Tamil writer A. Madhavan, who won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2015, died in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. He was 87 and is survived by two daughters.
Though he spent his entire life in Thiruvananthapuram and studied Malayalam in school, Mr. Madhavan came under the influence of the Dravidian movement and his stories were published in the Pongal special issues of magazines run by leaders of the movement.
“In those days, senior leaders including Anna, Kalaignar, Kannadasan and Nedunchezhian wrote in Murasoli. My name also figured without fail,” he had said in an interview.
Mr. Madhavan was attracted to social reformist ideas of the Dravidian movement. He told The Hindu on the occasion of winning the award that he would have joined politics if he were in Tamil Nadu. He was a voracious reader even though he had to quit school because of his family’s financial condition and was forced to work in a shop.
“It was the last phase of Second World War. After collecting hot ‘katti…
