Autobiography–In Translation-Malayalam
By K.K. Kochu. Translated from the original Malayalam by Radhika P. Menon
Dalithan traces the socio-cultural history of the State of Kerala from a subaltern perspective. Sidelining himself, Kochu lays emphasis on the lost Dalit history and tries to reclaim it. Deliberating on the causes for fragmentation in Dalit memory, Kochu wonders whether the early nomadic lifestyle, and the constant displacements due to slavery and oppression, are the reasons behind the lost narratives. He recalls a poem of the Dalit emancipator Porkayil Appachan, which mourns the vanished history of the Dalits:
Reviewed by: Aazhi Arasi A