1) While regionality is understood generally in terms of the subject matter, you could go a step further and problematize by claiming that it is also defined by who are all intended as target readers.
2) The targeted readers then go on to define the sub-regionality of Tamil writing.
3) It raises the question whether there exists an attempt at universal Tamil regionality construction in modern and postmodern Tamil literature.
4) We can analyse this specifically in terms of the literature that predominantly uses the dialect of the people Kanyakumari district. More specifically we can focus on writers who come under the category of modern and postmodern Tamil literature who hail from the district and who use the dialect of the district.
5) Kanyakumari is unique in Tamil Nadu as far as culture and politics goes:
A) It is the southernmost district in the mainland India
B) According to Wikipedia “historically, Nanjinad and Edai Nadu, which comprise the present-day Kanyakumari district, were ruled by various Tamil and Malayalam dynasties: the Cheras, the Ay/Venad/Travancore dynasty, the Pandyans, the Chozhans and the Nayaks.” - this makes it the only district where a unique kind of Tamil infused with Malayalam intonation and words is used and also where the Malayalam that is spoken is also heavily influenced by Tamil, so much so that the Kanyakumari Tamil is often looked at as Malayalam in Tamilnadu and their Malayalam is seen as Pandi Tamil Malayalam in Kerala. Jeyamohan, one of the most popular and finest writers from the district, writes in his recent short story Pathayiram Kaladigal that he is seen as a Pandi Mallu writer by his Malayalam friends in the Kerala literary circle.
C) In a 2017 interview to Times of India Vijay Sethupathi, the acclaimed actor from Madurai region, claimed that he found “Nagercoil slang” to the most challenging to master. Interestingly most Tamil filmmakers confuse Nellai dialect with Kanyakumari dialect.
D) Politically Kanyakumari district has always been a stronghold for nationalistic parties such as the Congress, Marxist Communist Party and the BJP, while it has also been kinder to the mainstream regional parties such as DMK and ADMK in recent years. Recently Tamil nationalism as represented by Naam Tamilar is also finding some support in Kanyakumari district, though the unique sense of identity of the people of the district so far has been that of an outlier.
E) It is often quoted that the former CM of Tamil Nadu and the patriarch of DMK had once claimed that “Nellai Engal Ellai, Kumari Engalukku Thollai” (Tirunelveli is our border and Kanyakumari remains a hassle). Whenever one wants to point out the nonconformity, the isolation, and the step motherly treatment meted out to the district one pulls out this quote. The political trends and waves of sentiments that sweep the entire state of Tamil Nadu do not always find favor with the people of the district. Even in the last one decade during the assembly polls the district gives a different verdict as against the predominant choices of the mainland Tamil Nadu. For example, when ADMK is on a winning streak, DMK gets a heavy yield (Nermaiendrum.com).
F) In an open letter published in Ananda Vikatan in 14 Dec 2017, Tha. Ram decries the lack of developmental works in the district after its formation in 1956. Interestingly though it was once a part of Kerala, it was the people of the district who successfully protested, under the leadership of Marshal Nesamony, in favor of seceding from Kerala and merger with Tamil mainland. The open letter claims that no university is established, no amount of investment is done and during natural calamities such as cyclone and Tsunami the people are dealt a raw deal by the state.
G) Researcher Dr. Padmanabhan claims that Tiruvalluvar, the most important cultural icon of Tamil, was born in Thirunayanar Kurichi in Kanyakumari district.
6) The above-stated issues and tendencies take a different shape when it comes to the identity of Kanyakumari Tamil literature - there exists two major inclinations among the well-known and important writers from that region. One is the desire to merge with the mainland and predominant Tamil regionality and the other is a preference to speak to an imagined people of the district who hold a even more distinct identity within the generally assumed regionality of the Kumari Tamils: a tendency to define a sub-regionality.
