New Delhi: An expert on Rabindranath Tagore, Professor Ananda Lal, has not taken kindly to veteran actor and playwright Girish Karnad's remarks against the Bengali polymath. "Karnad has been saying this for the last 20 years that Tagore is an inferior dramatist, but when you reach a stature that Karnad has, you cannot misuse your position to talk unhistorically," Lal said.
Lal accused Karnad of "misinforming everyone and deliberately obfuscating". "When you have reached such a position, you cannot make such rash comments. The rebellion against Tagore is understandable, but why kick the ladder on which you are standing," he said. "You are being willfully ignorant," he added.
Karnad had called Tagore a second rate playwright, and in his defence, told CNN-IBN that he was great as a poet, but failed as a playwright. "He is not a great playwright, he is a great poet. We all are influenced by his poetry. He did not write great plays, he wrote mediocre plays. We should learn to be practical in this matter," Karnad told CNN-IBN.
A lot of criticism has already poured in on Karnad's statement. Professor Sukanta Chaudhuri, Professor Emeritus, Jadavpur University, said, "National furore doesn't surprise me. Tagore is not a religious leader. He himself stood for open mindedness, Girish Karnad has a right to his view but I strongly disagree with this view."...
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06:05 PM, Nov 10, 2012
Bangalore: Veteran actor and playwright Girish Karnad has stirred up another controversy. After criticising Nobel laureate VS Naipaul and calling him anti-Muslim, Karnad has now incurred the wrath of Bengal by targeting Rabindranath Tagore by calling him a second rate playwright. Karnad defended his statement while talking to CNN-IBN. "He is not a great playwright, he is a great poet. We all are influenced by his poetry. He did not...
09:40 AM, Nov 10, 2012
New Delhi: After publicly targeting Nobel laureate VS Naipaul and calling him anti-Muslim, veteran actor and playwright Girish Karnad has created another controversy by calling another Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore a "second rate playwright". "Tagore was a great poet but a second rate playwright," Karnad said. Karnad, who is also a famous theatre artist, claimed that Rabindranath Tagore's contemporaries also did not accept him as a playwright. "Rabindranath Tagore...
05:52 PM, Nov 09, 2012
Playwright Girish Karnad strongly defended his attack on VS Naipaul saying he has no regrets for publicly targeting the eminent writer. While speaking to Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose on Face the Nation, Karnad also went on to say that he didn't mind being called a professional secularist but Naipaul had no right to abuse Muslims. Here is the full transcript of the show: Sagarika Ghose: Hi there, good evening. Playwright...
12:36 PM, Nov 06, 2012
Playwright Girish Karnad has strongly defended his attack on VS Naipaul saying he has no regrets for publicly targeting the eminent writer. Karnad also went on to say that he didn't mind being called a professional secularist but Naipaul had no right to abuse Muslims. ...
11:55 PM, Nov 05, 2012
New Delhi: Playwright Girish Karnad has strongly defended his attack on VS Naipaul saying he has no regrets for publicly targeting the eminent writer. Karnad also went on to say that he didn't mind being called a professional secularist but Naipaul had no right to abuse Muslims. "I waited for this opportunity. I regret that he made the statement at this festival. An attack on Muslims annoys me. Naipaul is...
04:38 PM, Nov 04, 2012
New Delhi: The Mumbai Lit fest on Friday witnessed major drama when veteran actor and theatre artist Girish Karnad slammed Nobel prize laureate VS Naipaul and called him anti-Muslim. Karnad, who was present at the lit-fest on Friday to conduct a class on theatre, spoke at length about Naipaul. Karnad said, "Now Mr Naipaul has written three books on India, three very big books and if you read them you...
09:59 PM, Nov 03, 2012
Mumbai: Nobel laureate and Indian-origin author V S Naipual, known for his caustic writings on the country of his parentage, has said he has written enough about India and will not be writing anything more on it. "I don't think so. I've written enough about India. I've written these four books and two novels about India and many essays," Naipaul said. "My background is Indian, and I have always been...
02:21 PM, Nov 01, 2012
V S Naipaul sparked off another row by claiming that there has been no woman writer whom he considers his equal. What's your reaction to the statement made by Naipaul?
06:05 PM, Jun 18, 2011
One of India's best-known writers Amitav Ghosh speaks on VS Naipaul's recent comment on women authors. ...
11:41 AM, Jun 15, 2011
