Capturing the cruelty of leprosy in a dark and merciless language Premium

The Hindu's Tamil Nadu InFocus on January 28, 2026

Leprosy is as old as humanity itself. The disease and those afflicted by it appear in the Bible, testament to its long and troubling presence in human history. For centuries, sufferers have been stigmatised, ostracised and pushed to the very edges of society, condemned to lives of exclusion and silence. The Nazis branded them worthless and executed them. In Tamil, the disease is known as Peruviyathi — a term that encapsulates its reputation as the most dreaded of afflictions, even though it rarely claims the lives of its victims. The fear it evokes arises not from death, but from disfigurement, isolation and the slow, relentless erosion of human dignity.

The anguish and alienation associated with leprosy have long made it a potent subject in literature, inspiring some of the modern writing in Tamil. To this tradition, a Sahitya Akademi Award–winning author has now added Noiputtru, perhaps the darkest and most unflinching literary exploration yet of a disease that has haunted civilisation for millennia.

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The writer, Imayam does not confine himself merely to depicting the squalid living conditions and loss of dignity imposed upon patients by society. In his characteristic prose — spare, relentless and unsentimental — he chronicles the disease itself with minute precision: its progression, the methods of treatment, the institutions created to contain the afflicted, and the grim resignation with which patients ultimately confront their fate.

“You will survive only if you feel the pain. Otherwise, your story is all but over. Your face itself bears witness. The hairs of your eyebrows have fallen. Your ears have thickened. Your nose has flattened. There is no doubt — it is leprosy.” Thus begins Imayam’s novel, as a doctor explains Chinnasami’s condition to him.

By juxtaposing Chinnasami’s condition with that of Ganesan, the protagonist of Pasitha Manidam, who is also afflicted by leprosy, it becomes clear that the disease respects neither social status nor privilege. Ganesan is a wealthy Brahmin, yet his suffering is no less brutal.