Writer-activist K.J Baby, known to be the voice of Wayanad’s tribals, dies at 70

Police said it was a case of suicide and that a suicide note recovered from the premises indicated about his intention to end life as he had been fighting loneliness after the death of wife Sherley in 2021. The couple is survived by daughters Shanthipriya and Geethi Priya.

Baby has been better known for an unconventional school ‘Kanav’, which he had established in 1991 for tribal students. He had also carved a niche for himself as a writer, dramatist and filmmaker.

Baby has been known as one of the few Malayalam writers who had made the voice of the marginalised tribals heard. His writings were considered a mirror of the brutality the community had faced through generations.

His major literary contributions include ‘ Nadugadhika’, ‘Mavelimantram’, ‘ Bespurkkana’, and ‘Goodbye Malabar’. Mavelimantram, which bagged the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in 1994, is reckoned as a milestone in Malayalam Dalit literature.

In 2021, he won the first Bharat Bhavan Award for Best Rural Drama for his play ‘ Nadugadhika’. In both works, Baby had delved into the brutality, humiliation and exclusion faced by tribals. His novel Goodbye Malabar’, published in 2019, narrated the tumultuous days of William Logan (who had served the Malabar region During the British regime) through the viewpoint of Logan’s wife Anna. The novel goes into the societal complexities that existed in what is now north Kerala during the British period.

He also wrote and directed a movie Guda (2003), which revolves around a tribal girl’s ‘Thirandhu kalyanam’ (ceremonies in connection with the attainment of puberty). Baby’s daughter Santhi, who grew up in Kanav, had donned the role of the protagonist, telling the plights of an adolescent tribal girl.

Baby had migrated from Kannur to Wayanad in the early 1970s. It was the tribal life, their rich traditions, folklore, songs, myths and art forms sparked the writer in him.

In 1991, Baby started ‘Kanav’ with tribal students — mostly dropouts from mainstream schools of Wayanad. ‘Kanav’ (which translates as ‘dream’) was supported by Baby’s wife Sherly, who had served as a college professor.

Tribal folksongs and rituals were incorporated in the training sessions to help reinforce a sense of identity in the community. The unconventional educational experiment had attracted the attention of scholars and academicians from many parts of the world.

In 2004, Baby quit Kanav and handed over the project to a trust, which had alumni of the school among its members. However, Kanavu as an alternative school, died a slow death over the years with new generation tribal students opting for mainstream syllabus schools.