Kerala Maupassant – Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai തകഴി ശിവശങ്കരപ്പിള്ള

Courteous greetings on the occasion of 107th birth anniversary of Malayalam language short story writer, novelist Late Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. He wrote over 30 novels and novellas and over 600 short stories focusing on the lives of the oppressed classes. He began writing stories from his schooldays. The school headmaster Kainikkara Kumara Pillai, took interest in his creativity and mentored him. He exposed him to the best of Indian literature. His first short story was Daridran (The Poor) which was published in 1929. After many short stories, he wrote Thyagathinu Prathiphalam (Fruits of sacrifice) in 1934 which primarily dealt with the social injustices prevalent during that time. This was the first of his 39 novels; he also published 21 anthologies composed of over 600 short stories, two plays and four memoirs. Pillai’s literary works are known to portray the society in Kerala in the mid-20th century. Thottiyude Makan (Scavenger’s Son), a story about a scavenger who strives unsuccessfully to keep his son from continuing the family profession was published in 1947 and is known to be the first realistic novel in Malayalam literature. In 1956, Pillai published his love epic Chemmeen (Prawns), which was a departure from his earlier line of realism and the novel received critical acclaim, becoming the first post-colonial Indian novel to be translated into English. Pillai wrote Kayar (Coir) in 1978, a long novel extending to over 1000 pages, covering the history of several generations in Kuttanad for over 200 years and is considered by many as his masterpiece, n spite of the popularity of Chemmeen. The novel deals with hundreds of characters over four generations, bringing back to life an axial period (1885–1971) during which feudalism, and bonded labour gave way to conjugal life and to universal access to land ownership, and later, to decolonisation and the industrial revolution of the 1960s. The Government of Kerala acquired Sankaramanagala, the ancestral home of Pillai, in 2000 and a museum, Thakazhi Memorial Museum was set up in 2001, honouring the writer’s memory.
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai was awarded by Sahitya Academi Award, Jnanpith Award, Padma Bhushan, Kerala Sahitya Academi.