Political Manifestations of Modernity : A Critical evaluation based on the Early Poetry of K.G. Sankara Pillai

Abstract

It was in the 1960s that the modernist movement  picked up its prominence in Malayalam literature.  The movement   brought  about  consequential  transformations   in aesthetic sensibilities of Malayalam literature , both in  form and content. “Western Society of the post enlightenment period  accomplished substantial technological and social advancements, propelled by the Industrial Revolution and colonial expansion .  Modernity delineates this Socio- ideological  paradigm that sculpted the influential philosophy of the modern world. The Prototypical  modernist writings  in Malayalam  often imported  and comprehended  the principal elements of western modernity, like existentialism, nihilism, melancholia, narcissism, and experimentalism .“Almost all the early modernist works  were  composed  predominantly of  subjective, romantic framework.    The early modernity  was characterized by nihilistic and self-centered perspectives and a transition from this  was witnessed  in the 1970s.  Perceptible characteristics   of this  subsequent evolutionary phase  was  evident in Malayalam poetry during the late 1960s and 1970s,  addressed properly  as  "political modernity" by critics , afterwards  .  Poems  by K.G. Sankara Pillai, Sachidanandan, Kadammannitta Ramakrishnan, Aattoor Ravi Varma, and Balachandran Chullikkad express  attributes diverging from the general contours  of modernist precinct . “The peasant uprisings in West Bengal in late 1960s had its reverberations  felt  far and wide across  India. This movement,  later termed singularly as the Naxalite movement,  mobilized  both political and cultural  repercussions  across the country. Political modernity in Kerala was  consolidated  in this socio-political contexture  as a second-phase manifestation of the modernist movement.  Even though  it is identified as  "political modernity," the glimpses  of romantic elements  and the literary preservation of  essential  modernist attributes   within its  content call for critical  perusal and  evaluation . This paper attempts to undertake such an analysis.