Academic literature on the topic 'Malayalam Travelogue'

This paper primarily constitutes readings of two travelogues written in the Malayalam language in order to see how the image of the other evolves across narratives over time. My reading focuses on the dynamic and formative nature of the image of the other as it transcends the fixed theoretical positions and postulations. The image of the other presented in the event of reading could be better understood as a relational construction; which contradicts the essentialist claims made by theories about the identity of the other. The first travelogue Kappirikalude Nattil (1951) was one of the pioneering works of travel writing in Malayalam. Whereas the second book Sanchariyude Vazhiyambalangal (2018) presents a more nuanced and contemporary idea of travelling and exploration. To explore how the performance of travelogues in the event of reading contradicts the theoretical notions of the other, this paper contextualises the travelogues in the context of two theories related to othering. Those theories are Homi K Bhabha’s ‘mimicry’, and Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’. Importantly, this paper exclusively focuses on the ‘use’ of these theories in literary readings, and therefore the sociological or psychological validity of these theories will not come under the scope of this paper. To expand the idea of ‘self and other’ dynamics as a ‘relational construction’, the paper incorporates Martin Buber’s concept of ‘I and Thou’ and ‘Levinas’ ideas about the ethical approach towards the other. However, the paper does not intend to be an exploration of the intricacies in the philosophical and theoretical understandings of the other. Instead, it attempts a demonstration of how the theories of 'othering’ work in the context of travel writings and how the philosophical understanding of otherness sheds light on the reading of travelogues.

In this paper, we present a personalized travel recommender system in the Malayalam language using artificial intelligence techniques. The study focuses on the use of travelogues and travel reviews written by travellers on social media as the primary source of data. A dataset of 11000 posts from 6444 travellers was collected from Facebook and other online platforms during 2020-2023. The data was pre-processed to extract relevant information such as travel mode, type of travel, location visited, and climate. Two approaches were used to build the recommender system: collaborative filtering-based K-means clustering and content-based hierarchical agglomerative clustering. The results of the study showed that the clustering approach significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of the recommender system. K-means clustering achieved an accuracy of 91% and an F1 score of 85%, while the agglomerative hierarchical clustering approach achieved an accuracy of 85% and an F1 score of 84.25%. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of using travelogues and travel reviews to construct a personalized travel recommender system in regional languages.

Jewish history in Kerala is based on sources mainly from the colonial period onward and mostly in European languages, failing to account for the premodern history of Jews in Kerala. These early modern sources are based on oral traditions of Paradeśi Jews in Cochin, who view the majority of Kerala Jews as inferior. Consequently, the premodern history of Kerala Jews remains untold, despite the existence of premodern sources that undermine unsupported notions about the premodern history of Kerala Jews—a Jewish ‘ur-settlement’ called Shingly in Kodungallur and a centuries-old isolation from world Jewry. This article reconstructs Jewish history in premodern Kerala solely based on premodern travelogues and literature on the one hand and on historical documents in Old Malayalam, Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic on the other hand. Sources of the early modern period are then examined for tracing the origins of the Shingly myth, arguing that the incorporation of the Shingly legend into the historiography of Kerala Jews was affected by contacts with European Jews in the Age of Discoveries rather than being a reflection of historical events.

Kerala has historically played an important role in the wide network of Indian ocean trade. Recent archaeological excavations brought forth tangible evidence of kerala’s trade linkage with gulf region from the first century AD. These journey led to the development of diasporic communities of Arabs in various parts of kerala, especially in Malabar. Ibnu Batuta, a 14th century Arab traveller was the first writer to give detailed description of the settlements of Arab from gulf region in various parts of Kerala. The keralopatti chronicles on the history of evolution of kerala narrates a story of two brothers from muscut in Malabar. Cheraman Perumal, the king of kerala, who became first known convert to Islam and he travelled to Mecca and finally settled in Oman. In 1960, gulf states began requiring large-scaled semi skilled and unskilled labour in order to cater their fast growing oil based economies. Which resulted in illegal migrations to gulf region. This first wave migrants had numerous stories about the narrow escapes they experienced during the journey. The reason for migration from kerala were two kind. Some of them migsrated due to socio-economic reason, and others encouraged by personal ambition and aspirations. The continues contact between Kerala and Middle East brought many changes in both languages, culture and Arts. These are very significant in re-conceptualise the history of gulf and Kerala. Migrant narratives reveal a great deal of emotional conflict that has been associated with departure from kerala and a sense of alienation in a foreign land. It can be founded on the film and literature. Malayalam film naadodikaatu portrays old way of travelling to gulf, Pathemaary, Arabi kadha, and Gaddama deal with diasporic theme. In literature, Aadujeevitham by Benyamin gained a wide readership. His jasmindays won JCB prize. Marubhoomiyude atmakatha is a travelogue by V Musafar Ahammad won Sahitya Academy Award in 2010. Babu Baradwaj’s pravasiyude kurippukal translated as notes of an expat is the memoir of a man in exile. P Manikandhan’s malayaliyude swanthanweshanangal was winner of NV Krishna Warrier Award for best critical work. Deepak unnikrishnan's temporary people is an another important work. Many more works were translated to Arabic such as Chemeen, Shabdikunna Kalappa, Oru Sangeerthanam pole, Nilavu, Kaalam, Balyakala sakhi are among them.