DEPARTMENT OF English

The Emergency and the Malayalam Literature: Echoes of a Political Society

Ref No:  M.R.P. (H) - 1993/11-12/KLMG023/UGC-SWRO- 9/8/12

The Emergency was one moment in Post-Independence Indian history that left an indelible mark on the socio-political fabric of the nation. The study looks at the literatures of the Emergency by making use of two concepts from political science: political society and civil society which corresponds to the organizational aspects of the society. It analyzes the literary writing that came in response to the Emergency in terms of these concepts. The study of the particular context of the Emergency looks at the organizational aspect of the society, where there were hues and cries against the governmental and the civil affairs of the state. It was a period where the freedom of speech and individual freedoms were curbed. There have been many cultural manifestations that came in response to the Emergency. Even though the freedom of the press was curtailed, there were responses to the Emergency in the forms of drama, poetry, novels, cartoons, short stories…etc. The study concentrates on the existence of the political society through analyzing the literary representations of the Emergency.

          The first chapter titled ‘Introduction’ contextualizes the study and gives a background to the study. The chapter discusses the concepts of political society and civil society and throws light on the context of the Emergency. The second chapter titled ‘Literary Representations of Emergency in Kerala’ is a survey of literatures that came in response to the Emergency. The survey focuses on the literatures that came as a response to the Emergency in the South Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu. This chapter tries to put together various literatures of the Emergency. The third chapter ‘Echoes of a Political Society: O.V.Vijayan’s Dharmapuranam’ tries to see the allegoric representation of the Emergencyand shows how certain groups made use of the Emergency while certain others had to suffer a lot for the benefit of a few. The chapter also focuses on the politics behind the various groups that are allegorically represented in the novel. The last is the concluding chapter which consolidates the arguments of the research work, points out the limitations of the study and suggests scopes for further research.