was scheduled at the Sahitya Akademi hall in Thrissur on Saturday but was finally cancelled after protesters stormed the venue.The book has been translated into Malayalam by Sreedevi S Kartha under the title 'Kalaatheetham' and has been published by Current Books.
Eminent Malayalam writer MT Vasudevan Nair was supposed to release the book by handing over a copy to Swami Brahmaviharidasji of Swaminarayan Ashram. The book, co-authored by Arun Tiwari, deals with the spiritual explorations of Kalam with Guru Pramukh Swamiji, the current head of the ashram.
Kartha alleged that the publishers did not allow her on the dais at the express request of ashram officials who informed them that Swami Brahmavihariji does not sit close to women. "I thought the publisher would tell the ashram authorities that they cannot condone such an anti-woman attitude. Current Books, which has inherited the legacy of a reformer like Joseph Mundassery, should have told the swami not to come. Instead, they decided to keep me away from the function. I feel this is an insult to the community of writers as a whole," she said.
After the move led to widespread protests, the publishers decided to keep the swami out of the function and release the book by handing over a copy to activist-writer Sarah Joseph. However, Joseph too had to face stiff protests at the venue by activists of various Left organisations who trooped into the hall and occupied the dais.
Current Books said that denying Kartha a seat was not deliberate. "Due to space and time constraints we actually eliminated the names of four speakers, including former chief secretary K Jayakumar and P T Rajasekharan, a close associate of Dr Kalam. The same happened to Kartha," said Peppin Thomas, managing director of Current Books.
However, Rajasekharan, who currently heads Bengaluru-based Panther Publishers, said the ashram had indeed intervened. "The ashram people asked me whether the people of Kerala would be ready to abide by the ashram's norm that swamijis should not share a dais with women. I told them this was the land of the renowned sage Sankaracharya and we will certainly abide by such ashram discipline," Rajasekharan said.
Sarah Joseph said that too much shouldn’t be read into the incident. "If the ashram has anti-women positions they must be strongly objected to. But Current Books may have only committed an error in judgement in this case. They have a history of having gone all out to bring out works of so many women even when such initiatives were not a fashion or economically viable," she said.
Arun Tiwari, who had spoken very highly of Kerala's literary culture at a pre-launch press conference on Friday, was evidently in a state of shock after witnessing the protests. "What to say now? It is better to keep silence on such occasions. We don't know who was invited and who wasn't," he said.
The publishers said the book will be formally released in a day or two at an undisclosed venue.