The poetics of survival A thematic exploration of select tribal language poetry of Kerala

Abstract

This study, “The Poetics of Survival: A Thematic Exploration of Select Tribal Language Poetry of Kerala”, examines written Tribal Language Poetry in Kerala, focusing on selected works by poets from three tribal communities, including Dhanya Vengacheri (Mavilan), Sukumaran Chaligadha (Rawla), and Manikandan Attappadi (Irula). Tribal Literature in various languages initially survived for centuries through oral traditions, such as songs, tales, myths, and rituals. However, the absence of written forms kept these traditions largely unknown to the wider literary world. Most tribal languages historically lacked scripts, which hindered the development of written literature. By the 1990s, Tribal Literature emerged as a recognised movement across India through the adoption of scripts from other languages. In comparison, Kerala’s tribal language literature is relatively recent and gained momentum only after 2010. The study also clearly distinguishes between Tribal Literature and Tribal Language Literature. It defines Tribal Literature as an umbrella category that includes both oral and written works composed in tribal and non-tribal languages. In contrast, Tribal Language Literature refers specifically to works written in various tribal languages. This study presents a qualitative, textual, and thematic analysis of Tribal Language Poetry. It is the first comprehensive study in English on the Tribal Language Poetry of Kerala and addresses a significant gap in existing scholarship. As tribal language literature in Kerala is still evolving, the number of available poems is limited. Therefore, this research adopts a broader thematic approach, serving as a pioneering study in English in this area. The analysis is guided by a combination of theories that synthesises postcolonial concepts including Bhabha’s third space, Stuart Hall’s cultural identity, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s linguistic decolonisation; subaltern concepts, suchas Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak? And Crenshaw’s intersectionality; ecocritical approaches, including deep ecology and ecofeminism; as well as Walter Ong’s work on orality and literacy and David Crystal’s on language death. These frameworks help to explore the themes in the select poems with depth and precision. The study finds that each poet foregrounds both distinct and overlapping thematic concerns. Chaligadha records the community’s experiences of slavery, indigenous knowledge, loss of tribal identity, and its connection with nature. Manikandan Attappadi depicts the life, culture, and traditions of the Irula community, addressing social structures, rituals, women’s experiences, human-environment relations, destruction of tribal values, poverty, and the preservation of indigenous knowledge. Dhanya Vengacheri explores the connection between women and nature, the objectification of women under patriarchal structures, and the double marginalisation of tribal women. Themes such as nature’s relationship with the tribal communities, tribal identity and consciousness, and resistance recur across the poems of all three poets. The poets’ choice to write in their mother tongues, even when using the Malayalam script, functions as an act of cultural and linguistic decolonisation. The thematic concerns of each poet are influenced by the tribe they represent, geographical context, gender and the tribal consciousness. This thesis acknowledges certain limitations due to the small number of poems available for the study. It prioritises thematic concerns over formal features, including structure, diction, and stylistic devices. As the genre continues to evolve, future research can expand the corpus and examine these unexplored aspects in greater detail. Thus, written Tribal Language Poetry emerges as a dynamic and evolving component of Kerala’s literary heritage by providing a voice to the historically marginalised communities