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Indian Express
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
‘A garden of spring': Malayalam writers on breaking free from the West and finding their voice
(Written by Deepak Rajeev) 'I watched people get shot from my window,' said Benyamin, the celebrated Malayalam novelist, recounting the Jasmine Revolution in Bahrain. 'What moved me most was the raw hunger for freedom.' The JCB Prize-winning author of Jasmine Days and the Man Asian Literary Prize longlisted Goat Days was speaking at a panel titled 'Contemporary Malayalam Novels,' held at the Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place on July 25. Organised by DC Books in collaboration with Red FM, the event brought together three of Kerala's leading literary voices, Benyamin, S Hareesh and E Santhosh Kumar, for a wide-ranging conversation moderated by the writer and critic S Gopalakrishnan. For Benyamin, the uprisings he witnessed first-hand became the catalyst for many of his most well-known novels. 'I was able to write many of these novels only because I had spent almost 25 years in the Gulf,' he said. 'From back home, people often see the Gulf as a place of wealth and luxury, especially when thinking of the Arabs. But when I was in Bahrain, I met social workers, politicians and communists who were against the autocracy. One day, from utter silence, Jasmine Revolution exploded, and these people took to the streets fighting against dictatorship. Through my window I saw the protest and people getting shot. I have the videos on my phone; one day, I intend to release it.' The discussion turned to the long arc of Malayalam fiction, beginning with its colonial-era roots. The form began in 1889 with O Chandu Menon's Indulekha, a novel already bearing signs of British influence. 'Madhavan, a key character in Chandu Menon's masterpiece, was a tennis player, living in the caste-infected society of greenery and paddy fields,' S Hareesh said. Subsequent generations of writers absorbed influences from French Realism, especially in the works of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai and P Kesavadev, while remaining grounded in the lives of Kerala's working class. By the second half of the 20th century, literary figures such as OV Vijayan and M Mukundan introduced currents of Existentialist thought, drawing inspiration from European philosophy and literature. But by the 1980s, Malayalam literature entered yet another phase of stylistic cross-pollination this time with Latin America. 'During the 80s, we went even further into the West, influenced by Latin American authors including Marques, Rulfo and Llosa,' said E Santhosh Kumar. 'But after this, a period came into being when all these authors were questioned and the profound onus of standing on one's own leg fell upon us. It is in this time-frame that Malayalam literature took a different route, striving to find an authentic voice.' He credits writer Sara Joseph for lighting the spark that shifted Malayalam literature away from external influences and toward something unmistakably its own. 'Her novels Aalahayude Penmakkal, which was published when she was 53 years old, and Mattathi, fuelled our literature forward, both in content and narration. Then, a whole new generation of authors started growing beside her into a garden of spring.' That shift has been shaped, in part, by the turbulence of the 21st century. Benyamin cited three cultural transformations that have impacted how writers think and work today: the rise of visual storytelling through new media; the explosion of information on the internet; and the proliferation of memoirs, biographies and autobiographies in the Indian publishing space. He described the present moment as a 'transaction period' one where writers are learning how to find their voices in a rapidly shifting cultural and technological landscape. That process is evident in recent works that blur the line between autobiography and fiction, memory and narrative invention. S Hareesh's Pattunool Puzhu tells the story of Samsa, a 13-year-old boy lost in sorrow and solitude, whose perceptions shaped by a ghostly encounter with a 'dead girl' drift between hallucination and reality. Subash Chandran's Samudrashila follows a woman named Amba caring for her autistic son and senile mother, with the author and people close to him appearing as characters in the narrative. Kumar's Thapomayiyude Achan unfolds as a series of diary entries from a man named Gopal Barua, grappling with guilt, displacement and a life severed from his roots. Benyamin's latest, Mulberry, Tell Me About Your Zorba, in which author Nikos Kazantzakis, his iconic character Zorba, a mulberry tree, and a parrot named Pinki are characters. At the close of the evening, the authors returned to the question of what makes literature 'contemporary.' The answer, they suggested, lies not in when a work is written, but in its emotional and moral resonance. 'Contemporary literature is that which interacts with every generation and age, irrespective of the time period in which it is written,' Benyamin said. 'Whether it is The Iliad or Mahabharata or OV Vijayan's The Legends of Khasak, great literature addresses universal human emotions and struggles, bringing about a change inside the reader like a flash of light moving through a prism.' 'If a work is read even after 20 years since its publication,' the writers agreed, 'if it impacts generations, then it can be considered as contemporary literature.' (Deepak Rajeev is an intern at The Indian Express.)
