Early Tamil short stories and novels of the East
 In our column on November 30, 2011 we were mainly talking about the
novels written by the Eastern Province Writers only. The facts were
taken from an article written in Tamil by Manisekeran. We did not intend
to write anything in entirety about short story writing in Tamil or
elsewhere. That composition we have to do on another occasion.
However we mentioned the names of two internationally known
intellectuals from our country. They were undeniably Marxist critics.
But we cannot debilitate their valuable contribution in directing the
second half of the 20th century Tamil literature in Sri Lanka.
While we mentioned the name of K Kailasapathy, we were talking
basically about the aftermath of 1956 period as far as creative Tamil
writing was concerned. It was not our intention to erase the efforts of
some of the pioneer short story writers. In fact, the concern of us was
on the novels written by the eastern province writers. In general we
made some critical comments of the Tamil fiction produced in all parts
of our country that lacked artistry.
However, the mention of the name of K Kailasapathy as pace-setter and
guiding force encouraging local Tamil writers to take into account the
regional flavour and social consciousness that should be reflected in
Lankan Tamil writers seems to have not been accepted by
S.Sivasarvanabavan (‘Chitpi’). To him before the advent of Kailasapathy,
Lankan Tamil writers were conscious of Lankan consciousness and wrote
about local situations and wrote in local idiom. This is only half truth
because the caste and class discrimination topics came into the fore
only after the emergence of the Progressive Writers Movement spearheaded
by Marxist intellectuals in the country.
 As a matter of fact what we wrote was on something else and our
critic’s purpose was something else. However for us to hear him say what
he wanted us to remember we published in full his rejoinder last week.
We thank him for supplying us with details regarding the Pre-1956 period
even though it was not the short story we were dealing with but the
novels of the eastern province writers.
Readers would appreciate the fact that short story is different from
the novel although both come under the term fiction.
What had happened was the mixing of issues in regard to two genres of
writing. And that too was only confined to the eastern province novels.
Now let us move to the second part of the subject on Eastern Province
Novels in Tamil. Readers kindly remember that due to inaccessibility to
read all the novels written Tamil by the eastern province writers I base
this article on what was published in Tamil by a writer named S.
Manisekeran.
The first part appeared in our column dated December 14, 2011. The
writer speaks about the social Tamil novels from the East. He identifies
the following that comes under this category:
Thunba Alaikal, (Waves of Sorrow), Theiva Tharisanm (Divine Worship)
and Oru Kiramam Thalai Nimirkirathu( A Village Rears its Head ) –all by
S.Gunratnam; Sinna Maraikar, Priya Maraikar (The Young and Older
Mraikars) , Chanaik Koorai ( I don’t know how it could be translated),
Ovvatha Munaikal (Incompatible Points) all by Junaida Sherrif; Thali
Muraikal (Generations), Kiramathup Penn (Village girl) all by Y. Ahamed;
Oomai Nenjin Sonthangal (A Dumb Heart’s Relatives) by O K Gunanathan,
Oru Thanthayin Kathi (A Father’s Story) by Anbumani; Avanukkuth Thaan
Theriyum (Only he knows) by Thimilai Mahalingam; Paathay Maariya
Payanangal (Middirected Journeys) by Mandoor Asoka; Manju, nee Malai
muhil alla(Manju, you aren’t rain clouds).
I shall stop herewith the list of novels since it is too long to be
accommodated in this brief column. We shall continue with it for the
continuity in the next week’s column.
We shall now inform our readers of general trends in novel writing in
Tamil in this country in recent times. In Lanka’s literary map in Tamil,
we can for convenience sake divide the writing that comes from different
regions. As we all know contemporary writing in Tamil is not dependent
in writing in Tamil in Thamilnadu as used to be in the 1940s and 1950s.
There might have been a handful of writing by Lankan Thamil writers
writing in the local idiom peculiar to Lankan Tamilians prior to the
second half of the lat century. But a concerted effort to identify a
Lankan Tamil Writing came by after the emergence of Marxist critics in
the North. While the East remained more Romantic than Realistic, the
North had to undergo an almost forced social change in thinking
primarily because of the prevalent conservatism and semi-feudalism.
Caste and Class played a pivotal role in human relationship there.
That is why almost all the writers in the North wrote about these
subjects at the risk of sacrificing artistic considerations. Most of the
Tamil writers emerged from the oppressed and down-trodden classes and
castes in the North.
However a few writers from the North had their own individuality in
writing about other human interest stories.
This kind of problem was not visible in the East. Writers in the
Muslim regions in the East and Tamils in the hill country areas had
their own social problems to depict. And so were the writers from the
North-West and South west. In succeeding columns we shall how it was
during the past few decades.
The most important thing is to remember that Lankan Writing means not
only writing in Sinhala and English, but also Tamil. This aspect is
conveniently ignored by the academics and historians of Lankan
Literature on the ground that they d not know Tamil!
[email protected]
|
