INDULEKHA BY CHANDU MENON -#BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022
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Kerala has always had writers who have written about the
social milieu of the state. Indulekha is one such social novel written by Sri.
O. Chandu Menon in 1889. It could be called the first major novel in the Malayalam
language, the forerunner to many more to come. Indulekha, the protagonist was a
beautiful Malayali lady about 20 to 22 years of age.
In the 19th century, the whole of India was
caught between British and Western ideas and their own traditional values. Menon
himself had undergone an English education and grew to be a judge. He wrote his
book to hold up a mirror to his own community. At the time, Kerala was highly
casteist, with society being divided into different castes, the dominant two
being the Nambudiris and the Nairs.
In Nambudiri families, the eldest son inherited all the
property and married a Nambudiri woman. The younger sons married into the Nair
community, which was matrilineal in nature and these alliances were called ‘sambandhams’. In this
case, the family name and the inheritance went from mother to daughter.
The story goes that Menon, who was an avid reader of
English novels, would narrate their stories to his wife. One particular novel
that she enjoyed was Benjamin Disraeli’s Henrietta Temple. Swayed by her
interest, Menon decided to translate the book into Malayalam, but after he started
on it, he wondered whether readers in Kerala would identify with the Victorian English
customs and traditions. Wouldn’t it make more sense to write a novel in his
native tongue revolving around his own culture?
That is how Indulekha came to be written. In the novel, the
high spirited and erudite Indulekha falls in love with Madhavan who is a handsome and educated Nair man. However, according to the prevailing custom, her father wants
her to marry Suri Nambudiri, a man who is much older than her and not well as educated.
Indulekha proves to be strong willed enough to go against
her father’s wishes. She does not agree to the alliance. It must have taken
much courage for a woman in those circumstances to refuse to toe the line.
Madhavan, who is also in love with Indulekha, is made to
believe that she has agreed to marry the Nambudiri. Heartbroken, he makes his
way to Calcutta, to grieve and mend his broken heart. When later, he realises
that he has been misled and that Indulekha is still unwed, he hurries back to
Kerala and they get married, standing up to the community. They move to Madras and
live in peace thereafter.
The old Nambudiri symbolises the feudal set up that
prevailed in the past, while Indulekha is the progressive Nair heroine who opposes
it and follows her own heart.
The novel became highly popular and became a vehicle of
change as it carried a strong message of hope and resurgence to the people in
Kerala, fighting against the stringent orthodoxy of the upper caste society in
Kerala. It entered the public domain in the 1950s. In 1967, a film adaptation
of the novel came out, done by Kalanilayam Krishnan Nair.
John Willoughby Francis Dumergue, a friend of Chandu
Menon’s, brought out the first English translation of the book. In 1979, R
Leelavathi brought out another translation under the title Crescent Moon. Yet
another translation was done by Anitha Devasia for the Oxford University press
in 2005.
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