The Hindu
06-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Malayalam writer Benyamin: Our scriptures have a lot to tell us
'All religious scriptures have something to say.' Author Benyamin, who won the JCB Prize for Literature in 2018 for his book, Jasmine Days, adds that this is what inspired him to write the The Second Book of Prophets, translated by Ministhy S and published by Simon and Schuster. The original, Pravachakanmarude Randaam Pusthakam (Malayalam) was published in 2007. The book delves into the 1940s-50s discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls (a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts discovered in 11 caves near the ruins of Qumran, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea) and the Nag Hammadi Library (a collection of over 50 early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered in Upper Egypt near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945). Born into Christianity, Benny Daniel from Pathanamthitta, Kerala, grew up reading the Bible. 'When you read it as a religious text, you don't notice the characters or attempt to understand them. But, when one reads it as an academic text, you notice them, maybe think of their back stories,' he says. 'Bearing in mind that the Bible has been interpreted in several ways, with this reinterpretation, I hope, the reader is able to find new meaning and understanding of the scripture,' says Benyamin, a former NRI (non-residential Indian) or a pravasi as he likes to call himself. Growing up in a fairly conservative Christian household, he was expected to go to church every Sunday and pray every day. Nonetheless, Benyamin always viewed the religious text with an objective eye. 'The more you read, the stronger your base; the different themes and layers within the scriptures have a lot to tell,' he says. His 2008 Malayalam-language novel Aadujeevitham, was published by Green Books Private Limited, Thrissur. The book won him recognition in the form of bagging the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for novel in 2009. It was translated into English and German in 2012, and later to Arabic in 2014. In 2024, it was adapted into a Malayalam-language biographical survival drama film, titled The Goat Life, directed, and co-produced by Blessy. Still basking in the success the film, Benyamin says it is simply awe-inspiring to be recognised by readers across regions. If, in the Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis humanises Christ by showcasing his tryst with various temptations. Benyamin, goes a step further and paints Christ as a revolutionary in The Second Book of Prophets, as someone who stands up to autocracy and class divide. 'Bearing in mind that the Bible has been interpreted in several ways, with this reinterpretation, I hope, the reader is able to find new meaning and understanding of the scripture,' says Benyamin. The incidental writer A mechanical engineer Benyamin Daniel, began his writing journey in 2000, with the publication of a collection of short stories. Benyamin is an incidental writer. His words — whether in Nishabda Sancharangal (Silent Journeys) or Jasmine Days — dig deep into the psyche of a reader. And this is what he hopes his latest work can do too. 'Readers reflect on the struggles that often form within a rebellion — the difference in opinion among the rebels — in this case, among Christ and his disciples, like Lazarus being ratted out, Judas' betrayal of Christ, and the conflict the leader himself faces from within when faced with temptations.' Talking about his style of writing, Benyamin says displacement and migration, whether literal or spiritual, are the themes of his books, because he feels that migration and embarking on a journey, is what life is all about — be it moving for for a job, trade, family. Constant movement has always been a part of man's evolution. 'Displacement is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening since the beginning of human history: war, slavery, natural disasters, and riots have all caused it. One of the main prayers of the Jews in the Old Testament was that they be delivered from exile. Even after reaching their dreamland, they could not experience freedom. The Romans conquered them. When telling the story of the struggle against them, it is natural that the sorrows of displacement will be embedded in it.' Discussing the years he spent in Bahrain as a mechanical engineer Benyamin says. 'I left my home and country and lived in a foreign land for two decades. I have experienced its loneliness, isolation, numbness, and existential problems very well. So, I can go ahead and write about that topic in depth.' 'Understanding the lives and struggles of migrant communities, their politics, circumstance and so on, is a part of studying humans, making us better humans,' Benyamin says. 'Also when we as readers traverse with them (the characters) through the story to his or her destination, whether physical or spiritual, it gives a reader satisfaction, the sated feeling one gets from reading a piece of good literature,' he adds. Each book by the author has been distinct from one another. 'Non-linear writing; that is how I approach putting a book together,' Benyamin says. He says he does not believe in sticking to formulaic writing. 'I don't create a mould and fit my story around it. I have a story in my head — I start by writing what I know about — be it a character or a scene and take it from there,' he says. He compares it to construction of a highway, say from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram. 'The work for the highway can begin from anywhere, maybe Alappuzha, maybe somewhere near Thiruvananthapuram, but as long as there is a plan in place, the project will be done.' The author says that he looks up to Malayalam writers like OV Vijayan, Mohammed Bashir and M Mukundan, and enjoys reading classic and contemporary writers like Orhan Pamuk, Georgi Gospodinov, Nikos Kazantzakis, and Kafka. Speaking of future projects he says, 'I have just completed a novel, which will be published in July. Shelvy (Raj) was an editor and poet who played an important role in the history of Malayalam publishing. The novel is based on his life.' The Second Book of Prophets priced ₹599 is available on Amazon and all major bookstores
