Abstract 123: Anju Upendran
The subaltern speaking through Communism and Muthappan Theyyam
History has many a time witnessed the uprising of the subaltern. These often took the form of mass movements, revolution, social reformation movements etc. The role that art and literature played in propagating the subaltern prespective can never be negated. The socio- cultural and political consciousness of the North Kerala or the Malabar is rooted in the subaltern’s perspective. Local deities and sacred grooves aided social transformation. Social awakening patronaged art forms like Theyyam. Theyyam, the ritual art form of Malabar, took its origin from the collective association of the “other”. In Kerala, Communism and Theyyam can be taken as the two ways adopted by the subalterns to defy the dominant ideology. A large section of the working class of the Kerala society – the beedi workers, laborers, weavers, etc belonged to the Thiyya community who were basically tenants to the Nair landlords. A majority of the section that embraced Communism hence belonged to the thiyya community and faught against the exploitations by the upper caste. Muthappan – the God of the Thiyya community is the most democratic of all the Theyyams. Muthappan found dogs as his companions; to the low caste people he was friend, guide and God and taught the tribal people the way of living, organized them to fight against injustice and restored their faith in religion and making them believe that God is not an abstract entity, but something very concrete and real. This paper proposes to discuss about the psychological consciousness of the subaltern rooted in the art form of theyyam in general and Muthappan in particular. The paper has its focus on the orally transmitted songs of Muthappan – Thottampattu, Pattola and Kalikkapattu. It also imtends to analyse the vibrant communist movement and Muthappan theyyam together as projecting the subaltern’s dream of a new society with equality and justice as its corner stone
The subaltern speaking through Communism and Muthappan Theyyam
History has many a time witnessed the uprising of the subaltern. These often took the form of mass movements, revolution, social reformation movements etc. The role that art and literature played in propagating the subaltern prespective can never be negated. The socio- cultural and political consciousness of the North Kerala or the Malabar is rooted in the subaltern’s perspective. Local deities and sacred grooves aided social transformation. Social awakening patronaged art forms like Theyyam. Theyyam, the ritual art form of Malabar, took its origin from the collective association of the “other”. In Kerala, Communism and Theyyam can be taken as the two ways adopted by the subalterns to defy the dominant ideology. A large section of the working class of the Kerala society – the beedi workers, laborers, weavers, etc belonged to the Thiyya community who were basically tenants to the Nair landlords. A majority of the section that embraced Communism hence belonged to the thiyya community and faught against the exploitations by the upper caste. Muthappan – the God of the Thiyya community is the most democratic of all the Theyyams. Muthappan found dogs as his companions; to the low caste people he was friend, guide and God and taught the tribal people the way of living, organized them to fight against injustice and restored their faith in religion and making them believe that God is not an abstract entity, but something very concrete and real. This paper proposes to discuss about the psychological consciousness of the subaltern rooted in the art form of theyyam in general and Muthappan in particular. The paper has its focus on the orally transmitted songs of Muthappan – Thottampattu, Pattola and Kalikkapattu. It also imtends to analyse the vibrant communist movement and Muthappan theyyam together as projecting the subaltern’s dream of a new society with equality and justice as its corner stone
No comments:
Post a Comment