Letter Songs and Translocality in Music: The Emotional Voyages of Mappilas Migrants of Kerala

Abstract

Integration and absorption of migrants and their descendants into society’s cultural realm has long been a wonderful topic in the social fabric of Kerala. Muslims form the largest minority community in India. For decades, Muslims in Kerala have migrated to Gulf countries. The Muslims of Kerala's northern regions are known as Mappila Muslims, and they make up 42 percent of migrants from Kerala. Migration involves separation and it provides a unique vantage point from which to examine emotions. Letter songs (kathu Pattu) in Kerala depict this emotion of separation due to migration. Letter songs are folkloric music-type Mappila songs in Arabi Malayalam, with lyrics set to a melodic framework. These songs have a distinct cultural character inextricably related to Keralites and Arabs. The ability of these songs to depict the cultural embodiment, exchange, and synthesis of both Kerala and Gulf countries is one of its distinguishing features. The separation of a male migrant from his wife causes anguish, suffering, and disutility. Letter songs express profound insights into the misery, pain, and desire that couples experience because of migrant’s physical separation from his family. Trans-locality has resulted not only in the homogenization of Mappila culture with Arabs, but also in emotional imbalances. Current proposition is an attempt to comprehend the broad relationship between music and mobility in the cultural and emotional realm of the Mappilas.