During the 1950s and 1960s, the influence of Indian culture on Singapore life was potent. It was borne in on a wave of immigrants from the subcontinent that reached its peak shortly before the door was all but shut in 1953. Four years later, Indians formed a post-war-high proportion of the population at 9%; now, they comprise 6.4%--- 155,000 out of 2.4 million residents.... Of the ethnic Indians, barely 24,000 come from India's smallest yet most densely populated state, Kerala. . . (which) claims another superlative: it possesses the highest literacy rate of any Indian state and abounds with poets, writers and film artists. . .

One such "offshore" Indian writer who managed to gain both critical appreciation and commercial success in India's highly competitive literary circles was Singapore-based V.R. Gopala Pillai. Last week, however, Pillai's name invoked not joy but grief among the local Keralan community: Singapore's dominant Malayalam writer died suddenly in hospital at the age of 66.

. . .Pillai will be remembered back in Kerala as a "popular" novelist. Most of his nine books were set in Singapore and Malaysia, from where immigrant rag-to-riches stories quickly reached relatively poor Kerala. . . Pillai's stories were very interesting for people in Kerala. His main characters were usually Keralan, but often other communities, such as the Chinese were incorporated into the picture. The Kerala reader was exposed to a world very different to what he was accustomed; that was the attraction of Pillai's novels.

... Pillai was a woman's man. he displayed a sympathetic attitude in many of his works towards the oppressive plight of women. Perhaps this was a legacy of Kerala's historical matrilineal system under which Malayali women enjoyed high social status. Or perhaps it has something to do with Pillai's experiences before he migrated to Singapore in 1947; he had worked as a field assistant on a tea estate where tea-pickers, mostly women, laboured under appalling conditions. Either way, Pillai himself was hard put to explain his feminism. "It is something very natural for me. It is a habit. If, for example, there are two persons in a race--a man and a woman--my attention will automatically go to the woman, I don't know why"(he said in an interview with Asiaweek shortly before his death)

Using his nom de plume G.P.Njekkad, after the Keralan village where he was raised, Pillai cast "75% to 90%" of his characters as women. "The female character is always growing in my mind," he said, "her actions and everything about her." He attempted in one novel to write "against women" but at the last moment relented and dedicated the book to its heroine. "My intention", he explained, "was to create an unpleasant; grumbling female." His dedication, however, reads "to one who keeps honey in the heart and chili on the tongue."

An only child, Pillai had a fairly good education despite family objections based on astrological beliefs. He was mostly self-taught. How did he accomplish this? "From the age of 13 (he studied formally only until 12), I read feverishly all kinds of books. I have a passion for Bengali novels, which are often translated into Malayalam since Bengalis and Malayalis share a similar lifestyle. I read whatever I could, starting with biographies and autobiographies. I was equal to a man with a much more extensive education. An author or novelist must be well read before he attempts to write himself."

In his late teens Pillai had several short stories rejected, but he was not discouraged. "I finally started writing lighter satires," he said. His first published short story in 1932 criticised the caste system.

Upon his arrival in Singapore, Pillai started work as a manager-cum-accountant for Cathay Advertising. Later, from 1949 to 1952 he took over the editorship of the Malayalam daily Kerala Bandhu ("Friend of Kerala") now known as the Malaysia Malayali, which has a combined Malaysia-Singapore circulation of about 2000.

Married and the father of five, Pillai kept himself occupied with articles and short fiction until 1962 when his first novel was published. Entitled Kaithapookal (Tainted Flowers) it was set entirely in Kerala. This was followed by Maruppachakal (Barrier of Sand), Vruthabhangam (Unbalanced Life), Thapasu (Meditation),Agniparvatham (Volcano),Vazhiyariyathe (Journey without Signs), and Aavarthanam (Repetition), which proved to be a best-seller. Many of these novels dealt with human relationships interwoven with the social fabric.

Presently on the market is Chirakudal Chalanangal (Wings and Movements) and autobiographical novel Kerala's leading weekly, Mathrubhoomi (Motherland) is serialising.

After suffering two heart attacks in 1971, Pillai retired. But he continued to write; as he put it, it was "his most pleasurable hobby". Said he: "I write for people to read. There is no message. In my books I've only said a part of what I wanted to say. I do not ask people to do this or that through my work. A novelist has no right to say to people: Do or don't do this. A novelist is an observer who brings things to the notice of others. It's up to the reader to decide things for himself."

The author was disappointed that his children like many young Indians in Singapore, could not read his works. He tried to translate one of his novels himself into English but found the task beyond him. But even though he wasn't able to bequeath to his children the knowledge of the Malayalam script, he did leave behind the rich inheritance of a strong literary tradition. Son, Chandran Nair 35, publishing executive, is a prominent writer and poet and a former chairman of the Society of Singapore Writers. Daughter, Kumari Pillai, 22, a medical student, has already two poems published in a local anthology.

Extracted from an article written by Jagjit Kaur Nagpal for Asiaweek Literary Review, Asiaweek Magazine, march 6, 1981