Bikram Rout at 00:54, 27 May 2025

2025-05-27T00:54:20Z

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{{Short description|Indian playwright}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Civic Chandran
| image = Civic_Chandran_(Malayalam_Writer).jpg
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| pseudonym =
| birth_name = C. V. Kuttan
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|04|05|df=y}}
| birth_place = Murikungal, [[Trichur district]], [[Travancore-Cochin]]
| death_date = 
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| occupation = Teacher, writer, editor, activist
| language = [[Malayalam]]
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| spouse = P. Sridevi
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| children = 2
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'''Civic Chandran''' (born 5 April 1951) is an Indian playwright, poet, editor, former [[Naxalite]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Chronicling a revolution |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/review-of-naxal-dinangal-keralathile-naxalitemaoist-prasthanathinte-samagra-charithram/article7765418.ece |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=15 October 2015}}</ref> social activist and political commentator from [[Kerala]]. He is the editor of ''Patabhedam'' magazine. He was instrumental in popularising [[street theatre]] in Kerala and is a strong critic of Kerala's mainstream left.

==Life==
He was born on 5 April 1951 in Murikungal village near [[Kodakara]] in [[Trichur district]]. He was the eldest of four children born to Velappan and Lakshmi. His birth name was C. V. Kuttan.<ref name="Bio">{{cite web |title=സിവിക്‌ ചന്ദ്രൻ |url=http://www.puzha.com/malayalam/bookstore/cgi-bin/author-detail.cgi?code=698 |website=Puzha.com |access-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804023749/http://www.puzha.com/malayalam/bookstore/cgi-bin/author-detail.cgi?code=698 |archive-date=2020-08-04 |language=ml}}</ref> From 1968 to 1981, he worked as a teacher in [[Wayanad]] and [[Eranad]]. In 1981, he was suspended from the job on charges of [[Naxalite]] links. Following the acquittal by the High Court, he returned to teaching in 1991.<ref name="Bio"/> Now retired, he lives in West Hill, [[Calicut]]. He was married to P. Sridevi, who died some years before. There were two daughters from the marriage.<ref name="Bio"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Anna Bijoy |title=For the love of transcreation |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2019/jun/11/for-the-love-of-transcreation-1988584.html |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[The New Indian Express]] |date=11 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612131552/https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2019/jun/11/for-the-love-of-transcreation-1988584.html |archive-date=12 June 2019}}</ref>

In July 2022, a complaint was lodged against Civic Chandran for sexually assaulting a woman activist.<ref>{{cite news |title=Writer Civic Chandran booked on charge of sexual assault |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/writer-civic-chandran-booked-on-charge-of-sexual-assault/article65651443.ece |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=17 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717160439/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/writer-civic-chandran-booked-on-charge-of-sexual-assault/article65651443.ece |archive-date=17 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Feminist movement in State split over Civic Chandran case' |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/feminist-movement-in-state-split-over-civic-chandran-case/article65845650.ece |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=3 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220903165316/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/feminist-movement-in-state-split-over-civic-chandran-case/article65845650.ece |archive-date=3 September 2022}}</ref>

==Career==
Civic was a member of the editorial board of ''Yanan'' magazine. This magazine was later confiscated by the government. He was imprisoned during [[The Emergency (India)|the Emergency]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=P. Venugopal |title=Remembering Rajan, the Innocent Victim of Brutal Emergency Excesses |url=https://thewire.in/politics/remembering-rajan-the-innocent-victim-of-brutal-emergency-excesses |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]] |date=27 June 2015}}</ref> He edited an anthology of poems titled ''Thadavara Kavithakal'' (Poems from Prison). He notes that political prisoners like him started to write poems in prison as part of survival and resistance.<ref>Mini Chandran (2017). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=wxtBDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22civic+chandran%22&pg=PT155 The Writer, the Reader and the State: Literary Censorship in India]''. India: SAGE Publications.</ref>

Civic was the secretary of ''Janakiya Samskarika Vedi'' and editor of its mouthpiece ''Prerana''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=K. Sreejith |title=Naxalite Movement and Cultural Resistance: Experience of Janakiya Samskarika Vedi in Kerala (1980-82) |journal=[[Economic and Political Weekly]] |date=2005 |volume=40 |issue=50 |pages=5333–5337 |jstor=4417526 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4417526.pdf |access-date=13 February 2023}}</ref> Civic was instrumental in popularising [[street theatre]] in Kerala.<ref name="Bio"/> The magazines ''Vakku'' and ''Patabhedam'' were published under his leadership.<ref name="Bio"/> In 1995, he staged the play ''Ningal Aare Communist Akki'' (Who did you make a communist), a counter drama based on [[Thoppil Bhasi]]'s ''[[Ningalenne Communistakki|Ningal Enne Communist Akki]]'' (You made me a communist).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shaju Philip |title=Civic Chandran: Radical Left thinker and CPM critic, now at centre of sexual assault row |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/civic-chandran-sexual-assault-case-bail-cpm-8098403/ |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[The Indian Express]] |date=18 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818170929/https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/civic-chandran-sexual-assault-case-bail-cpm-8098403/ |archive-date=18 August 2022}}</ref> The play sparked off a storm by taking an unsparing look at mainstream communism, calling it anti-Dalit and patriarchal.<ref>{{cite news |last1=M. G. Radhakrishnan |title=Plans to stage controversial play, Ningal Are Communistakki?, rouse Kerala communists' ire |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-and-the-arts/story/19950831-plans-to-stage-controversial-play-ningal-are-communistakki-rouse-kerala-communists-ire-807665-1995-08-30 |access-date=13 February 2023 |work=[[India Today]] |date=31 August 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213163924/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-and-the-arts/story/19950831-plans-to-stage-controversial-play-ningal-are-communistakki-rouse-kerala-communists-ire-807665-1995-08-30 |archive-date=13 February 2023}}</ref> The play also led to the ''[[Civic Chandran v. Ammini Amma]]'' case, a landmark case in Indian copyright law.

