Short biography of vaikom muhammad basheer

Muhammad Basheer of Vaikom (commonly known as Vaikom Muhammad Basheer or the Beypore Sultan) needs little introduction. As a writer, he is remembered for his cutting and incisive attacks on political, social and religious malpractices, his rhythmic, lyrical and evocative prose, and his revolutionary use of common idioms and conversationalist rhetoric.

There can be no mention of Basheer without mention of revolution. He was as much a product of his revolutionary times as he is a product of his rebellious spirit. It was, perhaps, the potent marriage of the two that gave birth to his unique genius.

Given the strong political and philosophical undercurrents of Basheer’s work, it is essential to understand his oeuvres in the context of the social and political change in Kerala that preceded him, to which he found himself often responding:

Basheer, Narayana Guru and the Kerala Literary Renaissance

Basheer’s visage and prose verse have become synonymous with Kerala’s famous egalitarian renaissance that began with Narayana Guru’s social revolution at the end of the 19th century. As such, he was not only one of the leading figures of Kerala’s acclaimed Literary Renaissance, which took place in the first half of the 20th century, but additionally, he was a direct beneficiary an

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