Imayam (writer)

Imayam (born 1964, pen name of V.Annamalai) is a prominent Indian novelist in Tamil. Imayam’s first novel Koveru Kazhudhaigal, translated as Beasts of Burden by Lakshmi Holmstrom into English, was hailed as a landmark in Dalit fiction.

Should one only highlight crimes against Dalits? Is there no happiness in their lives? No playfulness? Do they not get along with others? You cannot turn a photo into a banner. In my novel I wanted to create life. I did not write according to any doctrine or philosophy. Good literature should take one into a region of silence. Otherwise, what is the difference between a writer and a sociologist? When confronted by life, tattvam [theory] fades.

"Headnote to author" in No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South India Vol. I, Ed. Satyanarayana and Tharu

About his novel Koveru Kazhudaigal the writer Sundara Ramasamy wrote "There is no novel that equals this one in the last 100 years of Tamil writing." However Dalit intellectuals like Raj Gauthaman have criticized the novel for focusing only on shortcomings of Dalits and being the kind of novel that "upper"-castes praised.

Bibliography

• Koveru Kazhuthaigal (Beasts of Burden, 1994)
• Arumugam (1999)
• Manbaram (short stories, 2002)
• Sedal (2006)

Awards

• Agni Aksara (1994)
• Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers' Award (1994)
• Amudhan Adigal Iiakkiya Award (1998)
• Sahitya Akademi Award in Tamil

Further reading

• Satyanarayana, K & Tharu, Susie (2011) No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South Asia, Dossier 1: Tamil and Malayalam, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
• Satyanarayana, K & Tharu, Susie (2013) From those Stubs Steel Nibs are Sprouting: New Dalit Writing from South Asia, Dossier 2: Kannada and Telugu, New Delhi: HarperCollins India.