Social Reform Without Colonial Critique: Hussain Salahuddeen’s Dhivehi Novel Rivaayathu Nu’maan va Maryam, 1934
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62338/8a632z04Keywords:
Dhivehi Literature, Hussain Salahuddeen, Social Reform Novel, The Motorboat Revolt, Educational Reform, Cultural TourismAbstract
In early novels authored by upper-class and English-educated men in South Asian languages like Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, and Urdu, colonial modernity often surfaced in the form of didacticism—that is, the use of moral plots designed to raise awareness of social issues. The cross-lingual effort by male authors to impact morals of other male readers often focused on the reform of women, reforms that were shaped by the colonial critique of Indian society as backwards. The Dhivehi-language novel, Rivaayathu Nu’maan va Maryam, written in 1934 by the Maldivian nobleman Hussain Salahuddeen, also sought to persuade Maldivian noblemen that women should be educated. But unlike early Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, and Urdu social reform novels, Salahuddeen was not responding to a colonial critique of the Maldives. The British concern with and presence in the Maldives was circumscribed. Salahuddeen wrote the novel while exiled in Colombo, Ceylon after the Sultan of the Maldives banished him for co-authoring the first constitution. I argue that Salahuddeen’s articulation of social reform was frustration with the Maldivian monarchy coupled with admiration of colonial Colombo as a land of freedom. And I reveal that Salahuddeen’s novel advocated for the growth of cultural tourism to combat the country’s insularity in relation to cosmopolitan Colombo.
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