Moral Principles in Bama’s Short Story ‘Anthi’

Abstract

Bama, is a prominent leading author of Dalit literature. Her novel Karuku written in 1992 became famous because of its autobiographical elements. She used the language of Dalit people in her writings and it is considered to have paved a new path. She works as a teacher. Her novel Karuku has been translated into English by Lakshmi Holmstrom. She received the 'Cross Wordbook Award' of the year 2000. Bama, who was born in the sixties in Tamil Nadu is currently working as a teacher. Her novels Karuku (1992) and Sangathi (1994) are two of the best Dalit novels. Karuku (Novel-1992), Sangathi (Novel-1994), Vanmam (Novel-2002), Kisumbukkaran (Short Story- 1996), Manushi (Novel) and Thavutu Kuruvi (2019 short- stories) bear great moral thoughts. A short story called ‘Anthi’ has been taken up for analysis in the short stories of Daututuk Kuvi. In this story Bama highlighted the sufferings of lonely old people. Anthi is a short story that captures the life style of the people living with goats and cows. Bama points dignified lifestyle through the lifestyle of Thavasi grandma. In the short story ‘Anthi’ Bama has created a character Thavasi grandma who want to live her life by herself without depending on others. Morality is of the views regarding how one should behave in society. It can be defined as the set of behaviors accepted by a society regarding what is good and what is bad. Morals are not the same in all societies as can be seen in the short story of Anthi through Thavasi grandma. As the problems are different from time to time, according to the development of the society, the stories are created from a critical point of view. This article is about the life style of Thavasi grandma as mentioned in the story ‘Anthi’ by Bama.