Sahityasetu

Abstract:

Malayalam Dalit writing project is a highly political enterprise that aims at engaging, critically interpreting, and deconstructing Kerala culture. The cultural erasure of the subaltern is structurally enabled and systemically curated. Subaltern oppression is a cultural formation ingrained into the edifices of society and normalized through centuries of reproduction and reenactment through ritual performances in all institutional mechanisms. Only by identifying the presence of oppression, narrating its hidden manifestations into visibility, and genealogically interpreting the causes, curing systemic ills could happen. Malayalam Dalit writing gains its politics, aesthetics, and narrative dynamics from that need. It is in its emerging stages in terms of literary output. Still, it has got great relevance viewing it from the perspective of greater ideals of equality, human rights, and political freedom. Ultimately subaltern entry into narration and writing contributes to the fulfillment of the larger project of establishing a truly egalitarian nation-state based on the principles of democracy and humanism. Dalit writing draws its inspiration from the ages-old experience of Dalit communities that include tribals. The paper maps the general territory of this writing and how it functions within the mainstream literary tradition. It delineates the radical legacy of contemporary Dalit writing that falls back to the high days of Kerala renaissance during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Dalit writing is a significant cultural critique and we can compare it with postcolonial writing and feminist writing, undertaking the project of writing into existence the voices of the silenced.

Key Words:Humanism, subaltern, resistance literature, oppression, democracy, equality

Dalit writing in Malayalam carries forward the political project of subaltern politics. In Kerala caste plays out differently when one compares the societies in other Indian states. Kerala has benefited much from modernity and the socio-cultural upheavals it enabled and orchestrated. As a result, relatively, caste is not such a visible presence in Kerala society. Yet it is analyzed that deep inside, caste plays a greater role in Kerala’s social unconscious. Dalit writing in Malayalam addresses this hidden operation of caste in the social mind of Kerala. Dalit writing exposes, discusses, interprets, and actively discourses caste issues and structuralized oppression based on caste. It carries forward the project laid out by the subaltern studies in India which have inspired and informed Dalit writing. Dalit writing thus contributes to the fulfillment of the larger project of establishing a truly egalitarian nation-state based on the principles of democracy and humanism. Malayalam Dalit writing draws its inspiration from the ages-old experience of Dalit communities that include tribals. The experiences and history of the Dalit communities in Kerala have not been narrated into the mainstream experience and are in a state of constant erasure. The dominant cultural forces ensure that the Dalit history and cultural experiences are not made part of the mainstream historic discourse. Malayalam Dalit writing, like Dalit writing anywhere else, has thus a highly political aim and objective; it is a political project to remedy the cultural corruption that caste has been doing all these years, rendering a considerable section of the society reel under perpetual emotional, intellectual and political bondage. The rationale is to force a cultural amendment to happen so that the society is cured of its internal corruption enabled systemically and structurally. The structural and systemic functioning of caste cannot be cured by simply wishing it away. Concerted action – political, cultural, aesthetic, psychological and most importantly academic interventions of the most effective sort – is required to transform a society. The goal is to realize the dreams of our founding fathers and to set a society firmly upon the ideals of modernity and the principles of human rights.

