https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i2.041
Redefining Disability: Manalazham as a Critique of Eco–Social Resistance of the Differently Abled
DR JAYALEKSHMI J
Assistant Professor
Department of English
HHMSPB NSS College for Women
Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Abstract: The concept of disability is reconstructed and stratified with the development of clinical and medical discourses from the 19th century onwards. As Hevey comments, “The Disability Rights Movement has shifted the construct of disability “off the body and into the interface between people with impairments and socially disabling conditions” (426). Literature often represents disability through various facets of subordination like nick naming, body shaming, physical tortures and mental trauma. Hari Kurusseri’s Manalazham redefines disability as differently-abled through the resistance and resilience of the protagonist Sachidanandan. The novel also pinpoints the psychological subordination of Sachidanandan by the society through the words he is addressed by, labelling his deformity like “thalanthan’’, “njondi’’ and “ezhajeevi’’ or a reptile and his indomitable spirit to resist saying that as a reptile, he is poisonous and beware of him. As Lerita .M. Coleman in the article “Stigma: An Enigma Demystified” rightly comments, “Nature caused us all to be born equal; if fate is pleased to disturb this plan of the general law, it is our responsibility to correct its caprice, and to repair by our attention the usurpations of the stronger” (160). The image of Sachidanandan having deformed legs, moving on his tricycle later transforms him into the leader of an environment protest campaign against sand mining in “Mannida” in the second half of the novel. Manalazham is a genuine critique of the environmental issues due to illegal sand mining and brick kilns in Kallada in Kollam district, here masked as “Mannida”. The novel progresses through the struggles and encounters of Sachidanandan with the sand mining mafia and the authority, surpassing his physical disability and saves Mannida from illegal sand mining weaponizing his intelligence and education. Sachidanandan adopts various experimental strategies like writing petitions, blatant criticism in public meetings, representation in newspapers, prayer campaigns, agitations, Naxalisms, Guerilla warfares, Gandhisms and hunger strikes. The novel evolves as an eco-social critique of resistance of the differently-abled against commodification of land and women with his fortitude. Manalazham revolves around the life and challenges of Sachidanandan, the Sanskrit teacher and his indomitable spirit to establish himself as differently-abled and as the harbinger of saving Mannida from illegal sand mining by announcing a hunger strike and seeking media attention.
Keywords: Disability literature, body shaming, geo-criticism, ecofeminism, Environmental consciousness, Sachidanandan, Manalazham
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