Tamil writer Cho Dharman has won the 2019 Sahitya Akademi award for his novel Sool, depicting the life of the people in the lower rung of society at Urulaikuddi village in Thoothukudi district.
Mr. Dharman, born S. Dharmaraj, who worked in a spinning mill, is the son of a koothu artiste who donned the role of Rama and trained many in the art. Mr. Dharman had exposure to Ramayana at a very young age and this, he has said, kindled his interest in reading.
Writer Poomani, who also has won a Sahitya Akademi award, is his maternal uncle and he had the opportunity to read literary magazines like Deepam at his residence. “It was he who first gave me the books of Ki. Rajanarayanan and introduced me to serious literature,” Mr. Dharaman said in his interview to Tamil magazine Theeranathi.
‘There is no such thing as Dalit writing’
He published his first short story in 1992 and followed by a novel Dhoorvai. Mr. Dharman also wrote a monograph of noted villupaattu artiste Pitchaikutti. The novel Koogai received critical acclaim and it won him the Iyal award of the Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden.
“Dharman’s creative works comprises the aesthetics of the naturalist writing of Poomani and the folk elements of Ki. Rajanarayanan,” writer Jayamohan had said in his website.
In the interview to Theeranathai, Mr. Dharaman had recalled his speech in a meeting organised by Sahitya Akademi on his identity. “You can call me a Dalit because of my birth. But do not draw my writings to give the identity,” he had said.
