THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For P A Uthaman, the Best Novel Award of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi which was announced on Saturday was a recognition that came too late. He had died in June 2008, unsung and largely unknown.
The award was for ‘Chavoli,’ the novel published a few months before Uthaman’s death.
The novel was a reflection of the life of the marginalised dalit community of Kuravas in the typical rural setting of Nedumangad.
The novel, written in the Nedumangadan dialect, is a blend of rituals, local beliefs, magic, folklore and history related to the community till India’s Independence.
The novel has successfully given life to the colloquial usages of the Kurava community.
Uthaman, who died of lung cancer at the age of 45, was working in the Travancore Sugar and Chemicals Ltd, Tiruvalla.
He had just completed a novel ‘Thuppe, Thuppe’ on the life in a sick public sector company.
‘Thuppe,Thuppe’ is a Nedumangadan slang used when a country boat is overloaded with sugarcane.
Only a few could recognise the real worth of Uthaman. One among them was the great writer Kovilan, who extended financial help to Uthaman when he was terminally ill. Kovilan had also wrote in the ‘Innu’ little magazine that the Sahitya Akademi should confer the Best Novel Award to Uthaman posthumously.
Kovilan told ‘Express’ that he had also conveyed his feelings to the Akademi secretary.
Uthaman had also published two anthologies of short stories, ‘Sundara Purushanmar’ and ‘Kavaadathinarikil’. The preface written by late short story writer V P Sivakumar to ‘Sundara Purushanmar’, published in 1986, had created a minor controversy. Sivakumar had equated Uthaman’s writing to dalit literature and African literature.
Sivakumar, a Malayalam professor at the University College here, was an ideal teacher for many of the literary-minded Left-leaning students. These students, however, took the references as oblique pointers to Uthaman’s background.
When the students brought out the first issue of the ‘Pakshikoottam’ literary magazine, gave a review of ‘Sundara Purushanmar’ in which Sivakumar was indirectly attacked, said V Vinayakumar, short story writer and one of the forces behind ‘Pakshikoottam’.
“Our reaction was in tune with the prevailing progressive sensibility then. Now we have understood our mistake. Sivakumar was only referring to the emerging new sense of identity,’’ he said. Short story writer P K Sudhi, one of Uthaman’s bosom friends, said that the award was a belated recognition to him.
In fact, Uthaman was a marginalised writer.
This would surely be an encouragement for such marginalised writers, he said.