Hill Country Literary Conference in London | Daily News

Hill Country Literary Conference in London

A day-long literary conference on contemporary Hill Country (Malaiyaha) publications was held at the Trinity Centre, East Ham, a favourite haunt of Tamil literary enthusiasts living in London, on June 11, 2022.

Organised by Vimbam, a prominent literary, cultural, and film collective, active within the dissenting Tamil Community in London, the conference saw over ninety participants come from several parts of Britain and Europe to discuss thirty publications that have emerged from the Malaiyaha community in recent years.

The impressive range and breadth of the publications indicate that the Malaiyaha Community, despite the deprivation and marginalisation in all aspects of social and economic life in Sri Lanka is now ready to assert its identity and place within the broader terrain of Sri Lankan Tamil writing. In the main, the works discussed were literary, with poetry and short stories dominating the list, together with a few novels.

A Tamil translation of a Sinhala novel, Thay Kahata by Upali Leelaratne, set in the Malaiyaham also featured in the discussions. An engaging account of a book on Malaiyaha folk dance, Kaaman Koothu was also included. A significant number of non-literary works ranged from Malaiyaha history, biography, education, an ethnography of mainly women workers in the Malaiyaham, socio-economic analysis of Malaiyaha people’s continued deprivation, and an important survey of legal developments that have hampered the social uplift of the Malaiyaha people were also discussed.

The conference was divided into seven sessions, each one a tribute to leading intellectuals of the Malaiyaham, such as C.V. Velupillai, veteran trade unionist, and writer, Professor S. Chandrasegaram, leading theorist on education, Ira Sivalingam, veteran journalist, writer-activist and trade unionist, and Kokilam Subbiah, the first woman novelist to come from the Malaiyaham. The very first session was held in the memory of Kaaththaayi, a tea plucker, who languished in Welikade prison for nineteen years of cruel detention under the PTA, on

suspicion and died of cancer and other illnesses several years after the war ended. Just before the lunch break, a drama group Meiveli performed a moving account of Kaaththaayi’s life. Prominent figures from the Malaiyaham, who were writers, trade unionists, and charity workers now living in the UK, were amongst the speakers. M. Nithiyanandan, a leading Malaiyaha intellectual, literary critic, former journalist, and academic and K.K. Rajah, a renowned artist and theatre activist were the main curators of the conference, ably assisted by Meenal NIthiyanandan, an emerging figure in the London Tamil literary scene. Vimbam had invited artworks by Malaiyaha school children under the age of fifteen for display at the conference. Cash awards of Rs 100,000 for the best works are to be presented by Vimbam. The audience and speakers were evenly divided amongst men and women, some of whom were writers themselves. Songs from Kaaman Koothu and a revolutionary song by pioneer trade unionist Meenakshi Amma sung by participants delighted the audience. As word of the conference spread, there were more and more requests for the inclusion of new works. The inclusion of thirty works meant there was little time for audience interaction and discussion, but the conference produced a sense of warmth and gratification as the sheer number of works discussed was very evident amongst the participants. One English language academic work discussed at the conference, Tea and Solidarity by anthropologist Mythri Jegathesan highlights how the Malaiyaha people’s lives are not a calculation in the mainstream political discourses and that they are continually absent and forgotten. It is hoped that the conference is a small beginning to set that right. The organisers plan future events.

 

 


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