Social Mobility In Kerala: Modernity and Identity in ConflictAnnotation This book melds rich ethnography with an understanding of recent history to understand the issues surrounding upward social mobility, modernity and changing identities. The authors examine a much-studied group in anthropology: the Izvhavas of Kerala in southern India. The Izvhavas, a relatively low-ranking caste in the sociologically untypical state of Kerala (where roughly a third are Christians, a third Muslims, and a third Hindus), have to varying degrees and with varying success tried to improve their situation. A hundred years ago, Izhavas were considered untouchable and were associated with impure pursuits such as toddy tapping and devil dancing. They have sought to elevate their position in various symbolically-laden fields - employment, religion, politics, migration, friendships - and have tried to assert their right to mobility, often in the face of opposition from their high status Christian and Nayar neighbors. Izhavas, through repudiation of their nineteenth-century identity and searchfor mobility, have come into complex relationships with modernity and colonialism, defining themselves as - and becoming defined as - a group with a specific relationship to processes of 'development' and 'progress' within a global view. Their story highlights the complexities and contradictions of modern identity in both local and global terms. The authors' approach both typifies and moves beyond a narrow south Asian focus, in that the Izhavas represent the rise of formerly stigmatized groups who remain at the same time trapped by stereotype and material disadvantage. Absolute mobility has not led to relative mobility within a society, which remains highly stratified and prone under modernityto new forms of social exclusion. |
Contents
Working for Progress | 38 |
Marriage and Mobility | 81 |
Promises of Escape | 117 |
Religion as a Tool for Mobility | 154 |
Mobility and Power | 189 |
Micropolitics or the Political in the Personal | 220 |
Conclusions | 247 |
Notes | 263 |
287 | |
307 | |
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Common terms and phrases
activist agricultural labourers Aiyappan alliance anpoli arenas asram associated Bhadrakali Bourdieu Brahman bride brother capital cash caste caste's century Channar coconut colonial Communist consumption continue CPI(M culture daughter deities dowry economic elite employment endogamy ex-untouchable example family temple festival Fuller gold groom Gulf migrants gunam Guru's Gurudevan gurumandiram hierarchy high-status Hindu Hinduism household identity India involved Izhava families jati Kappa Parambil Kerala Krisnakara Kuttiyil kuttiyottam land live Malayalam Malayali manual labour marriage married mobility modernity Mumbai nalukettu Narayana Guru Nayars and Christians neighbours occupation offer organisation Osella paddy panchayat parties percent plantation political polyandry practices prestige Pulayas Rajah reform relations relatives religious ritual sambandham Sasthamuri savarna shrine Sivagiri Sivamuri SNDP social SSLC status style Swami Tamil tharavadu Thiruvananthapuram toddy toddy-tapper Travancore untouchability Valiyagramam village wealth wedding wider women workers young