Transcending social barriers

Pradeepan Pambirikkkunnu’s Eri tells the untold story of progressive thinkers among the downtrodden

Eri

The five elements,

The spirits of nature,

The grand sire ‘Eri’

Who burns within me

Parayas and Pulayas aren’t two

All is but you

Time isn’t two,

Form isn’t two,

Sea and sky isn’t two,

You and I aren’t two

But one

The rough translation of a folk ritual song reflects on the high Vedic concept of ‘all is one.’ Or maybe the Vedic concept was derived from these folk concepts. Whatever, the history of time and space that formed our past had several stories to tell, most of which remains untold. What muted the storytelling were self-delusional practices, call it caste, colour, or intellectual supremacy.

Eri tries to tell one such story. Of a Dalit who was evolved enough to understand the mood of the society he was in and the way it has to progress to achieve the unity that he felt was the core of existence.

Pradeepan Pambirikkkunnu has researched deep into the society that existed for years when class differences ruled the roost and yet there was no activism to break those chains. Instead, there were genuine people like Eri who showcased the ability of human mind to transcend such borders. Eri was a man well-versed in Sanskrit and chants and used them to get things done practically – what people could call magic. He was also a progressive soul who felt Dalits shouldn’t eat the meat of dead cows, something the community was ritually allowed to. He wanted them instead to concentrate on activities that could better their self-esteem and a natural, though slow, uplift from the situation they are in.

When the upper caste took offence at this stand of Eri, he used his expertise to counter them. There was no bloodshed, no sloganeering, but a natural, erudite, and highly dignified retort to divisive presumptions that camouflaged themselves as truths derived from the scriptures.

There were many like Eri from the communities that were side-lined as ‘untouchables’. History has always been written for the privileged lot and whatever little is written about the downtrodden has been as dependants or helpers of the socially powerful.

But Pradeepan Pambirikkunnu says in the book that there were stalwarts from the communities that were so ostracised and the progress and erudition of those people have sparked splinters of self-esteem in those communities or free thinking individuals, which have ignited struggles to break society free from the shambles of casteism.

Yet those stalwarts were not people who denied tradition. They delved deep within and found the way the traditions were practised was the culprit. Concepts, or the ways they translate themselves, aren’t the offenders. What maligns is the selfishness of man to feel a delusional self-importance that hacks at the very democratic roots of these traditions. It is therefore greed to possess that is the culprit, greed that prompted history to ignore people like Eri from a place in its pages.

To bring such characters out from oblivion, Pradeepan Pambirikunnu had to rely on memories of people who had links to the bygone time and space and create a fictional space in north Kerala called Parayanarpuram.

He has told the story with saintly precision and detachment, and left it for posterity to relish before bowing down to death in December 2016.

This was the writer’s first and last book. Probably this was all that he needed to be not forgotten like characters he tried to recollect.

Eri

Pradeepan Pambirikunnu

DC Books

Rs.125