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Abstract
The present article attempts to explore into the dynamics of constructing ‘tradition’ through narratives as a foil to ‘modernity’ which has been effected on the foundations of the rationality of the colonial enterprise. Drawing parallels with certain historical/official records, it focuses on how the early Malayalam novels have been instrumental in this discursive construction. Two 19th century Malayalam novels – Indulekha (1889) by O. Chandu Menon, and Meenakshi (1890) by Cheruvalathu Chathu Nair – are taken as referral points for analysis here. How the colonial masters and the subjectified natives speak the ‘same language’ with respect to tradition and modernity is also exposed in the article with due illustrations from the afore-said novels.