Dalit movement in Kerala supplements Kerala modernity and critically engages with it by exposing the chinks in it bringing into sharp critical focus events touted as landmarks in Kerala history. The much-acclaimed land reforms are not now viewed in so positive a light, an upshot of the sharper enquiries made by Dalit intellectuals laying bare critically the circumstances that shaped the reforms and the discourses that peddled it as an event of greater significance than it actually was. Discourses that located land reforms as a ground-breaking historical milestone also restrained alternative narrations that critically evaluated what Dalits accrued from the much hyped-up reforms. That this narrative repression was mainly orchestrated by left intelligentsia complicates the matter further and tells a lot about the utter breakdown of an ideology when it came to real material practice. It also tells a lot about the failure of the orientation of leftist ideology in India that malfunctioned when it came to finding solutions to caste oppression. The tyranny of caste repression cannot be explained from the structural framework of Marxism that views society and its working in terms of class. This historic necessity to release discourses that have been contained so far by the Marxist theory and praxis is to be viewed as an outcome of postmodern thinking that challenges metanarratives of all sorts. Intellectual energies let loose after the 1960s have had an impact on the way history is narrated and perceived, where every narration is viewed as a text, a site where the power and ideology of the dominant forces converge. Discursive forces exclude certain narratives and include certain other narratives; all depend on the dynamics of power and economic imperatives. The exclusion-inclusion dynamic qualifies every discourse. The excluded are now challenging the mainstream. Dalit writing in Malayalam problematizes mainstream narration of Kerala culture and history and brings into discussion the suppressed past of Kerala. What has been lying in a state of erasure gains visibility and political potency and challenges the general historical sensibility of the people. Mainstream political parties are left with no option other than incorporate the new perspectives into their ideological framework, which again is viewed as an act of containment and appropriation. However, the visibility of Dalit politics is undeniable. Mere visibility may not be the indication of a radical change and effect. The aspect of containment(the modus operand has always been the same: that of patronizing the politics) and appropriation needs wider discussion and analysis. Dalit politics must be wary of these two and must constantly engage with them critically to preserve the radical trait intact and prevent loss of focus upon the main objectives. Taking sides with existing political formulations may prove counter-productive. The onus is to chart a new territory based on a new aesthetics and approach. Dalit writing in Malayalam has already done so. It has charted its territories, located its discursive other, formulated strategies for repelling patronizing forces, and critically engaging with appropriating politics. It's intend and approach are political. To perceive it with the literary frameworks of mainstream aesthetic principles misses the point when it comes to analyzing Dalit writing. This is a mode of writing in which the cultural experience of being a Dalit and its historical and cultural specificities are captured. It can be explained from the perspective of cultural trauma. The need is to eschew the social imaginary of its festering wounds and memories that stealthily operate to undermine the progress of a society.

Malayalam Dalit writing aims to make a neglected and excluded realm of historical experience part of the mainstream consciousness thereby humanize society by ensuring that the avowed principles of democracy are fulfilled. It critically engages with Kerala modernity and analyses its pitfalls and cover-ups. It interprets on a deeper level where modernity failed and how the failures and shortcomings can be overcome by developing a politics that would recognize the reality of Dalit oppression which is systemically enabled. Only through epistemological changes lasting and real progress can be achieved by the state. Kerala modernity covers up the subjugation and exploitation of Dalits and tribals in Kerala. Literature, by virtue of its very nature has got the potential to go deep into the structures of oppression and the systemic apparatus that enables and reproduces oppression through various ways and means. Literature unravels the deeper mysteries of human existence and has got the potential to subliminally transport ideological awareness into society. Literature can thus bring about epistemological changes and can influence social discourses. Occurrences like these are prerequisites for transforming a society from the foundation.

Cultural trauma is another issue addressed by Dalit writing. Cultural trauma is an invidious presence in any society that rots it from inside and degenerates democracy. Dalit writing engages with curing society of its pent-up traumas, thus contributes to refining society and amplifying its democratic potential. Dalit communities carry with them the baggage of the past which operate culturally to keep them in bondage even during the 21st century. Dalit literature goes deep into the causes and dynamics of this trauma and finds a solution by not only politically charging the Dalits but also by changing the perception of the mainstream society and make them realize their participation in keeping structures of oppression and subjugation intact. Dalit writing goes into the genealogy of subject experiences of a Dalit in his day-to-day interaction with the general society.

Political intervention of Dalit consciousness through aesthetical means in Kerala is not a new phenomenon but can be traced back to the period of the high days of Kerala renaissance during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The period called the Kerala renaissance was a turbulent period in which socio-political movements shook the centuries-old cultural foundations of Kerala. The political formation of Kerala state took place only in 1956, but Malayali identity formation on the lines of modernity took place in the discursive contexts of the renaissance. A sense of being Malayali, characterized by a sensibility not to be subsumed under the wider formation of the nation, by a global outlook with the ability to rise above mere linguistic and cultural identity and to define the cultural self as an opened-up one, assimilating the experiences and knowledge of the collective humanity characterizes the fluid self of a Malayali, a cultural aspect with which a Kerala attempts to define itself and wishes to be recognized by. Though possessing such a modern cultural sensibility and considerable changes occurred in the status of marginalized people with independence and constitutional governance, Dalit conditions in Kerala remain a neglected territory. New age manifestations of untouchability and exclusion that are structurally curated and systemically practiced, rendered invisible by improvisations of progressive discourses, problematize the professed achievements of Kerala in human development and cultural progress. Kerala society is a cultural performance in which the dominant discourse of progress and forward-thinking cunningly suppresses Dalit voice and political identity. Dalit identity formation and political intervention through aesthetic means have attempted to address these glaring lacunae of the so-called progressive movements.

