Witness to the Unheard: Remembering K.M. Salimkumar

The Wire

6 hours ago

It feels as though it happened just yesterday – the long, winding bus ride to Thodupuzha, a serene town in Kerala's Idukki district. We were en route to release Caste and the Politics of the Land (2008), a powerful work by K.M. Salimkumar. Sitting beside me was the man himself – a relentless voice for Dalit and Adivasi rights, an activist, thinker, and writer who had spent decades challenging the status quo. He passed away on June 29, after a lifetime of confronting dominant narratives with a clarity that few dared to match.
During that trip, Salimkumar spoke with thoughtful determination about his political path – from early activism with the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation to his eventual estrangement from a Left movement that, in his view, skirted around the issue of caste. His words weren't bitter or sentimental, they were sharp. He argued that caste, as a deeply entrenched system of oppression in Indian society, often vanished beneath class-based rhetoric. For him, the revolutionary struggle had failed to acknowledge the lived experiences of those most marginalised. That journey wasn't just about a book, it offered a glimpse into the principled world he inhabited.
Born in 1949, in a tribal family in Velliammattom panchayat in Idukki, Salimkumar rose to become a formidable voice for social justice in Kerala. His early years were shaped by Marxist liberation politics, and he was incarcerated for 17 months during the Emergency. But unlike others who moderated their stance afterward, Salimkumar intensified his critique, especially of the movements he once served. He questioned why caste was so often left out of revolutionary discourse and why land struggles didn't prioritise those without land, Dalits and Adivasis.
His involvement in building political and grassroots networks was extensive. As a founder of the Dalit Unity Committee in 1999 and editor of publications like Raktapataka and Dalit Aikyashabdam, he gave platform to marginalised voices. His activism focused not on charity, but on dignity, autonomy, and rightful assertion.
Salimkumar was part of a generation of leaders who re-evaluated their ideological roots, transitioning from strict Marxist lines to a framework informed by Ambedkarite thought. While many Left parties in Kerala treated caste as a secondary issue to class, Salimkumar argued it was a primary axis of oppression. He frequently reminded people that caste is not a relic of the past but a system that defines everything – from land rights to social boundaries.
He openly criticised symbolic gestures like renaming Dalit colonies with sanitised, Sanskrit-inspired names. For him, such acts were attempts to cover up deeper inequalities. 'Changing names doesn't change realities,' he wrote. 'The trauma, the exclusion, the inherited shame – they all remain.'
'Negritude', K.M. Salimkumar.
His collection of columns under the title Negritude reflected this radical clarity. In them, he explored themes such as Ambedkar's democratic philosophy, the erasure of tribal identity, and the contradictions in Kerala's progressive self-image. By drawing connections between caste-based and racial oppression, he built a body of work that was more than literature – it was a political statement.
Salimkumar also centred B.R. Ambedkar in his vision of India's democratic future. He didn't see Ambedkar merely as a constitutional architect, but as a radical critic of social inequality and a prophet of structural reform. He cited Ambedkar's assertion that while Hindu privilege maintained Brahminical rule, true democracy meant Dalits must have full participation.
He was especially vocal about the contradictions in Kerala's development model. Though the state is praised for its human development indicators, he pointed out how Dalits and Adivasis continued to face displacement and marginalisation in the name of progress. During protests like the Muthanga agitation, albeit his reservations about the struggle itself, he challenged the hypocrisy of governments that claimed to be for the people while undermining the very communities they displaced.
His published works – including Dalit Ideology and Communalisation (2008), Dalit Democratic Thought (2018), Reservation in a Dalit Perspective (2018), and The Subtleties of Casteism (2021) – offer critical insights into how casteism adapts to survive even in secular and progressive settings. His critique extended beyond the obvious culprits. He held the liberal elite and even self-proclaimed progressives accountable for sustaining caste structures.
In his later years, Salimkumar emphasised the importance of cultural memory and literature in political struggle. He believed that writing was an act of reclaiming identity, that memory could resist erasure, and that telling one's story was itself revolutionary.
He didn't aspire to lead in the conventional sense. He wanted to bear witness—to name what others avoided, to stay rooted in difficult truths, and to never allow silence to replace justice. In an age when even dissent is being curated and softened, KM Salimkumar's legacy stands as a reminder that the fight for equality requires more than slogans—it demands unflinching truth.
K.M. Seethi is Director, Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), Kerala, India. Seethi also served as Senior Professor of International Relations, Dean of Social Sciences at MGU and ICSSR Senior Fellow.