Women Empowerment

Untitled Episode

PATHUMMAYUDE AADU

Introduction

The age old debate whether the language determines the society or the

society determines the language has another level of discussion, i.e. both

language and society shape and influence each other. So, as a language

student it is very interesting to look at how the language and society

shape and influence each other in our life stories. And it is also interesting

to have looked that how these historical debates are reflected in the

literature. But in these debates factors like power and identity have

played a very influencing role. When it is said the language / the society

has influenced each other the existing power relations profoundly affected

this part. Apart from this, identity also comes into the picture in a way

how the identity is being constituted by language and society. In such a

discussion it is undeniable the great contributions by the well-known

writer of the Malayalam literature, Waikkam Muhammed Basheer. Through

his stories he was narrating the life of traditional malayalee families.

Especially his renowned novel "Pathummayude Aadu" (Pathumma -a

traditional Muslim feminine name-'s goat), which is taken here for analysis

he was telling his and his own families stories who belongs to a traditional

Muslim backward society. He narrated the story through their own

"backward language" and packed number of awards and millions of

readers.

So, my central point of this essay will be focusing on how Basheer questioned the power of mainstream elite language and how far he could express their family's 'backward identity' through the particular novel "Pathummayude Aadu". In the first paragraph I will be establishing role of Basher in radicalizing the unquestioned relation of language with power. Through which he could mainstream the life of 'backward' society. This paragraph is followed by the discussion of his attempt to find place for the 'backward/ marginalised' identity in mainstream society which was enabled by questioning the hegemonic power of elite language. After such discussion the third part is devoted to discuss how Basheer highlighted some linguistic conflict and issues like language deviance and all.

Radicalizing the language-power equation

The language-power relation in many literatures is very apparent. But, Basheer, the great writer was radicalizing such a language-power relation