Perumal Murugan conferred with Man Bahadur Singh Lahak Samman

Tamil writer, scholar and literary historian Perumal Murugan has been conferred with the Man Bahadur Singh Lahak Samman for 2026, presented under the auspices of the Indian Languages Unity Forum (ILUF).

The recognition adds to an already distinguished body of honours for Perumal Murugan, who is one of contemporary Tamil literature's most celebrated and fiercely independent voices, said a media release.

The book that changed everything

At the heart of Murugan's rise to national and international prominence is Madhorubhagan, published in 2010 and translated into English as One Part Woman by Aniruddhan Vasudevan. The novel tells the story of Kali and Ponna, a childless couple in rural Tamil Nadu navigating the crushing social stigma of infertility.

Set against the backdrop of the Ardhanareeshvara temple festival near Tiruchengode, the narrative builds to a moment where Ponna is encouraged, by custom and family, to seek conception with a stranger during the chariot festival, a practice the novel presents as historically rooted in folk tradition.

When the novel was published in Tamil, it drew little attention beyond literary circles. But in 2014–15, caste and Hindu groups in Namakkal launched protests, demanding Murugan apologise and withdraw the book. Under sustained pressure, he issued a public statement declaring that "Writer Perumal Murugan is dead", a moment that sent shockwaves through India's literary community and ignited a fierce debate about creative freedom and censorship.

Also Read: How Perumal Murugan has crafted his phenomenal literary rebirth

The Madras High Court intervened in 2016 with a landmark ruling strongly upholding the right to free expression, delivering a resounding vindication. The judgment drew wide attention to the book, and the English translation went on to receive the ILF Samanvay Bhasha Samman and the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize. It was also longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2018.

A voice rooted in the land

Born on October 15, 1966, in a farming family near Tiruchengode in Namakkal district, Murugan grew up immersed in the culture and landscape that would define his fiction. He pursued Tamil literature through undergraduate and postgraduate study before earning an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the University of Madras. He went on to teach at government colleges while conducting extensive research into the folk traditions, idioms and oral narratives of the Kongu Nadu region.

His body of work spans 12 novels, six short story collections, six poetry collections and several non-fiction volumes. His finest work, Pookkuzhi (Pyre), was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. His another popular work Fire Bird won the JCB Prize for Literature the same year.

Also Read: The arid, defiant world of International Booker-longlisted Tamil writer Perumal Murugan

Hindi bridge

Adding a cross-linguistic dimension to Murugan's reach, Mohan Verma, an 88-year-old translator based in the United States, has translated several of his works into Hindi, including a rendering of his poetry collection as Ek Kapurush Ke Geet (Songs of a Coward), a quiet but significant effort to bring one of Tamil literature's most important voices to a wider Indian readership.