By Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: To what extent can inventive freedom enterprise? Even as larger debates on freedom of expression achieve momentum within the wake of the latest assault on Salman Rushdie, Kerala’s cultural milieu is caught up in one other debate on casteist politics. It’s all around the cowl web page of Malayali Memorial, a piece by brief story author Unni R, that depicts BR Ambedkar as an higher caste Hindu.
The debate has gained particular significance because it comes at a time when Hindutva politics is making inroads into Kerala’s literary and cultural realms. The cowl web page of the e-book, introduced out by DC Books, portrays Ambedkar sporting a Kasavu dhothi and shirt and seated within the backdrop of a feudal home.
The cowl web page kicked up a row on social media too, as a piece feels that there’s a deliberate try by higher caste Nairs to applicable Ambedkar’s legacy. Some, nonetheless, time period it as a advertising and marketing technique to draw readers.
Dalit thinker and activist Sunny M Kapikad sensed a conspiracy to seize the market by creating an issue. Kapikad went on to time period it as a ‘Savarna invasion’ on Ambedkar’s identification.“Such a picture of Ambedkar wearing an upper caste attire, looking like a Nair, has never been part of the life of Ambedkar,” he stated.
‘It amounts to insulting Ambedkar’
Kapikad stated no matter Ambedkar had tried to withstand throughout his lifetime, is now being forcibly imposed on him. “In effect, it amounts to insulting him,” he stated. In a manner, the quilt appears to symbolise makes an attempt to applicable Ambedkar by sure vested teams. He warned the Dalits to not fall into the entice set by the e-book cowl, that will egg them on to both burn the e-book or to protest in entrance of the publishers – choices that don’t really imply a factor in the long term.
However, author Unni stated “the critics should first read the story, ‘Malayali Memorial’. Only then will they understand the relevance of the cover image. I heard someone has even called for a boycott of the book. Are they aware of what Ambedkar meant when he used the term solidarity?” Echoing Unni’s views, Zainul Abid, the quilt designer, stated such a illustration may show uncomfortable to somebody who had not learn the story.
Santhosh Nair, the protagonist, desires to retain his actual title together with the caste surname, whereas he additionally desires to keep away from being referred to as by his nickname Ambedkar. “It was the innate sense of caste in him and his dislike for his nickname that made me think about such a cover. The contradiction between the ‘Ambedkar’ in his physicality vis-a-vis the deeply ingrained sense of the ‘upper caste’ tag in him is what inspired me to design such a cover,” Abid stated.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: To what extent can inventive freedom enterprise? Even as larger debates on freedom of expression achieve momentum within the wake of the latest assault on Salman Rushdie, Kerala’s cultural milieu is caught up in one other debate on casteist politics. It’s all around the cowl web page of Malayali Memorial, a piece by brief story author Unni R, that depicts BR Ambedkar as an higher caste Hindu.
The debate has gained particular significance because it comes at a time when Hindutva politics is making inroads into Kerala’s literary and cultural realms. The cowl web page of the e-book, introduced out by DC Books, portrays Ambedkar sporting a Kasavu dhothi and shirt and seated within the backdrop of a feudal home.
The cowl web page kicked up a row on social media too, as a piece feels that there’s a deliberate try by higher caste Nairs to applicable Ambedkar’s legacy. Some, nonetheless, time period it as a advertising and marketing technique to draw readers.
Dalit thinker and activist Sunny M Kapikad sensed a conspiracy to seize the market by creating an issue. Kapikad went on to time period it as a ‘Savarna invasion’ on Ambedkar’s identification.“Such a picture of Ambedkar wearing an upper caste attire, looking like a Nair, has never been part of the life of Ambedkar,” he stated.
‘It amounts to insulting Ambedkar’
Kapikad stated no matter Ambedkar had tried to withstand throughout his lifetime, is now being forcibly imposed on him. “In effect, it amounts to insulting him,” he stated. In a manner, the quilt appears to symbolise makes an attempt to applicable Ambedkar by sure vested teams. He warned the Dalits to not fall into the entice set by the e-book cowl, that will egg them on to both burn the e-book or to protest in entrance of the publishers – choices that don’t really imply a factor in the long term.
However, author Unni stated “the critics should first read the story, ‘Malayali Memorial’. Only then will they understand the relevance of the cover image. I heard someone has even called for a boycott of the book. Are they aware of what Ambedkar meant when he used the term solidarity?” Echoing Unni’s views, Zainul Abid, the quilt designer, stated such a illustration may show uncomfortable to somebody who had not learn the story.
Santhosh Nair, the protagonist, desires to retain his actual title together with the caste surname, whereas he additionally desires to keep away from being referred to as by his nickname Ambedkar. “It was the innate sense of caste in him and his dislike for his nickname that made me think about such a cover. The contradiction between the ‘Ambedkar’ in his physicality vis-a-vis the deeply ingrained sense of the ‘upper caste’ tag in him is what inspired me to design such a cover,” Abid stated.
