Abstract
The population movements that have occurred within present-day Kerala should be seen in tandem with the history of the massive out-migration record of the state, which has earned for its people the image of being a robust community with a proclivity for migration. This article explores the fashioning of the figure of the kutiyettakkaran, a migrant, in the Malayalee unconscious by problematising the peasant migration from Travancore to Malabar during 1920–70. Reading across Malayalam literary representations, this article looks at the configuration of the migrant self as located within the problematic of capital and colonial modernity. These literary texts, simultaneously fashioned by and fashioning history, give a nuanced picture of the contradictions and compulsions that governed the migrants as well as the natives. The migrant identity of the Syrian Christian settler in Malabar is construed within a social imaginary regulated by a specific discourse of development. The fashioning and circulation of a modernising and heroic image endowed the migrant with a peculiar authority in the landscape and history of Malabar. However, such a mission is critiqued, often in absolute terms, by texts closer to our times. These contemporary texts, informed as much by the consequences of the migration, play an important role in reconfiguring the Syrian Christian migrant as a stooge of capital.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
