Malayalam literature as a transnational space of political change: Migration and Bahrain’s 2011 uprising in Benyamin’s Jasmine Days and Al Arabian Novel Factory

Abstract

A central theme in Benyamin’s twin novels Jasmine Days (2014) and Al Arabian Novel Factory (2014) is the role of migrants in Bahrain’s 2011 uprising and their attitudes towards the ruling regime’s repression of dissent amongst native citizens. This article argues that Benyamin’s novels advocate recognition of the political impact of migration from Kerala and elsewhere by questioning the supposedly depoliticized economic space to which migrants belong in Bahrain and the other Gulf States, and by asserting Keralan migrants’ long-standing connection to the region and not merely their contributions to its economy as transitory outsiders. Writing in a regional Indian language and for a Malayalam readership about the political and social dilemmas of an Arab city, Benyamin constructs a transnational multilingual space where writing and translation enable dissent and where individuals from different national and linguistic backgrounds have a stake in political change and its repercussions.