ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Mahākavi Kumāran Āśān, and it explores the experiences that shaped his writing. Āśān’s poetics of reform uses “hybridity” as a resistive force against cultural hegemony as his vision of caste and gender was influenced by the nationalistic movement, Western romantic poets, and the mystical figures of the Malayalam tradition, particularly Śrī Nārāyaṇa Guru.