Reformist intervention in the state initiated a process of cultural criticism within the state. All cultural apparatuses came under the critical scanner of the educated intellectuals in all walks of life. Educational empowerment came via missionary intervention whose zeal to educate the masses most often gained priority in the beginning than its proselytizing tendency. Western enlightenment modernity and western laws and administrative practices brought considerable changes in Kerala society. These kinds of systemic interventions and the spread of enlightenment humanism shook the foundations of Kerala society and gave it a politics of purpose and direction. Lower caste protest movements were education-and-organization-oriented and functioned as catalysts to wider political movements. One of the most influential political thinkers of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt, argues in her book, The Human Condition, that the capacity of human beings to analyze ideas and then apply them in their lives is what makes us uniquely human and drives the progress of society(Arendt 176). She was talking about the fascinating term ‘praxis. Exposure to western religion and enlightenment thought gave new ideas to the suppressed people of Kerala which they could convert into actions oriented towards refining the self and society. With the alternate religious, social and cultural praxis they could compare and contrast the ages-old tradition and practices with a new standard. European enlightenment modernity invested a new critical sensibility among people. Armed with new thoughts and politics they could refashion their lives and negotiate cultural terrains marked by injustice and discrimination. It gave them an ethical and critical apparatus to identify the millennia-old hegemonic structures that critics now recognize as part of the internal imperialism functioning systemically within the society.

Articulations to resist caste hegemony, to offer counter-narratives, and to posit alternative perceptions were an integral part of the oral-literary traditions in Kerala. The forceful entry of such articulations to cultural imagination occurred with the Ayyankali movement in southern Kerala in the late 19th century. It was a radical departure and rupture in the cultural scene. Ayyankali is still a motivating force, functions as the critical referral point for galvanizing, re-energizing, and defining the subaltern politics in Kerala. Ayyankali’s was essentially the typical protest praxis of the ideals of enlightenment humanism, the effect of which is still felt and is functioning culturally and critically. Essentially it was a struggle for human rights and basic dignity. Specificity was what characterized Ayyankali’s protest praxis. The struggle was to use public roads, schools, other social spaces, and institutions for Dalits too. The exclusionary function of hierarchal structures became his target and he became the first Dalit leader in Kerala to organize an agricultural strike on a large scale for the right of education for the children of the untouchables (Anilkumar 74). Ayyankali, inspired by the ethical teachings of Sree Narayana Guru who espoused the ideals of humanism, critically improvised these ideas to engage with the cultural apparatuses of Kerala society. Ayyankali fought for humanizing the suppressed and injected their lives with a new sense and purpose and encouraged them to become makers of their destiny. He politicized the subjectivity of the subaltern and inspired them to become agencies of their selves. To many, he is the greatest revolutionary and cultural reader of Kerala history. Unlike in many parts of India renaissance in Kerala came from the lowest rung of society. This accounts for some fundamental changes that occurred in Kerala society during the twentieth century. Ayyankali is a prime example of how revolution from below was instrumental in bringing changes where it needed the most. The Politicization of the downtrodden through revolutionary movement accounts for the sustainability of the state’s social development, as it leads the country in most of the human development indices.

Ayyankali intervened in changing the caste impositions that played it out on the body of the subaltern. He found that the restrictive dress codes were inhuman and demeaning (The Dalits were not allowed to cover the upper part of the body). He could see that the dress codes that the Dalits had to follow as a cultural practice was in effect operated on the psychological level and drained their selves of agency and individuality. Another caste marker was the customary wearing of kallumala (stone chain). Ayyankali fought for abandoning these restrictive codes and demeaning rituals that proclaimed inferiority through the body. Changing such humiliating marks from the body and gaining the basic human right to cover the body had a far-reaching effect on politicizing the subaltern and installing the ideas of modernity in the mind of the subaltern. Ayyankali’s actions spread the enlightenment ideas of equality, human rights, freedom of thought and expression, etc. in the minds of the subaltern. In his bullock cart rides, he used white clothes and a turban to wear, marking his body with aspects of defiance and turning his body into a site of political action. Such symbolic gestures were far more potent than mass political action or writing articles in the newspapers. He converted ideology into a performance and display with massive political impact.

