Novelist Narayan, 82, noted for his award-winning novel Kocharethi, which depicted an insider’s poignant account of the strengths, vulnerabilities and the cultural ambiguities of the Malayaraya tribe, died here following COVID-19-related complications on Tuesday.
The body was cremated at the crematorium at Edappally observing COVID protocols .
Kocharethi’, published in 1998 after his retirement from the Postal department, kicked up widespread debates around the eroding cultural identity of the tribal people, questions the perceived attempts to integrate them to the social mainstream, and also about the exploitation they were subjected to.
There was no glamourising of tribal life although it did portray the tribespeople’s closeness to nature. Meanwhile, it also showed how they hurtled down the path of self-destruction and misery as an ethnic group, with their plight made worse by those with vested interests masquerading as benefactors. Fundamentally a story of the tribespeople’s struggle to reconcile with the changes in their life, it went on to win the Sahitya Akademi Award and the The Economist Crossword Book Award in translation titled Kocharethi, the Araya Woman done by Catherine Thankamma in 2011.
The English translation was a prescribed text for a course on subaltern studies at Canada’s Calgary University. Narayan was reportedly working on a film script based on the novel when he took ill. Born in Kudayathur in Idukki district in 1940, Narayan entered the literary scene by penning short stories. Despite the stupendous success of Kocharethi, which saw many translations in Indian and foreign languages, he remained an outsider throughout his life.
He also wrote Ooralikkudi, Vannala, and Aranu Tholkkunnavar, among others. Grieving the writer, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Narayan’s works painted the experience of tribal people. Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan called the writer’s demise an irreparable loss to Malayalam literature.
