After a protracted illness, the extraordinary chronicler of tribal life passed away in Kozhikode at the age of 84.
Published Nov 22, 2023 | 6:30 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 22, 2023 | 7:19 PM
P Valsala. (Supplied)
Tribesmen, women, and Nature have a few things in common. They are still marginalised, exploited, and often greed tramples them at will. Occasionally, they become trophies — exhibition pieces.
Author, activist, and ecofeminist P Valsala saw the sidelining and trampling of women, tribespeople, and Nature from close quarters. The sexual atrocities against the underprivileged Adiya tribeswomen at Thirunelli in Wayanad touched her deeply and Pemby, a short story, was born.
The story became a topic of heated discussion in the Kerala Assembly in the late 1960s — a first in which a literary work sparked a debate in the House.
The mainstream media had then ignored the realities of Wayanad. The tribespeople were alien to both media and people outside Wayanad. The politicians, too, had a limited understanding of the subaltern communities’ problems, prospects, and challenges.
P Valsala was one of the voices that spoke for Wayanad, its life, and its environment.
The voice fell silent and faded into eternity at a private hospital in Kozhikode around 10.30 pm on Tuesday. She was 84.
While being a school teacher in Kozhikode, Valsala frequented Wayanad for a firsthand understanding of the tribespeople, whose land had been stolen and appropriated by upper-caste landlords and settlers.
Years later, in one of her newspaper interviews, Valsala cited K Panoor, an empathetic officer then with the Tribal Development Department, as the driving factor that introduced her to the realities of Wayanad’s hinterland. Pannor’s well-known book, Keralathile Africa — Africa in Kerala — opened for her a window to Wayanad.
“I was curious to learn more about the lives beyond our affluent urban lifestyle. I visited the Adiya settlements of Thirunelli and Thrissileri and witnessed firsthand the difficult situation faced by single tribal mothers and their fatherless offspring. I thoroughly examined how these women were exploited by influential landlords, settlers, and upper-caste officials to satiate their carnal desires by providing inexpensive alcohol in small portions,” she once told this correspondent.
Despite always viewing herself as an outsider who periodically travelled to the hill district, Valsala chronicled the wretched tribal existence in Wayanad.
Her books Nellu (1972), Agneyam (1974), and Koomankolli (1989) provide powerful narratives of the struggles of the aborigines of Wayanad, who faced obstacles such as feudalist remnants, Naxalite uprisings, and unfair labour practices.
Even though she never considered herself a feminist writer, Valasala was always concerned about the rights of underprivileged women, particularly those from tribal communities.
Some critics compare her novels and short stories to those of Mahasweta Devi, who lived among tribespeople and wrote about their problems in Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
Valsala employed fiction as a means of reporting on the sexual exploitation and other atrocities committed against Wayanad’s tribal peoples far in advance of journalists and researchers arriving at the scene and beginning to alert the outside world of these heinous crimes.
One of her books, Nellu, became a standard work in Wayanad society and was adapted for the big screen by renowned filmmaker Ramu Kariat.
Nellu was the only Malayalam film in which Lata Mangeshkar sang a song.
“Nellu just happened. Writing it was not something I thought about. I wrote it on the spur of the moment following a revitalising experience in Wayanad,” she once said.
Additionally, Valsala disclosed that she was not in favour of making that novel into a movie.
“However, I gave up when Ramu Kariat asked for my permission because I had watched and found his film, Chemmeen, impressive. He requested that SL Puram Sadanandan, KG George, and I write separate scripts based on the novel. In the end, he combined elements from all three scripts to create the film,” Valasala had recalled.
Disappointed with the film’s conclusion, Valsala used to claim that she intended to make a movie of another of her novels, Agneyam, which also featured a Wayanad setting.
“But I could not because there weren’t many opportunities for women to become filmmakers back then,” she lamented.
During one of her many trips to Wayanad, Valsala got to know well-known Naxalite leader Varghese, who was eventually murdered by the Kerala police in a staged encounter.
“My only encounter with him was in 1967 when we met on the banks of the Kalindi river in Thirunelli,” she reminisced, “I had expected the armed revolt in Wayanad,” she later said.
Varghese became Poulose in Agneyam, and she used the book to show how popular leftist leaders like Varghese were drawn to radicalism and how Naxalism spread among Wayanad’s impoverished and unfortunate tribal people.
During the height of the Emergency, the novel was serialised in the Mathrubhumi Weekly, and police would frequently contact the media outlet to get the personal information of the author, who they claimed was a supporter of left-wing extremism.
However, Valsala was not taken into custody, so she was able to concentrate on her chosen topics without worrying much about or expecting any institutional repression. She had a constant desire to be among the less fortunate people.
Valsala is the author of almost 70 books, including travelogues, memoirs, short stories, novels, and works for children.
A well-known fellow traveller of the state’s Left parties, she had held the chairpersonship of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi three times. Before retiring as the principal of the Government Teachers’ Training College at Nadakkavu in Kozhikode, Valsala worked as a high school teacher.
Her other well-known works are Chaver, Vilapam, and Nizhalurangunna Vazhikal.
The exceptional author had stated once that the ideas presented in her works opposed the society that views women as second-class citizens.
“Valsala is a talented writer of social fiction,” noted literary critic Dr PK Rajesekharan. “She was among those who followed the realistic genre in Malayalam,” he added.
She was one of the first ecofeminist writers in Malayalam, according to Dr Mini Prasad, an associate professor at Mar Thoma College in Chungathara, and a critic.
“She depicted the exploitation of women and the natural world. The cold environs of Wayanad, native seeds, and its fauna were highlighted in Nellu. However, the entire Wayanad changed for the worse when she penned Koomankolly nine years later. Its women and ecology were decimated. Because she endured sexual assault, the indigenous woman in the novel, Kemby, developed a sexually transmitted illness,” Mini Prasad remarked.
“Read this along with the cruel reality of Thirunelli, of Wayanad’s unmarried tribal mothers, which shook our conscience,” she added.
“I’ve known my characters since I was a young child,” Valsala once remarked, “All of my characters are based on situations and experiences I have had in life.”
Valsala, a resident of Kozhikode’s Vellimadukunnu, always had a particular relationship with Wayanad. “I used to go and stay at my house in Thirunelli,” she told South First earlier.
After a run-in with Left politics a few years ago, Valsala was seen endorsing the Hindutva doctrine. However, she later clarified that she had always been a Leftist and unable to be anything else.
Her spouse Murali Appukkutty, daughter Dr MA Mini, and son Arun Maroli, who works in the US, survive Valsala.
Many literary accolades were bestowed on Valsala, such as the CV Kunhiraman Memorial Sahitya Award, Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Muttathu Varkey Award, and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.
She was also associated with the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangam (PuKaSa), a left-leaning cultural organisation.
It was during her teaching days that she met Appukkutty. Following their marriage, the couple settled in Wayanad, which further inspired her to present Malayalam a body of excellent works.
She even disagreed with the concept of feminism and refused to categorise her writings as women’s writing, Dalit literature, or anything else.
Writing was Valsala’s pastime, something she indulged in after finishing her everyday tasks at home and school.
“Valsala is unique among Malayalam writers because of her extraordinary and everlasting dedication to the tribal cause. She never boasted about how committed she was to the cause. She consistently maintained that she wrote about persons she encountered in her spare time,” Wayanad-based author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker OK Johnny told South First.
“With her passing, Malayalam has lost something priceless,” Johnny added.