7) Writers from Sundara Ramaswamy, Ponneelan till Nanjil Naadan, Jeyamohan represent the need to engage with the general Tamil readers or even to write about a nationality beyond the regionality while using the Kumari dialect with utmost sensibility and mastery.
8) Writers haling from Kalai Ilakkiya Perumantram, a literary wing of Marxist Communist Party, represent an inclination and political desire to stay within a sub-regionality where they write specifically about and to the people they engage with, their unique dialect within the regional dialect of Kumari and where they lack a desire to dilute it to address the common readership of Tamil Nadu. Poets such as N.D Rajkumar, Na.Da Sivakumar, H.G Rasool, Hameem Mustafa, Sel Sevias, Kumara Selva form this standout circle.
Writers such as Lakshmi Manivannan, Pa. Visalam, Malarvathi too use regionality to address a general Tamil audience with issues they deal with having a “larger-than- local” concern to them.
9) Sundara Ramaswamy (1931-2005) was until his death a defining symbol of serious literature, modernity, a cultural icon among little magazine writers and readers. He lived in Nagercoil. His notable works include Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai, J.J. Sila Kuripugal and Kuzhanthaigal, Pengal, Aangal. He founded the most prominent Tamil literary magazine Kalachuvadu in 1987. He has written over 80 short stories, 3 novels, a little over 100 poems, as well as many essays and reviews. He was well versed in Malayalam since he spent his childhood in Kottayam, Kerala. He taught himself Tamil at the age of 18 and then started contributing to Manikodi. He was hugely influenced by Marxism in his early age but later turned a critic of the leftist movement in Tamil. His first novel “Oru Puliya Marathin Kathai” (The Story of a Tamarind Tree) is a ground-breaking effort in the sense that it attempted to create a narrative for the unchangeablity of the will of the society as against the constant changes made imperative by the sociopolitical, socioeconomic movements in the landscape of Nagercoil. The tamarind tree at the centre of the town in the story also becomes a silent witness to the hypocrisy and double standards of the people as well as it is a metaphor for temporality in the narration. The novel can be compared to the fictional town of Macondo by Garcia Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude or the village of Khasak in Khasakkinte Itihasam by O.V Vijayan. Interestingly Sundara Ramaswamy makes an attempt to create a metaphorical town in Nagercoil to speak to the soul of Tamil Nadu though he specifically uses Nagercoil dialects and the events that affected the development of the town’s people. One can say he attempts a balancing act between regionality and sub-regionality and ultimately favors the former.
10) B. Jeyamohan (1962), known as Jeyamohan, constantly claims in his writings that he is Malayali who writes in Tamil, may be in a defiant attempt to establish his sub-nationality. He is the only writer to regularly reiterate his caste identity in an unapolegitic though a non-revivalist sense in interviews, again against the common preference to avoid it among most writers who believe in transcending caste by avoiding it in public discourse. He is prolific, having written hundred of stories and essays. His recent novel series “Ven Murasu” runs to more than 35,000 pages in print. Jeyamohan’s masterpiece is his second novel “Vishnupuram” (1997), which exemplifies his claim that he is a protege of Sundaramaswamy though he has also been critical of the literary beliefs and stance of the latter. Interestingly like Sundararamaswamy he wrote his masterpiece of a novel in which there is a huge popular Vishnu temple around which a city is built, which stands the test of time (as does Sundara Ramaswamy’s tree in the middle of a town). While Ramaswamy attempts to speak to the spirit of Tamil people Jeyamohan wishes to address the readers of the Indian nation who believe in a hindu nationality. Like his master, the protege uses Kumari Tamil with great mastery in his short stories and a few short novels like Rubber and Kaadu; in fact he uses it even more prominently than his master, but in doing so he tries to perform a balancing act. His target audience are the general readers who claim to hold a pan-Indian identity as well as who like the uniqueness of the Nanjil flavor of the Kumari dialect but wish to relate to the common aspects of the experiences of the characters. From his first novel “Rubber” to the latest “Ven Murasu” series he tries to capture the Indian spirit in terms of nationality - a travel from sub-regionality, regionality to nationality.
