Revisiting the Self
B. Mangalam
THE GRIP OF CHANGE by P. Sivakami Orient Longman, 2007, 201 pp., 190
April 2007, volume 31, No 4

Sivakami’s first novel Pazhiyana Kazhidalum was published in Tamil in 1989. It was the first novel by a dalit woman writer in Tamil. Although Bama is a more familiar name to non-Tamil readers, Sivakami is a highly respected writer in Tamil Nadu. Her first novel was a milestone in Tamil literary domain. An IAS officer, writer and an actvist, Sivakami in her fiction gives primacy to interventionist perspective. Her short stories and novels foreground the dual oppression of dalit women on grounds of caste and gender. Often, the central protagonist is an educated dalit young woman who struggles to realise a just social order and alert the women of her community to their rights. Gauri, in Pazhiyana Kazhidalum, is one such protagonist. In this novel, Sivakami focusses attention on Dalit leadership and the need for consolidation of dalit groups to achieve a better bargain in society. Kathamuthu, a self-styled leader of dalit community uses subversive humour to topple upper caste hegemony, but fails to free himself of pitfalls of political leadership. He turns out to be as corrupt and self-serving as upper caste leaders. He plays the caste card to garner votes, manipulates crisis to personal gain and is unabashedly sexist and patriarchal in his dealings with women. Sivakami’s self-reflexive analysis of dalit community earned her considerable censure in Tamil literary as well as dalit political circles.

Continue reading this review