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Mathrubhumi Weekly and the Formation of the Malayali Identity

Presenter:

· Arun Remesh The English and Foreign Languages University (Hyderabad, India)

Timeslot:

07/28 | 18:10-18:30 UTC+2/CEST

Abstract

Mathrubhumi Azchappathippu (Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly) is a Malayalam weekly published from Calicut in Kerala. It started publishing on 18th of January 1932 and is still in circulation. Kerala is a state in the southern part of India which was formed in 1956 on linguistics basis. In 1957 a Communist-led government assumed the office, one of the earliest elected Communist governments in the world. Kerala is one of the Indian state shaving higher rates of literacy.

This paper looks at the formation of a literary public sphere in Malabar- northern Kerala which was under the Madras Presidency- through the efforts the Communist party such as the formation of the reading rooms in the second half of the 1930s. The paper addresses the issues of caste, class and gender and how they affected the formation of the literary public sphere and the formation of the Malayali (one whose mother tongue is Malayalam) identity. The socio-economic and literary life in Malabar will be analysed with relation to the circulation of the Mathrubhumi Weekly. The major themes discussed in the literary public sphere will be analysed to find the politics of literature that is circulated or that acquired publicity and the historical and political roles played by the weekly in the formation of Kerala in 1956 on linguistics basis combining Malabar and the princely states of Travancore and Cochin. The circulation of novels and short stories in the weekly are analysed to find the politics of the magazine that shaped the Malayali subjectivity. The earlier issues of the magazine would be analysed to find the politics of the weekly and the representation of history through its means.