Tuesday 18 March 2014

T K C Vaduthala - Dr. George K Alex, Elizabeth John.


T K C Vaduthala was the pen name of Chathan T K, a ewll known Dalit writer. He was born on 23 December 1921 at Vaduthala, Ernakulam District. He passed B O L Hindi Prabhod examination and later worked in All India Radio and Kerala Public Relations District Information Office. He has written and published a number of novels, which reflect the inner world of  Dalit community.

Changalakal Nurungunnu (Chain Break Apart – 1979), which casts light on the life of the pulaya community, in the magnum opus of T K C Vaduthala. Kannappan, the central character of the novel, was born in a Pulaya family and brought up in an inland village in Kerala. He completed his education in the local village schools and soon began his career as a teacher in a government school.

Kannappan had heard tales of humiliation suffered by his forefathers on the basis of caste and had learned of similar bitter experience of his senior colleagues. It was unfortunate that he too became a victim of caste discrimination on his very first day as a teacher. His students were contemptuous of him and treated him with disdain. On his way home he was ridiculed as “Pulayan Sir” .He realized that the details about the community he belonged to had reached the school before he made his personal appearance.

Crushed by the burden of his downtrodden community, Kannappan took up the challenge of responsibility to change the pathetic situation of his people. It was providential that he got Ramakrishnan, an Ezhava, as a colleague and friend. Both of them realized that the Freedom movement in India was aimed that the liberation of the upper castes alone and that India could claim to be really independent only if and when all her citizens enjoy equal rights and benefits, irrespective of their caste, creed or religion.

Kannappan and Ramakrishnan stood untied in their fight against the caste system. They organized demonstrations and protest against in equality and justice. They fought for equal rights everywhere – to draw water from the public sources, to use the public streets and for higher wages. Gradually, the movement turned into an armed struggle. The upper castes turned it as Communist Movement. Kannappan, who preferred non-violent protests, had no means to follow his choice, as he too was pulled into the vortex of the agitations.

In their fight for the common cause, Kannappan and Ramakrishnan appeared almost as dual identities. But, although Ramakrishnan happily accepted the ways of Communism, Kannappan knew that the capture of political power by the Communist Movement would not be the solution to his disgrace and the heinous system of untouchability. Rather unwillingly, he remained with his friend, but only for a brief period. The end of the novel sees an anguished, disillusioned Kannappan, fading away into the unknown, groping through the dark ness, ardently hoping that there many yet be a silver lining beyond the dim, dark horizon.

The novel exposes the myth that Communism is the be-all and end-all of the revolutionary action to uproot untouchability and such other social evils. The entire event narrated in the novel is the inner experiences of the author. Quite a few characters in the novel are cast to resemble historical figures, like Pandit K P Karuppan, Sahodaran Ayyappan. The protagonist Kannappan is in fact an autobiographical portrayal of the novelist.

Books: Changalakal Nurungunnu, Nanavulla Mannu, Hrithaya Thudippukal, Kattayum Koithum etc.

T K C Vaduthala expired on july 1988.

Taken from the book; Reinventing Identity An Anthology of Dalit Writers Kerala written by Dr. George K Alex, Elizabeth John.

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