According to the 2011 census, only 2.88 per cent of the Indian population spoke Malayalam. The size is quite small, compared to the number of people who speak languages like Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Tamil. However, the quality of the literature produced in the language is something that one cannot afford to miss. Picture this. The JCB Prize for Literature in 2018 and 2020 were conferred to two Malayalam authors — Benyamin for Jasmine Days (Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal) and S Hareesh for Moustache (Meesha).
The former, however, feels that not a lot of original work in Malayalam is celebrated globally, probably owing to a lack of good translators. He was in conversation with author, academician and screenwriter Lijeesh Kumar in a session of TNIE’s Dakshin Literary Festival.
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A recipient of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Benyamin said, “We have had the privilege of reading works by international authors in Malayalam. We interact with global literature regularly. But sadly it doesn’t happen a lot with Malayalam literature and the rest of the world.”
However, he says that Malayali authors who write books in English have played a great role in introducing Kerala to the global audience, “I would say that Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a Malayalam novel written in English.”