Landmark study on caste slavery in Kerala gets a new edition after four decades

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In the early 1970s, K. Saradamoni, one of the pioneers in Dalit and gender studies in Kerala, came across an old file titled 'Abolition of Slavery in Kerala', while going through the archives at the India Office Library, London. She was at that time about to begin working on her PhD under the French anthropologist Louis Dumont. That file set her off on a quest which led to her pioneering work 'Emergence of a slave caste: Pulayas of Kerala', published in 1980. Though that first of its kind study on caste slavery in Kerala became an important reference material, the book was not re-issued, until four decades later, a second edition came out last month, published by People's Publishing House, Delhi. "The publishers had received several requests regarding this book. Though the book physically came out after she passed away in May, the work on it had begun before that, but got delayed due to COVID-19," says Saradamoni's daughter G. Arunima, Director of Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR).