History

(a) Caste Practices, 'Lower-Castes' and Minorities :
(i) Indulekha was a love story. But is was also about an issue that was hotly debated at the time when the novel was written. This concerned the marriage practices of upper-caste Hindus in Kerala. In the story Indulekha rejects Suri Nambuthiri, the foolish landlord and chooses Madhvan, the educated and handsome Nayar as her husband, and the young couple move to Madras, where Madhavan joins the civil service. On the other hand Suri Nambuthiri finally marries a poorer relation form the same family and goes away pretending that he has married Indulekha Chandu Menon clearly wanted his readers to appreciate the new values of his hero and heroine and criticise the ignorance and immorality of Suri Nambuthiri.
(ii) Novels like Indirabai and Indulekha were written by members of the upper castes, and were primarily about upper-caste characters. But not all novels were of this kind. Potheri Kunjambu, a 'lower caste' writer from north kerala, wrote a novel called Saraswativijayam in 1892. mounting a strong attack on caste oppression and stresses the importance of education for the upliftment of the lower castes.
(iii) In Bengal too a new kind of novel emerged that depicted the lives of peasants and 'low' castes. Advaita Malla Burman's (1914-51) Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1956) an epic about the Mallas, a community of fisherfolk who live off fishing in the river Titash. While novelists before Burman had featured 'low' castes as their protagonists. Titash is special because the author is himself form a 'low caste'. fisherfolk community.
(iv) Over time novel were written by people on the basis of their personal experience. Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer (1908-96) was one of the early Muslim writers to gain wide renown as a novelist in Malyalam. Basheer had little formal education. Most of his works were based on his own rich personal experience rather than on books from the past. Basheer's short novels and stories were written in the ordinary language of conversation. With wonderful humour, Basheer's novels spoke about details from the everyday life of Muslim households.