“I see poetry itself as a political act,” said writer Perumal Murugan in a conversation (video above) with writer Githa Hariharan as part of the “Writers Talk Politics” series by the Indian Writers Forum. With Kannan Sundaram, publisher Kalachuvadu Pathippagam translating Murugan’s words, the conversation centred on caste, poetry and the influence of folklore in his writing. The Tamil writer has recently published a collection of short stories titled The Goat Thief and will be publishing a new novel early next year.

Murugan, who studied Tamil folklore, spoke about how his love for it seeps into his writing but also compelled him to compile a dictionary of words from Kongu Nada, the region of Tamil Nadu where he is from. The writer also spoke extensively about the nuances of writing about caste and what he felt was lacking in popular representation of castes from his part of the state.

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“I don’t record for the sake of recording in my creative works. I can do that in a dictionary or in an essay of folklore,” he said while speaking about how his fiction differs from a mere recording of the politics around him.

Referring to his collection of poetry that he published following his exile as a writer after caste groups in Tamil Nadu protested his writing, he said “I see poetry as a friend that I can share any aspect of my life with. Which is why I turn to poetry in times of stress or duress, that it why the collection of poetry is the first thing I published after my period of exile.”