Kozhikode: How Malabar’s creative hub became the world’s City of Literature

Kozhikode, formerly Calicut where Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama landed in 1498 to discover a sea route to India, was named City of Literature by UNESCO Creative Cities Network on October 31.

Home to two Jnanpith winners, a Saraswati Samman recipient, many young emerging and aspiring writers and poets, one of the largest literary festivals in the world and a flourishing publishing industry, Kozhikode in Kerala has been a melting pot of cultures for centuries. Now it has another name — City of Literature.

Kozhikode, formerly Calicut where Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama landed in 1498 to discover a sea route to India, was named City of Literature by UNESCO Creative Cities Network on October 31. Kozhikode and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil were among ten cities across the world given the prestigious tag by UNESCO on World Cities Day. Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh was named the City of Music.

The two Indian cities are among 55 cities across the world given the honour of Creative Cities in seven separate areas — crafts and folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, media arts and music — this year for placing creativity and culture at the heart of sustainable urban development.

Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) is home to famous writers like M T Vasudevan Nair, Balamani Amma, P Valsala, SK Pottekkatt and Vaikom Muhammad Basheer.

Kozhikode boasts of such famous writers as M T Vasudevan Nair, S K Pottekkatt, Balamani Amma, P Valsala, K T Mohammed and Thikkodiyan. Nair and Pottekkatt are winners of the Jnanpith Award for literature and Balamani Amma, the mother of poet Kamala Das, is a recipient of the Saraswati Samman.

The creative hub of Malabar, Kozhikode is also linked to the legacy of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, called Beypore Sultan after the nearby ancient port town where he wrote and lived with his family.

"Kozhikode has a major role in the renaissance of Malayalam literature," says Malayalam poet K Satchidanandan. "The city is home to some of the greatest writers in the country," adds Satchidanandan, a former secretary of Kendriya Sahitya Akademi.

The pioneering works of such celebrated writers as Vasudevan Nair, whose 1958 novel Naalukettu portrayed a single mother tearing down traditions, Pottekkatt, whose travel journals brought the world to the doorstep of Kerala's discerning readers, and Balamani Amma, whose poems about motherhood as early as in the '30s influenced generations, all came from Kozhikode. A thriving publishing scene, led by the city-based Mathrubhumi Weekly, which printed poems and serialised novels of first-time writers, helped.

Many writers from the city and in the state wrote wholehearted recommendation letters when the city of Kozhikode submitted its proposal to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network when applications for Creative Cities this year were called from cities belonging to UNESCO member-states and associate members in May.

The city has been a centre of artistic innovations and always reflected new trends and sensibilities in areas like literature, film, theatre and folk traditions.

"The city has been a centre of artistic innovations and always reflected new trends and sensibilities in areas like literature, film, theatre and folk traditions," explains Satchidanandan, the current chairman of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and director of the annual Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode.

Located in the centre of the Malabar region and on the coast of Arabian Sea, the city's composite culture has its roots in its trade and cultural exchanges with the rest of the world dating back to centuries ago. The city became a meeting point of different cultural expressions allowing art and literature to thrive. Several writers from Malabar joined the freedom struggle and literature became a movement for democracy.

"It is not just encouraging for the writers in the state, but also a matter of pride," says Sabin Iqbal, author of Shamal Days: A Novel and Cliffhangers. "The city has played an important role in the development of Malayalam language and literature," adds the Thiruvananthapuram-based Iqbal, who curates the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters in the Kerala capital.

"Kozhikode's recognition as the City of Literature by UNESCO is a testament to the power of literature to transcend boundaries and unite people," says Ravi Deecee of  Kerala Literature Festival that will have its seventh edition in January next year. "This achievement underlines the lively literary and artistic culture that thrives in our city," adds Kerala's tourism minister P  A Mohammed Riyas.

Created in 2004, UNESCO Creative Cities Network has so far awarded 300 cities in 100 countries with its honour. “The cities in our Creative Cities Network are leading the way when it comes to enhancing access to culture and galvanizing the power of creativity for urban resilience and development,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said on World Cities Day.