The Making of Two Intellectuals: Caste, Epistemology and the Question of Dissent

Caste has an unspeakable presence in the ‘Kerala model’ development discourse. Over the years, Dalits have countered the upper-caste imagination of Kerala. The discontent with the popular imagination of Kerala started to gain momentum in the 1980s and 1990s. By then, the less privileged groups, such as women and Dalits, found reasons to contest the false promises of a modern secular society and the principles of socialist ideology. The study focuses on the intellectual engagements of two Dalit intellectuals from Kerala. K. K. Kochu and M. Kunjaman trace their epistemological framework through dissent and disagreement. Their discontent creates a rift in the hegemonic discourses produced by upper castes, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala and other power structures. K. K. Kochu’s Dalithan (Dalit) and M. Kunjaman’s Ethiru (Dissent) are two autobiographical accounts that map out the intellectual life of these two prominent public figures.