apostle, apostate
“Goodbye Gauri Amma. It is the misfortune of Kerala that you have not become the Chief Minister of the state. It is not surprising that this tribute has come from the far end of the Left spectrum of Kerala rather than the mainstream CPI(M). Civic Chandran to be precise. For-Poet and Publisher-Editor pathabedamA monthly dedicated to Dalits and Adivasis. Civic Chandran, associated with the pro-Naxal streams of Kerala’s cultural politics in the 70s-80s, has never been one to pull his punches at the big Left’s pious, big brotherhood attitude. Behind its calibrated public rhetoric, is a low-light area of strategic silence and erasure that he is all too familiar with.
In mid-May, when KR Gauri’s demise made headlines, party stalwarts lost no time reminiscing about the glory days of the ’40s, 50s and ’60s, a time when…
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