COMMUNITY AND HISTORY

THE EARLY NARRATIVES OF KERALA

The book is a study on community narratives which hinge on the interface of travelogue and history, through which evolves an important aspect of the history of Kerala. The Study
illustrates the historiographical potentialities of community and travel narratived by exploring the possibilities of diverse readings of the past. Through a close scrutiny of two erly narratives, Tuhfat al-Mujahidin(16th century) and Varthamanappusthakam (18th century), the author tries to unravel some of the hitherto unnoticed contours of the cultural geography of theregion from which evolved the state of Kerala. And by an alternative reading of history through these narratives it is argued that the nationalist non-religious imagination of the secular was tantamount to undermining minority identities. The two texts under analysis bring out the fact that the minority identities of the sixteenth century Mappilla (Muslim) and the eighteenth century Nazrani (Christian ) Communities were shaped by religious imagination as against the nationalists assumption. Accordingly, it has beel well argued that in the colonial context in which these Identity assertions. Accordingly it has been well argued that in the colonial context in which these identity assertions were shaped had in the process as the 'other' not the native Hindu but the alien Portuguese. Significantly departing from the Postsstructuralist assumption of community and by resorting to the New Historiccist conceptualizations, the study offers a critique of the received western notions of secularism as contra religion and establishes that the eastern tradition of secularism has always been deeply religious. The study is well-wrought with in the theoretical perspective that text is historical and history textual and history textual, and exemplifies the discursive convergence of the literary and the non-literary sources which could fruitfully be used in interpretation and inquiry especially in reading the past.

SREENATH MURALEEDHARAN K. is an Assistant Professor i n the Department of English and Languages at Amrita University, Kochi Campus. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Universiy of Hyderabad. His areas of research are Travel Writing, Kerala Studies and Regional Literatures.

Contents

Acknowledgments vii-viii

Introduction

1.Situating Community Narratives 16-50
2.Textual History and Criticism of Varttamanappustakam 51-86
3.Writing Travel and History 87-122
4.Community History and History of Kerala 123-177

Conclusion 178-180

Bibliography 181-203