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)

Analysis of Black Dance by K K S Das

           K K S Das was one of the early dalit writers in Malayalam. He engaged with the dalit political movements and also played a significant role in dalit assertions in Malayalam. An active member of SEEDIAN, he was conscious of the deep rooted structures of caste in Indian society and believed that the formulation of a counter culture is the need of the hour. He emphasised the need of creating a protest culture which would challenge the Brahminic values.

            Black Dance is one of the poems written by KKS Das in which the poet urges the subaltern communities like cherumis to give up their slavish labour at the landlord’s fields and asks them to take up their tools to fight against the oppressors. He kindles their sense of pride in themselves as they are the force that moves the land, and prepares it for farming. He also indicates the strength of the lower castes as they are involved in the manual labour and offers a nuanced description of the physical labour that these communities do and portrays the injustice they are rewarded with. He gives vent to the agonies of the community informing the atrocities committed by the lords on the hapless workers and the endless toil of them though they are kept hungry on most of the days of the year.

           The poet makes the clarion call to all the lower castes to fight against oppression. He is aware that any encounter with the upper castes needs ideological strength and he excavates the buried gods and goddesses of the dalits and invokes those powers of destruction to enter into a dance of destruction. Here the poet unveils cultural memory of the community and connects the bound labourers to their own collective memory and prompts them to act. He lists forgotten gods and weapons of the underdogs such as Kali, Valan, Kalan, Velan, Matan and weapons such as saw, lance death nose etc,etc...He resists the efforts of the savarna castes to brahminise local gods and goddesses and appropriate them into the fold of braminic value system.

           Enraged at the legitimate violence of casteism in India, the poet sings of taking violent revenge. Though many readers may hesitate to accept the violent rage in the poem, the poet is unambiguous to seek for bloody revenge as he ask for “We shall take revenge/eye for an eye/Tooth for a tooth” All the gods he has invoked are gods of destruction, and they need to be propitiated by animal sacrifice. His outburst is a result of the centuries old ruthless suppression of the slaves and the denial of human justice. Now, they are freed from the bondage by the gods of destruction that they are dancing to lay waste the ivory towers of the lords. He will definitely find it a reversal of the situation and believes in ‘setting the score’. It is also important that the writer has identified with others such as Kannaki who have been denied of justice. Then poem concludes with note of revenge and hope “Let tongues cut off turn/ into tongues of flames; /Let the oppressed masses rise up/and settle the score”

            As Raj Gautham, one of the leading Tamil Dalit thinkers, observes, ‘annihilation of caste is possible only when dalit culture becomes a protest culture and it must spring from the cultural roots of the community’. Das also forges a new idiom for dalit literature as he has challenged the domination of the upper castes and encourages the oppressed to take up arms by unearthing their own cultural resources. Liberation is possible when communities involved in fighting maintain their own cultural identity and place the struggles within their cultural memory.