Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:27:05.503Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Egalitarian Developmentalism, Communist Mobilization, and the Question of Caste in Kerala State, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2010

J. Devika
Get access

Abstract

The article critiques the “Kerala model,” which holds up Kerala State, India, as a model that may be emulated by other developing countries, on account of its remarkable advances in social development. The dominant left in Kerala has often claimed credit for such achievements, leading to its glorification as a model for social democracy. This uncritical adoration, which has acquired the status of national commonsense in Kerala, has reduced marginalized people in Kerala, particularly the lower-caste Dalits and tribals, to a state of abjection. The present effort seeks to show how the marginalization of these social groups and their confinement to governmental categories was not a historical accident, but the effect of political strategies on the left that led to their exclusion from productive resources, and of the assertion of upper-caste agency in left-led anticaste struggle.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 799 - 820
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Awaya, Toshie. 1996. “Women in the Nambutiri ‘Caste’ Movement.” In History and Society in South India, ed. Mizushima, T. and Yanagisawa, H., 47–57. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.Google Scholar
Ayrookuzhiel, A. M. Abraham, ed. 1990. The Dalit Deshiyata: The Kerala Experience in Development and Class Struggle. New Delhi: Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.Google Scholar
Baburaj, K. K. 2008. Mattoru Jeevitam Saadhyamaanu [Another life is possible]. Kottayam: Subject and Language Press.Google Scholar
Basu, Alaka Malwade. 1986. “Birth Control by Assetless Workers in Kerala: The Possibility of a Poverty Induced Fertility Transition.” Development and Change 17 (2): 265–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Ulrich. 2000. What Is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bhaskaran, T., comp. 2000. Sreenarayanaguru Vaighari [Sreenarayana's wisdom]. Kunnathunadu Perumbavoor: SNDP Union.Google Scholar
Bijoy, C. R., and Raman, K. Ravi. 2003. “Muthanga: The Real Story.” Economic and Political Weekly, May 17, 1975–82.Google Scholar
Cairo, Gemma. 2001. “State and Society Relationships in India: Explaining the Kerala Experience.” Asian Survey 41 (4): 669–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centre for Development Studies, United Nations (CDS/UN). 1977. Poverty, Unemployment, and Development Policy: A Case Study of Selected Issues with Reference to Kerala. Bombay: Orient Longman.Google Scholar
Cheriyan, P. J. 1999. “Radical Political Movements in the Twentieth Century.” In Perspectives on Kerala History: The Second Millennium, ed. Cheriyan, P. J., 511–70. Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala State Gazetteers.Google Scholar
Dean, Mitchell. 1999. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Desai, Manali. 2001. “Party Formation, Political Power, and the Capacity for Reform: Comparing Left Parties in Kerala and West Bengal.” Social Forces 80 (1): 37–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desai, Manali. 2002. “The Relative Autonomy of Party Practices: A Counterfactual Analysis of Left Party Ascendancy in Kerala, India, 1934–40.” American Journal of Sociology 108 (3): 616–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desai, Manali. 2005. “Indirect British Rule, State Formation, and Welfarism in Kerala, India, 1860–1957.” Social Science History 29 (3): 457–88.Google Scholar
Deshpande, Ashwini. 2000. “Does Caste Still Define Disparity? A Look at Inequality in Kerala, India.” American Economic Review 90 (2): 322–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devika, J. 2007. En-Gendering Individuals: The Language of Re-forming in Early Twentieth Century Keralam, Hyderabad: Orient Longman.Google Scholar
Devika, J. 2008a. Individuals, Householders, Citizens: Malayalees and Family Planning. New Delhi: Zubaan.Google Scholar
Devika, J. 2008b. “Memory's Fatal Lure: The Left, the Congress, and ‘Jeevan’ in Kerala.” Economic and Political Weekly, July 26, 13–16.Google Scholar
Dietrich, G., and Nayak, N.. 2002. Transition or Transformation? A Study of the Mobilisation, Organisation and the Emergence of Consciousness among the Fishworkers of Kerala. Madurai: Tamilnadu Theological Seminary.Google Scholar
Mridul, Eapen, and Kodoth, Praveena. 2003. “Family Structure, Women's Education and Work: Re-examining the High Status of Women in Kerala.” In Tracking Gender Equity under Economic Reforms, ed. Mukhopadyay, Swapna and Sudarshan, Ratna, 227–67. New Delhi: Kali for Women.Google Scholar
Erwer, Monica. 2003. Challenging the Gender Paradox: Women's Collective Agency and the Transformation of Kerala Politics. Goteborg: Department of Peace and Development Research, Goteborg University.Google Scholar
Franke, Richard W. 1993: Life Is a Little Better: Redistribution as a Development Strategy in Nadur Village, Kerala. New Delhi: Promilla and Company.Google Scholar
Gopalan, A. K. 1976. In the Cause of the People. Madras: Sangam Books.Google Scholar
Heller, Patrick. 1996. “Social Capital as a Product of Class Mobilization and State Intervention: Industrial Workers in Kerala, India.” World Development 24 (6): 1955–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, Patrick. 1999: The Labor of Development: Workers and the Transformation of Capitalism in Kerala, India. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Heller, Patrick. 2006: “Kerala: Deepening a Radical Social Democracy.” In Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, and Prospects, ed. Sandbrook, Richard, Edelmann, Marc, Heller, Patrick, and Teichman, Judith, 65–92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heller, Patrick, Harilal, K. N., and Chaudhuri, Shubham. 2007. “Building Local Democracy: Evaluating the Impact of Decentralization in Kerala, India.” World Development 35 (4): 626–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, T. M. Thomas, and Franke, Richard W.. 2000. Local Democracy and Development: People's Campaign for Decentralised Planning in Kerala, New Delhi: LeftWord.Google Scholar
Isaac, T. M. Thomas, and Mohanakumar, S.. 1991. “Kerala Elections: Lessons and Non-Lessons.” Economic and Political Weekly November 23, 2691–2704.Google Scholar
Janu, C. K. 2005. “Interview with C. K. Janu, Leader of Tribals in Kerala.” http://www.sacw.net/Nation/gatade18032005.html [accessed May 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Jeffrey, Robin. 2003. Politics, Women and Well Being: How Kerala Became a “Model.” Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kannan, K. P. 1988. