Remembering RE Asher, who put Malayalam literature on global scene

Thiruvananthapuram: Ronal Eaton Asher who translated works of Malayalam writers including Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer and Thakazhi Sivasanakara Pillai breathed his last after Christmas a fortnight ago.

The news reached his fans in Kerala quite belatedly on January 11 after a former student of his at the University of Edinburgh asked after the polyglot’s health with the family.

P Sreekumar, an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Central University of Kerala, sent a ‘flurry of emails’ to Asher’ son.

P Sreekumar used to be in touch with the polyglot over emails but they ceased to come when Sreekumar made the enquiry.

Finally there came the sad news of Asher's death at the age of the age of 96, The News Minute reported.

Asher, who was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, had heartwarming relation with Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as the Dravidian languages Tamil and Malayalam fascinated him greatly.

Ronal Eaton Asher, a young linguistic scholar from the United Kingdom, travelled to Changam in Tamil Nadu seven decades ago, carrying a Ferrograph recorder.

He wanted to tape conversations during his field research to widen his understanding of colloquial Tamil.

Later he spent time in Kerala picking up Malayalam alongside getting to love its literature as well.

He plunged into translation projects and scholarly writings about the writers and the languages.

He came to be known for his translations of Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer and Thakazhi Sivasanakara; and in Tamil he translated poetry of Subrahmanya Bharati and the short stories of Pudumaipithan.

Born in 1926 at Gringley-on-the-Hill, a village in Nottinghamshire, Asher had great fascination for Dravidian languages.

He went to study Malayalam alphabets from Joseph Minattur, a postgraduate student of University of London, using books prescribed for primary classes in Kerala.

It was a wonderful journey that saw him translating in 1975 Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's 1947 novel Thottiyude Makan as Scavenger's Son.

Later in 1980, he co-translated with Achamma Chandrasekharan, three works of Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer — Balyakalasakhi (Childhood Friend), Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu (Me grandad 'ad an elephant) and Pathumayude Aadu (Pathumma's Goat), according to the report.

Asher received gold medal from the Kerala Sahitya Akademi in 1983 for his services to Malayalam literature.

Later the Kendra Sahitya Akademi also bestowed on him an honorary fellowship for his contributions.

K Satchidanandan, president, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, said that Asher’s Basheer translations brought global attention to Malayalam language and literature.