Ayyankali started a traditional school (kudi pallikkodam) at Venganoor, in Thiruvananthapuram in 1904. This school was attacked and burnt down by upper-caste Hindu groups. Ayyankali kept on the struggle and succeeded in persuading the authorities, the royal government, who took benevolent decisions, to allow Dalits to enter public-funded schools. The royal decree in 1907 that allowed Dalits to study in government schools was suppressed by society for many years. People like Ayyankali had to continually struggle for more years to make the entry real. Ayyankali organized people and agitated and initiated a farmer’s strike for the educational rights of the subaltern. Ayyankali provided a political context of symbolic actions and direct political activism which the later revolutionaries could work in. Narayana guru wrote in this historic context curated by the radical interventions of Ayyankali and the like.

These days Ayyankali is remembered as a champion of human rights and subaltern empowerment. Kerala is praised for its democratic ideals that function strongly at the working-class level in contrast to many parts of India where democratic discourse has not actually activated subaltern politics at the grassroots level. This activating of the subaltern and making them think about his subjectivity and forces that govern his life is the greatest contribution of Ayyankali. His path-breaking agitations set off a political culture of agitations, dissent, and defiance that went on to mark Kerala politics in the years to come.

The struggle of the Dalits was both cultural and epistemological. Protest praxis of Ayyankali and the epistemological revision of Sree Narayana Guru gave a strong impetus to the movement. Narayana guru’s disciple Sahodaran Ayyappan took the struggle forward with his relentless opposition to caste and religious hierarchies. In the following decades, Poykayil Appachan emerged as a prominent Dalit leader. Poyka worked with the missionaries of central Travancore and associated with various Christian sects. Appachan formulated a theological framework for the liberation of Dalits from caste oppression. Appachan’s songs and speeches, now compiled by scholars, are now recognized as articulations of authentic Dalit sensibility. Subaltern articulations were intermittent and feeble and hegemonic forces quickly silenced them. With Appachan, the assertion becomes strong and directed and his realization that mere change of religion does not wipe out entrenched untouchability and systemic oppression, a realization that accounts for his sustained stressful relationship with the institutions of Christianity, made his critical negotiations teleological, i.e grappling more with the functioning of caste in the present than the causes of it. Critical engagement with the past does become a concern but the express need to address the issues of the present activated his political sensibility the most. His focus on contingent issues gave the struggle a new purpose and function and defined his Dalit aesthetics.

Dalit politics focuses mainly on resisting the internal imperialism of varna and caste. Protesters, dissenters, and activists focused their attention on charting out courses of action aimed at the epistemological correction and humanizing the society. Prominent personalities who were at the forefront of action during the first half of the 20th century were Pampadi John Joseph, Vellkara Chothi, Kandan Kumaran, and K P Vallon. They curated political struggles inside and outside legislative assemblies, with many agitations turning violent and brutally dealt with by the authorities. Intense awareness of gross injustices committed against Dalit culture and society had to find some expression which accounts for printing page becoming the new battleground, especially in the post-renaissance period. To enter into the ‘sacred’ terrain of writing from which the subaltern had been excluded for centuries was a landmark achievement. To write and to represent was to enter into those narrative terrains of a culture ‘reserved’ for those with cultural capital now appropriated by the marginalized to voice their concerns and politics. To enter writing, representation, and history, to negotiate structures of exclusion and erasure, to enter into the symbolic order of self-representation, and inscribing Dalit identity and experience in the cultural imaginary was a major leap forward for the Dalit cause.

So far, I have briefly discussed the radical legacy of Dalit political movements in Kerala. Dalit Bahujan writers fall back on this legacy of the Cultural Revolution. Offering criticisms of caste, a radical departure from a mainstream value system, aesthetics, and posing alternate structures of thought characterizes Malayalam Dalit writing. Contemporary Dalit writing is diverse and dialogic. From tribal writers like Narayan to Dalit Christian writers, the arena encompasses various writers belonging to varied cultural contexts and identity formations. The term Dalit does not refer to a unique essence that is common to the marginalized subaltern; it is a political term that represents the historic specificity of the identity of the marginalized. The term is posited by many as one that constantly counteracts against essentialism. The tribal issues are very different from that of a neo-Christian Dalit or a neo –Buddhist Dalit. A popular and mainstream writer like C Ayyappan is different from the dissident voice of a writer like A Arun, who himself is different from a meticulous academician like O K Santhosh. Contemporary Dalit Malayalam writing offers a theoretically incisive analysis of the social condition and fictional worlds that evocatively narrate the Dalit experience and self. Writers like TKC Vaduthala and A Ayyappan charted out a prominent space in the literary imagination of Kerala with their focus on human action and conduct within specific cultural contexts. Engaging with history, politics, and cultural nuances of the Dalit world in the periodical scene, writers like Salim Kumar, KK Kochu, VV Swami, KK Baburaj make significant contributions by critically redefining cultural and historical perception.