11) Ponneelan (1940-) who won the Sahitya Akademi award for his “Pudiya Dharisanangal” in 1994 was born in Manikatti Pottal in Kanyakumari district. His fiction tries to portray the struggles of the working class in a Marxist narrative. Only conveniently located in his native district, he addresses a Tamil regionality to hold a wider political reach to get his point across poignantly. Interestingly he lived and wrote at the time of Sundara Ramaswamy and had a similar Marxist political vision.
12) Tamilavan, born as Carlos Sabarimuthu, is a unique writer among those from Kanyakumari in the sense that he theorizes the need to have a Dravidian regional political lineage, along the lines of the former CM and founder of DMK, Annadurai (திராவிடம் தமிழ்த் தேசம் கதையாடல் ஒரு நூற்றாண்டுத் தமிழ்ச் சிந்தனை வரலாறு). He is a postmodernist and has written meta-regional short stories and novels that are located in a space and time not limited to any one locality or temporality. His well known works are “Erkanave Sollappatta Manitharkal” and “Varsavil Oru Kadavul”.
13) N.D Rajkumar writes about the unique Dalit identity of the once mountain dwelling community with a heavily Malayalam infused Tamil. The contours, rhythm and musicality of his poems are difficult to follow for the regional Tamil readers and he makes no attempt to dilute it to make it palatable and comprehensible. He is the only Tamil poet who can put his poems to a tune and perform them in the style prominent in Malayalam poetry scene. His popular books are “Theri” (1997), “Odakku” (1999) and “Kalvilakkukal”.
14) Na.Da. Sivakumar follows the same path as N.D Rajkumar, though his sub-regional space is located in the Thuckalay region and the Dalit community he writes about are the Vannars with a mastery over black magic and Tamil Siddha medicine. His important collections are “Uvarman” (1997) and “Vetti Murippu Kalam” (2007).
15) Sel Sevias is a hardly known but an important poet from Vilavankodu region in Kanyakumari district. He is the only poet in Tamil to use Vilavankodu dialect with absolute mastery and the only one who writes about the people of the sub-region. “Kombiye” is his only published book.
16) H.G Rasool (1959-2017) hails from the Muslim community in Thuckalay in Kanyakumari district. His popular collections are “Mayilaanji” and “Umma Karuvandai Parandhu Pokiral”. He shot to limelight when he was ousted from the Jamaat for having published an article in Uyirmmai in which he spoke about the use of alcohol in Islam. He is important for having written about a kind of Islam that is specific to the sub-regionality of Kanyakumari as against the regionality of Islamic writers such as Keeranur Jaheer Raja. Rasool can be compared to Thoppil Muhammad Meera in that respect.
17) Meeran Mitheen (1968-) is a fiction writer representing the Tamil Islam and the sub-regionality of Kanyakumari district. He treads the same path as H.G Rasool though he is a lot more populist and commercial in his reach. His well known works are “Governor Betha”, “Ajnabi” and “Othi Eriyapadatha Muttaigal”. One of his novels is to be made into a film by popular filmmaker Vetrimaaran.
18) Hameem Mustafa is a Marxist poet represents a strong political vision of Tamil Islam located in Kanyakumari district. His well known works are “Ooru Nechai” and “Adangu”.
19) Peer Mohammed - a postcolonial critic and essayist from the Kanyakumari Tamil Muslim community.
20) Kumara Selva - Popular for his short story collection “Ukkilu” - the titular story is a postmodern attempt at creative a narrative that captures the legend and folklore of the downtrodden in Kanyakumari district.
21) There are also writers such as Pavel Sakthi who hail from Madurai but write about the landscape and people of Kanyakumari district and Bogan Shankar from Nellai district who relishes using Kumari Tamil and Malayalam in his stories. They are writers assume the sub regional identity with an outsider’s fascination with the people of the district and their language.