Telling translocal histories: Reading the migrant life-worlds in Gulf-Keralan writing

This article discusses three Malayalam texts written by Gulf-Kerala migrants: V. Musafar Ahammed’s (2014) Kudiyettakkarante Veedu [House of the emigrant], a collection of memoirs; Benyamin’s (2016) Kudiyettam: Pravasathinte Malayalivazhikal [Emigration: Malayali routes of exile], an anthology of essays; and Sam Pynummoodu’s (2016) Kuwait Indian Kudiyetta Charitram: Kuwaitile Indian Pravasavum Malayali Sanidhyavum [A history of Indian emigration into Kuwait: India’s Emigration to and Malayali Presence in Kuwait], a historical work. This essay introduces them as microhistorical writings that attempt to document Kerala’s diasporic history — in particular, the history of the Gulf-Keralan diaspora to which the writers belong. At the micro-level, these diasporic histories are distinguished by their multiplicity, particularity, and dialogic association. Furthermore, this essay maintains that the writings acknowledge the agential force of the migrant subject, thereby reinforcing the primacy of the migrant writer and migrant protagonists. In the course of translating subjective experiences into vivid moments of articulation, migrant memory summons a heterogeneous narrative fabric that is characterized by epistemic disjunctures and methodological shifts. Consequently, these texts present an alternative to the canonical literature (as manifested within the ambit of state and academic engagements) on Gulf-Kerala migration, thereby reinventing the dominant historical discourse and recontextualizing history in the private realm of embodied narratives.