The unique voice of Poykayil Appachan inaugurated a unique blend of poetry potent enough to address the issues of the subaltern self in modern times. Appachan’s poetry had the quality of a ritualistic performance. Songs and hymns invoking spiritual energy were ceremonious that brought forth memory, history, and the experiences of the present into one crucible, and the ‘concoction’ possessed the power to heal the wounds of the past, instill the subaltern with spiritual energy, and to effect the renaissance of the self. Appachan wanted to educate his people on the status of their existence characterized by invisibility, an awareness he believed would propel them towards intense explorations into the condition of their lives and the institutional structures that enable it. He wanted the suppressed people to shape a new identity fostered by awareness, knowledge, and spiritual strength. One could compare Appachan’s poetry with that of Sahodaran Ayyappan, who tried to humanize and rationalize a society tied to the world view of Varnasharamadharma. Appachan was more communicative to the masses because he appealed to their emotions more than their critical sensibility. Thus he was more effective in invoking historical memory of marginalization during the slave centuries that followed the early Middle Ages. Recreating memory and history, Appachan concocted a unique formula to energize the subaltern to individual reformation and political action. He depicted in his songs the conquests of Vedic Brahmanic forces and the establishment of the Varna system, and how dehumanizing those structures were. Appachan contested and critiqued the evangelical claims of Syrian Christian ‘churchianity’ that imbibed the Brahmanical values of purity and pollution-based hierarchal assumptions. He possessed a keen historical sense and could see into the socio-cultural forces operated within the church: both Brahmanical value system and Eurocentric notions of cultural superiority that functioned covertly.

Mainstream literary histories, the canon, excluded many Dalit writers, including Appachan. The Dalit aesthetic project is not just about writing but also about recovering lost writings. In that sense Dalit writing shares similarities with postcolonial and feminist writing; both movements took up the project of unearthing lost writings and re-narrated the historical contexts in which they occurred and the ideological structures that these writings engaged with. To recover the writings of a Dalit poet, Adipulaya Kavi Chot Chatan of Kochi, a contemporary of Appachan, is to recover the context of a significant moment in the history of subaltern resistance.

A prominent poet during the post-independence period is Kallara Sukumaran. He worked in the context of a society dominated and shaped by communism and progressive movements. His writings wrestled with these discourses and represented the Dalit voice and critically posited it in opposition with many anti-Dalit and pro-caste Hindu discourses operated within the so-called progressive left movement. The paradoxical failures of left radicalism in addressing the Dalit cause owing to the left think-tank’s fundamental failure in realistically assessing the caste question in India becomes the point of departure. His poems, like “Memories of the Underground” speak precisely about the loss of faith felt by the Dalits soon after the first wave of left radicalism. The poem dramatizes the life of the Dalit woman Chirutha, whose very existence got threatened after she gave shelter to Hindu male comrades as they went underground. These comrades occupied positions of power after the elections while the untouchable woman lost her dignity and material possessions (Kochu, Dalit Nerkazhchakal 55). Many Dalit poets of the era dramatized similar incidents in their poems as instances of caste Hindu hegemony paradoxically perpetuated by leftist comrades in Kerala society. Dalit poets remind the lessons from the past when the people who belong to the very community align with hegemonic forces. Such is the political relevance of these poets. They tell again and again the tales of the past and the historical forces of the present that have inimical genealogies to guard the society against collective amnesia, a failure conducive for fascist forces gaining more traction.

