R. N. Joe D'Cruz is a
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
writer, novelist and documentary film director from
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
, India. He won the
Sahitya Akademi award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
in 2013 in the
Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...
category for his novel ''Korkai''. He is the Tamil Nadu state president of
Samskrita Bharati
Samskrita Bharati ( sa, संस्कृतभारती, Saṁskr̥tabhāratī, translit-std=ISO, ) is a non-profit organisation working to revive Sanskrit. Sanskrit was a pan-Indian language in the Vedic and classical period but lost its ...
.
Joe D'Cruz has also been a managerial-executive in the shipping industry for a long time and is currently a member of the National Shipping Board of the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.
Life
Joe D'Cruz was born in a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
Paravar
Paravar (also known as Bharathar or Bharathakula and sometimes colloquially as 'Fernando') is a Tamil maritime community, mainly living in the state of Tamil Nadu in India and in Sri Lanka. Pandyas aka Bharathavars are the Ancient Sea Farers and ...
family in
Uvari
Uvari is a coastal village in Thisayanvilai Taluk, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, India. It is also called Karaichuthu Uvari. The total geographical area of the Uvari is around .
History
According to Tamil history, the citizens of Uvari wer ...
, a coastal village in
Tirunelveli District of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
. He did his schooling in Uvari and
Idaiyangudi
Idaiyangudi is a village , at Idaiyangudi panchayat in Tirunelveli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies between Uvari and Thisayanvilai. The nearest railway station is Nanguneri and the nearest airport is in Thoothukudi. It is wel ...
. He graduated with an M.A.(Economics) at
Loyola College, Chennai
Loyola College is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1925 by the French Jesuit priest, Francis Bertram, along with other European Jesuits. It is an auto ...
and did his M.Phil at
St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. He is married to Sasikala and has two children.
He has been working in the shipping industry for more than two decades.
Works
Joe D'Cruz published a Tamil poetry compilation, ''Pulambazhkal'', in 2004. His
Sahitya Akademi award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
-winning novel ''Korkai'' was originally published in 2009 and prior to that his 2005 novel ''Aazhi Soozh Ulagu'' was awarded the Tamil Nadu state government literary award and
Tamil Literary Garden award. Both his novels are based on history and the lives of Parathavar fishermen of Tamil Nadu. The first novel ''Aazhi Soozh Ulagu'' dealt with the lives of fishermen who used
catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...
s and their
conversion to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. Different Christian denominations may perform various different kinds of rituals or ceremonies initiation into their community of believ ...
. The second novel titled ''Korkai'' refers to
Korkai
Korkai is a small village in the Srivaikuntam taluk of Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, India. It was called Pandya-Kavada in the Kapatapuram in Kalithogai. It is situated about 3 km north of the Thamirabarani River and about 6 k ...
, an ancient port city ruled by
Early Pandyan Kingdom
The Early Pandyas of the Sangam period were one of the three main kingdoms of the ancient Tamil country, the other two being the Cholas, and Cheras Dynasty. As with many other kingdoms around this period (earlier than 200 BCE), most of the inf ...
. It is about the 20th century community of pearl and conch divers there.
He also filmed documentary films such as ''Vidiyatha Pozhuthukal'' (2008), ''Towards Dawn'' (2010).
His films mostly based on sufferings of Tamil fishermen. He wrote the dialogue for Tamil movie
Maryan. He opposed
Kudankulam nuclear power project, arguing it will affect the livelihood of the fishermen.
He has also expressed his reservations on the upcoming International Container Transhipment Terminal at Enayam,
Kanyakumari District
Kanniyakumari district is one of the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu state and the southernmost district in mainland India. It stands second in terms of population density among the districts of Tamil Nadu. It is also the richest district in Tamil Nad ...
. He is in favour of developing existing ports over initiating new port projects in India.
Support for LGBTQIA+ Community
Joe D'Cruz along with writer
Aravindan Neelakandan
''Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines'' (Amaryllis, 2011) is a book written by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan which argues that India's integrity is being undermined by the support of western insti ...
supported the initiatives of
Gopi Shankar Madurai
Gopi Shankar Madurai, born 13 April 1991, is an Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist. Shankar was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer statutory authority and one of the candidates to contest in 201 ...
and served on the advisory board of Srishti Madurai under
Anjali Gopalan,
Bracha Ettinger
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger (born March 23, 1948) is an Israeli people, Israeli artist, painter and writer, visual analyst, psychoanalyst and philosopher, living and working in Paris and Tel Aviv. She is regarded as a major French people, French ...
.
Views
The Indian Express
reported that Joe D'Cruz received threats and hate-mail after he expressed support for the BJP PM Candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mr.
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
, on his Facebook page. A translation of his work ''‘Aazhi Soozh Ulagu’'' into English, was also halted in retaliation by his publisher Navyana and the translator Geetha.
[
He turned as a strong critic of the ]Bharatiya Janata party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
, three years later. In an interview with ''The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', he claimed to have realised that because Modi rose up through the grassroot levels, it was a myth that he would become a strong Prime Minister, and that the BJP leadership appears to be focused in reinforcing the caste structure and Manu Smriti
The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote their ...
. He also criticized the BJP for emboldening political forces to kill people for eating beef. In June 2017, he claimed that there is "No place for poor" in the agenda of Prime minister Narendra Modi. He criticized the proposed Maritime Container Terminal at Enayam by the BJP government and said the promoters of the project were claiming that the Enayam coastline was a natural harbour but the coast is vulnerable to natural calamities.
Bibliography
Novels
*''Aazhi Soozh Ulagu''
*''Korkai''
*''Asthinapuram''
*''Verpiditha Vilai Nilangal''
*''Kavanam thedum Kadaloram''
*''Padaipugalin Uraiyadal''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:DCruz, Joe
Living people
Tamil-language writers
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Tamil
St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli alumni
People from Tirunelveli district
Writers from Tamil Nadu
Loyola College, Chennai alumni
1969 births