The Torchbearers of Humanity: Trotsky Marudhu and the Eternal Tamil Spirit
cognishift.org COGNISHIFT INSIDER, VOL. 1, ISSUE 04/25
🕯️ The Torchbearers of Humanity: Trotsky Marudhu and the Eternal Tamil Spirit
A Reflection from The God of Deserted Memories
By Dr. Prashant Madanmohan (Dr. Leander)
Editor-in-Chief, Cognishift Insider | Author of The Monk with a Stethoscope & The God of Deserted Memories
In a world where the past is rewritten by victors and the present shaped by propaganda, truth, like art, becomes resistance. As we prepare to unveil The God of Deserted Memories—a literary and philosophical odyssey through the cultural legacies of India, Armenia, and France—at the Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai on May 11, it is only fitting to bring forth a chapter from the book that celebrates one of the fiercest defenders of cultural truth in our times: Trotsky Marudhu.
🎨 Meeting a Torchbearer
Trotsky Marudhu is no ordinary artist. He is a philosopher with a brush, a chronicler of Tamil pride, and a revolutionary voice in Indian computer graphics and modern visual storytelling. When I met him, I saw not only an artist but a guardian of a civilizational spirit that refuses to bow—the Tamil spirit.
His art—depictions of warriors, queens, and saints—is not about past glories. It is about reclaiming justice. Every brushstroke bears defiance; every composition, dignity. And like the Tamil language itself, his work endures: graceful in adversity, radiant in truth.
🗣️ Tamil — Not Just a Language, But a Way of Being
In our conversation, Marudhu quoted the legendary Sangam-era poet Kaniyan Pungundranar:
“Yaadhum Oore, Yaavarum Kelir”
Every land is my own, every person my kin.
This is not utopian idealism—it is the root philosophy of Tamil identity. Long before the world coined the term “global citizen,” ancient Tamil thinkers envisioned it.
Marudhu reminded me that in Sangam Tamil culture, strength did not lie in conquest, but in fairness. Kings paused mid-battle to allow their opponents to tie their armor. Rulers were judged not by might, but by justice. What a stark contrast to the glorified violence we see celebrated today.
📚 Art as Archive, Memory as Resistance
One of Marudhu’s most stirring comparisons was with Dürer’s Rhinoceros—a famous Renaissance artwork based on secondhand accounts, flawed, and wildly inaccurate. “This is how history is distorted,” he said. “When power writes the truth, it ceases to be truth.”
He spoke with fire about how Tamil legends like Agastya were misrepresented, their wisdom twisted to fit dominant narratives. And yet, like a silent manuscript passed through centuries, Tamil survived—through art, song, story, and defiance.
His artworks today stand as a counter-history, a visual act of reclamation.
🌍 Tamil: The Language of Refugees and Resistance
Perhaps the most touching part of our interaction was his work with refugee children across Europe. Teaching Tamil in Sicilian and German camps—not for fame or income—but to save identity from extinction.
One of his works, a powerful reimagining of the letter ‘ழ’ as a placenta nurturing unborn life, lingers in my mind. Tamil, for these children, was not grammar—it was survival.
How many cultures fight not to dominate, but simply to live?
🔥 A Philosophy for the Future
In The God of Deserted Memories, I journey across three civilizational landscapes—Tamil Nadu, Armenia, and France—where art becomes the language of memory. Through Leon, the book’s narrator, I ask whether identity can survive erasure, and whether remembrance can become resistance.
Marudhu’s art, his ideals, and Tamil’s legacy affirm that answer.
He is not just an artist—he is a torchbearer of humanity, one who fights myth with memory, oppression with philosophy, and division with vision.
🗓️ A Call to Remember – May 11
As we prepare for the art exhibition and book launch at Lalit Kala Akademi on May 11, we honor artists like Trotsky Marudhu—artists who refuse to forget, who draw not to please but to awaken.
Let The God of Deserted Memories be more than a book. Let it be a movement—a call to remember the forgotten, to listen to the silenced, and to rebuild a world where art is not commodity, but conscience.
We invite you to join us. Walk through memory, encounter justice, and witness the eternal Tamil spirit through the lens of art, literature, and identity.
📖 The God of Deserted Memories: A Literary and Philosophical Odyssey Through Art, Identity, and the Enduring Legacies of France, Armenia, and India
🎨 Exhibition & Book Launch: May 11, 2025
📍 Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai Regional Centre
⏰ 4:00 PM onwards
“Civilizations are not remembered for their conquerors, but for their torchbearers.”
📍 Published in the May–June 2025 issue of Cognishift Insider
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