Another aspect of Dalit poetry is its preoccupation with Buddhist legacy and unearthing minor histories and stories of the ‘other.’ A poet like KKS Das invokes Karumady Kuttan or the Buddha idol at Karumady indirectly in his poem “Karumady Nritham”. Karumady kuttan is archeological evidence of the Buddhist past of Kerala and its expansive avarna cultural tradition. To evoke that legacy is to evoke the unimaginable violence played out on all spheres of life that wiped out Buddhism from Kerala. Such grand violence was also epistemological violence; a whole world view, a humanist tradition based on egalitarian principles had been systematically wiped out. Many Dalit poets, painters, and artists evoke the memory of that past in their works. KK Govindan, another Dalit poet, explicitly depicts the caste massacres that continued up to the early modern era in Kerala. Punitive feudal execution, a common practice in the past, is portrayed vividly in poems like “The Killing Field”. These narratives remind us of the ‘slave age’ of Kerala when the feudal lords had absolute rights over the body and mind of their vassals. These narratives gleaned from the memory of the older generation can be compared with the slave narratives of American slaves. C Ayyappan wrote about the executions of the slave age: thampurans or caste lords try to sever the head of a slave man, an attempt in which they fail even though blood profusely squirts out and soaks them. Finally, the slave man himself offers them the solution: he asks them to remove the talisman from his body and place it under the pipal tree and then execute him. The metaphorical meaning of the poem being the organic bonding the Dalit has with nature and earth. The bond the Dalit has with the pipal tree is symbolic of the Buddhist legacy of the avarnas. The poetic composition is rich with nuanced meaning and layered textuality, evoking polyphony. Such nuanced compositions that become sites of multi-textual convergence render Dalit poetry complex and invests the narrative with a diversity of points of view and voices loaded with multiple significations.

Poets like Raghavan Atholi render in evocative language this bloody legacy whose postmodern idiom, gathered from his intensely personal experiences and hoary past of his community, influenced later poets like S. Joseph and M R Renukumar. These poets depicted the vision of Ambedkar in their poems and thus connected the Dalit experience of Kerala with the Dalit experience of Marathi and Hindi ones. Two poets who have created a niche for themselves in the new century are S Joseph and M B Manoj, offering critiques of contemporary realities, profusely using irony and allegory, problematizing the cultural interiors of Kerala society, and, highlighting the hidden hegemonic practices that hide invisibly in seemingly innocuous human relationships. These poets employ postmodern tools of parody, pastiche, intertextuality, irony, and minimalism to telling effect. Dalit women poets bring in complexity by mingling the gender and queer discourses within the caste discourse. A poet like Vijila Chirapad exposes the inherent homophobia woven into the cultural fabric of Kerala.

Why Dalit writing is important? Its historical significance rests in its potential to unearth subaltern history. Life-writings and memory writings unearth the historical conditions and experiences of Dalits. It also negates elite historiography and attempts to study society from below and is amply supported by postmodern theories. Dalit writing puts forward a new aesthetic of writing in which the aspect of pain and its expression becomes a crucial factor. Through literary expressions identity is refashioned, renegotiated, and problematized. Dalits as a historical subject emerge and negotiate their cultural identity and participation in participatory democracy. Dalit historical discourses thus aim at making democracy more meaningful. Altogether Dalit literature offers one a cultural critique of the past and present of Kerala, drawing attention to the fault lines of a society that inordinately prides itself on being progressive. The relevance of Dalit writing is that it unravels the hidden operation of caste in the cultural and political unconscious of a society. Malayalam Dalit literature has great relevance in deeply analyzing the cultural forces that fuel the working of a society. The dynamics of covert caste operation are revealed by Dalit writing, which mainstream literature fails to address because mainstream writers lack Dalit experience. The uniqueness of Dalit experience and imagination contributes a lot to establish a new aesthetics: the aesthetics of pain. Mainstream literary expressions do not go deep into the dynamics of the Dalit experience. Dalit writing is a relevant academic activity and must become a constant discursive practice because it is one of the most potent counter-hegemonic practices. Counter-hegemonic practices are necessary to continue with the tradition of dissent that any democratic society must possess. Dalit writing offers counter-discourses to nationalist metanarratives, which is significant because pluralism is the essence of India and any effort to wipe out pluralism could be detrimental to the political health of a nation. Dalit writing thus contributes to maintaining the political health of Kerala state. The relevance of Ambedkar has increased manifold. Ambedkar’s ideology has to be strengthened to preserve the avowed ideals upon which the constitution of India is built. There are various threats to the constitution. Disseminating Ambedkar’s ideal is a positive social practice that is done by Dalit writing, something which mainstream writing misses. Ambedkar has become more relevant in these times than seventy years before. The state of Kerala has a politics that does not address the issue of caste the way it should have. The result is that Dalit oppression is invisible and the causes and effects of oppression are not addressed. Dalit question is subsumed by the dominant political discourses of our times. Through counter-hegemonic practices, Dalit writing tries to break into public consciousness and problematize its sense of history and political consciousness. Subaltern politics enters political equations and ideological formulations with the help of historical narratives which include literature and art, which again is the greatest relevance of Malayalam Dalit writing.

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