Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod

Kasargod, July 14: In a landmark achievement for the marginalised Vannan community, Kuttikol Vivek, a 30-year-old from Kanhangad, has become the first known individual from his caste to clear the UPSC Civil Services Examination. Securing an all-India rank of 667, Vivek’s journey from a modest childhood to a future civil servant is one of grit, self-awareness, and the quiet determination to break the cycle of poverty and addiction that haunts his community.

Born into a family of Theyyam performers in Kuttikol, a remote village in Kasaragod district, Vivek witnessed both the cultural vibrance and the social struggles of his people. “My ancestors were Theyyam artists. During the season, our house came alive with colours and divine dance. But behind the masks were men struggling with alcoholism, poverty, and invisibility,” he recalls.

Trapped by tradition, broken by addiction

In his community, alcoholism was seen as an inseparable part of tradition. The Vannans, one of the scheduled castes in northern Kerala, perform Theyyam — a ritual art where the performer becomes a medium of the divine. “Alcohol was used to enter a trance. Over time, it became addiction. My father, uncle, and many relatives drank daily. My father even died due to alcohol abuse — just 15 days before my prelims,” Vivek says.

His father had once been a Theyyam performer himself but later took up a clerical job in a bank. Yet, alcohol remained part of his life. Vivek admits that for years he blamed him — only later understanding the systemic oppression and lack of alternatives that shaped his father’s life.

A mother’s resolve and education’s promise

After his parents divorced, Vivek moved with his mother to Kannur. Determined to ensure her son’s success, she enrolled him in St Michael’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, where the fee was just Rs 10 a month. “That school gave me a strong foundation,” says Vivek. Later, he cracked the AIEEE, graduated from NIT Trichy, and pursued his MBA from IIM Calcutta. It was during his stint in the corporate sector that he decided to prepare for the UPSC.

“I left my job in Gurgaon a year and a half ago and took the risk. I chose Sociology as my optional because I wanted to understand my society better,” he says.

From folklore to reform: Dreaming beyond Theyyam

Though Vivek’s life changed, many of his relatives in Kuttikol continue to live in poverty, performing Theyyam during the season and driving autos the rest of the year. Though the ancestral home now has electricity and toilets, systemic deprivation persists.

Vivek believes separating caste from the art of Theyyam may help the community escape its traps. “Like Kathakali, Theyyam too can be institutionalised and taught in art schools. It should not be confined to caste,” he suggests. “If we can create such platforms, it will give our people dignity, identity, and stable income.”

He also calls for unity among other Theyyam-performing communities — Malayans, Velans, and Peruvannans — to collectively raise their voices.

“Art cannot survive if the artist perishes,” he says. “It’s time we protect both.”

Vivek’s success is not just personal. It’s a story of challenging inherited oppression and reimagining tradition with justice and opportunity.