Summary of The Dalit Presence in Malayalam Literature by Sunny M Kapikkad - Part I

 

Kapikkad starts the essay rising the issue of categorisation in Dalit literature. He identifies two types of approaches to Dalit literature in which the first one is labelling everything written about dalits as Dalit literature and the second is denying the rightful attention due to Dalit literature as a category. Both this approaches are problematic as the first one- anything written about dalits as dalit literature- reproduces the steriotypical representations of dalits in mainstream literature as dalit literature. In the second case, critics assume that the term dalit is a common term for designating the untouchables and refuse to acknowledge socio-political implications of the term especially its transformation to an epitome of India’s dreams of liberation. 

    Quoting Mahatma Phule, the writer hints at the deep rooted casteism of Indian psyche and its inability to appreciate dalit aesthetic experience. He, then, points at the role of social reformers such as E V Ramaswamy Naicker, Ambedkar, Sreenarayana Guru, Ayyankali, and Sahodaran Ayyappan in creating a new understanding and rebuilding the Indian psyche. The author states that Dalit literature is born out of the creative engagement of indian psyche with this historical formation.

    The possibility to form and transform oneself is the backbone of human freedom and the caste system in India limits this to caste norms one is born into; which denies the human potential to be free. We have to understand the organic relationship between anti-caste traditions with human freedom to fully realise the implications of dalit assertions. In India, caste values have been normalised and dalit literature has to contest with existing aesthetic traditions to develop an aesthetics of its own. 

    Dalit literature is a mode of self expression which challenges the class and caste values and aesthetics we have internalised. The anxiety about human liberation is the central concern of Dalit literature and it recurrently enters into the domain of language and value system to open up new vistas of understanding. He proceeds to reread certain canonical works in Malayalam literature which are instrumental in forming the aesthetic sensibility of Malayalees.

    The writer closely analyses the fictional world of NaluKettu, a novel on the disintegration of the matrilineal Nair tharavadu aristocracy in Kerala, and brings out the power politics implied in the text. Appunni, the protagonist, is forced to live away from the privilege and protection of the nalukettu as his mother is expelled from it for choosing a man of her choice as husband. The author notes that his anger and revenge for the house come not out of any concern for people who suffered under the feudal tharavadu but his expulsion from the resources and power of the house. He looks at Appunni’s lust for the fair, slender and physically attractive Amminiyedathi and neglect for the dark skinned Malu and observes that the novel operates on binary oppositions of fair/dark and Appunni’s lust for power and women forms the core of the novel. He is also critical of the wide reception of the novel and inquires into the role of the novel in forming the aesthetics of Malayalee readers. He concludes by commenting on the caste imprints of the rustic language used in the novel and stating how the aesthetics of the novel becomes a liability within the context of Hindu revivalism.

    Ningalenne Cammunistakki is a play by Thoppil Bhasi which dramatises the conflict between a crumbling Nair aristocracy and Communist Party. The author looks through the revolutionary sentiments of the text and drags out the orthodoxic caste consciousness that is at work in the text. He cites the cases of Chathan and Mala and their lack of social agency in the text. Mala’s love for Gopalan is turned down whereas his relation with Sumam is naturalised and Thomas, the party leader, admonishes Mala for crying over lost love when she has to lead the class struggle. The excitement shown by untouchable Chathan when touches Paramu Pillai is exaggerated in the play.

(This is not complete. Second session will be posted after this. Please click on the link to read Part II of the essay)