Kadal Paattu Competition

On the 11th of May, 2025, the CRC conducted a Kadal Paattu Competition at St. Bartholomew Community Hall, Poovar. Six teams from neighbouring coastal villages participated in this competition, and around a hundred members of the general public were present as spectators.

The event was inaugurated by Shri. M. Vincent, Hon'ble MLA for the Kovalam constituency.
Shri. Ignatious Mandro B., the Joint Director of the Agency for the Development of Aquaculture, Kerala. graciously presided over the event as Chief Guest.

Fr. Denson Joosa IVD, the parish priest of Poovar, was present and gave a blessing.

The honourable MLA declared that he would do his best to get this artform (Kadal Paattu) included in Inter-School art & cultural festivals (Kalolsavam) and in youth festivals (Yuvajanolsavam).

The rationale behind this event:

Kadal Paattukal (Sea Songs) reflect the way of life of the fisherfolk. These songs are quite intricate and reflect the various aspects of the life of the fisherfolk, such as hard labour, relationship with the sea and their fellow fisherfolk, and are vehicles for the emotions, knowledge, culture, attitudes, beliefs and devotion that have been transmitted orally over generations. These songs are said to possess the rhythm of the fishers’ heart and the roughness of the ocean, and to depict the plight of their daily labour, pain of their daily lives both on the shore and the sea.

The fishers of Thiruvananthapuram possess a repertoire of Kadal Paattukal, some of which are the Yelam Vali Paattukal, Kettu Paattukal and Kaliyadi Paattukal. Today this oral tradition is much eroded by the fast-paced lifestyle that inevitably brought about by the neoliberal developmental agenda that casts a shadow over the coastal society.

During our data collection at the fishing villages of Thiruvananthapuram the members and volunteers of the CRC had the opportunity to listen to these songs sung by elders of the communities from their fading memories. At times, we often saw even the elders getting stuck, searching within the recesses of their minds for lyrics that have been transmitted to them orally. As Walter Ong observes, oral tradition is always in a vulnerable state and is easily lost.

Thus the need to collect, documenting and transcribe these songs appeared quite pressing to us. But we were also concerned that this effort of chronicling should not result in these songs being kept as static museum pieces. Thus it seemed a good idea to organise live events where practitioners of this artform could interact with one another and also present their dynamically evolving art to a larger public. As a baby-step in this direction, the CRC decided to conduct a Kadal Paattu Competition for the fisherfolk of Thiruvananthapuram. It turned out that this is the first time in the remembered history of anyone known to us that such an event has been held in this place. We are quite happy to be pioneers in the preservation of this artform.

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