THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The May 1971 edition of ‘Jwala,’ a Malayalam little magazine which went about describing itself as the smallest magazine for the biggest reader carried this cheeky ad: ‘Required: New words for the following ones which have been prostituted by newspapers, Akashavani, birthday celebrations and political meetings. Democracy, freedom, hypocrisy, secularism, non-alignment, public good, thinker, postmodernism, rape, popular art, great poet.’ There was more. “NB: It calls for a special edition to list the words that are, on a daily basis, murdered by film publications, songwriters, advertisers and ‘quickie’ writers. New names also needed for Eliot, Kafka, Ionescu and others routinely employed by literary critics.’
Cheekiness and the biting wit aside, the ad aptly defined the avant-garde and rebellious character of little magazines which once abounded in the cultural milieu of Kerala. ‘Malayala Samanthara Masika Charithram’ (State Institute of Languages, `180) by writer Pradeep Panangad traces the history, contributions and role played by little magazines which first appeared in Kerala in the 1950s and were active into the early 1980s. “Many died in their infancy, lasting just three to six editions. Luckier ones, like ‘Samkramanam,’ ran into 50,” Pradeep says.
The book will be released here on Friday at a get-together which will relive the mildewed nostalgia of these once-vibrant publications. One of the participants is poet K Satchidanandan, a name synonymous with the growth of Malayalam little magazines. Pradeep’s book notes Satchidanandan’s definition of this literary curiosity: “What defines it is its avant-garde behaviour. To move ahead from contemporary ideas that have gained prominence, to question ideas that are often believed to be universally accepted and develop alternative streams of thought.”
Malayalam little magazines took their inspiration from American publications like ‘Poetry a Magazine of Verse’ which had Ezra Pound as foreign editor and ‘Criterion’ edited by T S Eliot. In Malayalam, ‘Navasahithi’ edited by M V Devan and published from Chennai - then Madras - was the first. It was followed by ‘Gopuram’ published from Thiruvananthapuram in 1957. Many big names like Satchidanandan, A Ayyappan, Ayyappa Panicker and C J Thomas were associated with them. Contents included short stories, thought-provoking articles, poetry and bold discussions on the parallel cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan and others. In the 1970s, the little magazines hosted heated ideological debates against the institutionalised Left outfits.
Then the Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975. On the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency, Pradeep, in his book, takes a look at how little magazines fared in those times. “The publications launched in the 1970s either shut down or were sealed. New editions of ‘Prasakthi’ and ‘Yenan’ did not come out,’’ says the book. After the Emergency was lifted, several little magazines sprouted, recording and assessing the dark days,” said Pradeep.
About the book
The book takes an in-depth look at several of the publications such as ‘Jwala,’ ‘Prasakthi,’ ‘Samasya,’ ‘Prerana,’ ‘Rasana,’ ‘Samkramanam’ and ‘Sameeksha.’ Painstakingly collecting the frayed and sepia-tinted magazines, Pradeep had organised an exhibition of little magazines in 2015. “The book took me about one-and-a-half years to write. It was born out of a need to document their history,’’ he says.