Civic is a regular columnist in magazines and newspapers and writes about cultural issues. Civic is a distinct voice in Kerala's cultural arena, often clashing with and opposing the traditional left. He handled columns in ''[[Madhyamam]]'' and ''[[India Today]]''. He is now the editor of ''Pathabhedam'' magazine.<ref name="Bio"/>

==Works==
; Poetry
* ''Thadavara Kavithakal'' (ed.)
* ''Velichathekurichoru Gitam''
* ''Griha Pravesam''
* ''Valathuvasam Chernnu Nadakkuka'' (2017)<ref>{{cite news |author1= |date=4 December 2017 |title=സിവിക്കിന്റെ ചോദ്യങ്ങള്‍ സമൂഹത്തെ തട്ടിക്കുടയുന്നു- സാറാ ജോസഫ് |url=https://archives.mathrubhumi.com/books/news/civic-chandran-sarah-joseph-mathrubhumi-book-fair-1.2433751 |newspaper=[[Mathrubhumi]] |access-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230213155447/https://archives.mathrubhumi.com/books/news/civic-chandran-sarah-joseph-mathrubhumi-book-fair-1.2433751 |archive-date=13 February 2023}}</ref>

; Plays
* ''Kurisu Yuddham Thudangunnavar''
* ''Thamrapathrangal'' (''Akshouhini'')
* ''Ningal Aare Communist Akki''
* ''Ezhupathukalil Sambhavichath''
* ''Agnaye Idam Na Mama''
* ''Ningal Enthinanu Ente Kuttiye Perumazhayathu Nirthiyirikunath'' (2012)<ref>{{cite web |author1=[[M. Thomas Mathew]] |title=മൗനത്തിന്റെ മുഴക്കങ്ങൾ |url=http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/1680 |website=[[Madhyamam Weekly]] |access-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121220090014/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/1680 |archive-date=20 December 2012}}</ref>

; Essays
* ''Antennayil Kattu Pidikkumpol''
* ''Karinkanna Nokkanda'' (2001)<ref>{{cite web |title=കരിങ്കണ്ണാ നോക്കണ്ടാ |url=http://www.puzha.com/malayalam/bookstore/cgi-bin/book-detail.cgi?code=1202 |website=Puzha.com |access-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404055224/http://www.puzha.com/malayalam/bookstore/cgi-bin/book-detail.cgi?code=1202 |archive-date=2016-04-04 |language=ml}}</ref>
* ''Gamayude Paitrukam''

; Memoirs
* ''Ezhupathukal Vilichappol'' (2009)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://rcw-asia.com/browsearchives/archives/interview-with-civic-chandran "Interview With Civic Chandran"] at RCW Asia
; Articles
* Civic Chandran (14 May 2017). [https://web.archive.org/web/20170516005751/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/in-the-wake-of-the-spring-thunder-naxalbari-maoists-communism-4654673/ "In the wake of the Spring Thunder"]. ''[[The Indian Express]]''
* Civic Chandran (5 March 2018). [https://countercurrents.org/2018/03/give-land-life-self-rule-adivasis-another-madhu-lynched/ "Give Land, Life and Self-Rule For Adivasis Before Another Madhu is Lynched"]. Countercurrents.org
* Civic Chandran (13 November 2020). [https://truecopythink.media/civic-chandran-about-sheena-jose "അങ്ങനെയാണ് ആക്ടിവിസത്തിലേക്ക് പൊട്ടിച്ചിരി കടന്നുവന്നത്..."]. Truecopythink.media (in Malayalam)

[[Category:Malayalam-language dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Malayalam poets]]
[[Category:Malayalam-language journalists]]
[[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from Kerala]]
[[Category:Indian columnists]]
[[Category:Indian magazine editors]]
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Writers from Thrissur district]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Indian human rights activists]]
[[Category:Activists from Kerala]]

Civic Chandran - Revision history

Bikram Rout at 00:54, 27 May 2025