Voice from margins falls silent | Kochi News
Salimkumar’s political and literary life stood against erasure—of tribes, castes and subaltern historiesDr Ajay S ShekharKunnath Manikan Salimkumar, a political and social activist from Moolamatam in Idukki, who dedicated his life first to the radical Left and later to the socio-political struggles of dalits and adivasis, passed away on June 29, 2025. A. His death comes at a time when Kerala’s marginalised communities continue to face systemic exclusion due to the overrepresentation of oligarchy and the denial of fair political and social access.Nicknamed Kadutha, meaning “the one who wears the hardest thing”—a reference to Vajrapani, the bearer of the diamond thunderbolt—Salim Kumar was born on March 10, 1949, near Thodupuzha in Idukki, a region that also produced literary figures like Narayan. He belonged to the Urali tribal community. His father, Manikan, died young and it was his stepfather who took him to school. His mother’s name was Kotha. Just as Poykayilappachan is called Poyka, Kotha in ancient Damila contexts is also a name for Gotama the Buddha.Be it the Mala Arayar, Mannar, Palliyar, Muthuvar, Urali, Adiyar, Paniyar and Kanikar, the ancient inhabitants of Kerala, these community names and village (Uruperu) names deeply mark the cultural ties with the early Asokan enlightenment of the Cheraland called Kerala in Asokan edicts.Salimkumar entered political agitations in connection with the extremist Left. He was imprisoned for about a year and a half during the Emergency from 1975 onwards. Just as KK Kochu and his group burned the effigy of Adishankara in Vypeen in 1989, Salimkumar entered Dalit politics by burning Manusmriti in Vaikom, the battlefield of the 1806 Dalavakulam struggle.Salimkumar authored several influential works, including Reservation and the Politics of Consensus (2006), Dalit Ideology and Communalization (2008), Negritude (2012), Reservation from a Dalit Perspective (2018), Dalit Democratic Thought (2019), This is Hindu Fascism (2020) and The Subtle Levels of Racial Equality (2021). His autobiography, Kadutha, completed while he battled cancer, is expected to be published soon.He attempted to connect Marxism and class analysis with the anti-caste democratic struggles of the people at the bottom. However, within the context of hegemony of India’s oligarchy, which erases anti-caste struggles, the economic determinism proved limited in addressing the politics of people historically denied all forms of capital and just democratic representation due to the overwhelming power and overrepresentation of elites.Orthodox Marxist concepts of base and superstructure, with their focus on economism, invisibilize the cultural, social, and historical realities of society and its people. Consequently, Salimkumar could not identify and articulate the ancient, enlightened and ethical legacies of his tribe and people within the economic class war paradigm in media, academia and both state and private institutional apparatuses.The democratic paradigm of justice in due and adequate representation of the unrepresented backward communities and minorities are not adequately addressed by such class-fixations that evades the crucial caste question and its immense exclusion.Salimkumar was unable to understand the pitfalls of economic criterion in reservations because he was unable to study Ambedkar and Gramsci on oligarchy. His generation, which went to Naxalism, had only Marx, Mao, and Engels in reference. The people did not even know about the new cultural Left. Ambedkar was also hidden in Gandhian mantras. Salimkumar also worked hard to assert the impractical dream and trap of sub-division that would eliminate the dalits and adivasis themselves by eliminating India’s just and legal community representation system.(The writer is associate professor, department of English & founding coordinator, Centre for Buddhist Studies, SSUS Kalady)
