A Study of Dalit Consciousness in Scavenger’s Son by Takazhi Sivasankara Pillai

Abstract

Scavenger’s Son is the English translation of Takazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s Malayalam novel Tottiyude Makan. It’s Pillai’s widely read and appreciated novel which was published in 1947 and after twenty-eight years i.e. in 1975, it was translated into English by R.E. Asher entitled as Scavenger’s Son. This novel is the story of struggle against caste based exploitation. There are three generations which fight against social-stratification and exploitation but it is only the latter one that appears conscious and becomes successful in taking revenge for their exploitation while the first and the second generations surrender before their exploiters. The novelist himself has written that “a scavenger’s son, Chudalamuttu
is forced to follow his father’s profession. For once he decides to change his pre-ordained destinyBut will society let them [he and his wife] fulfill this ambition?” (Pillai, Backside of Cover Page). In the present research paper the mentioned novel will be evaluated in the light of revenge as motif.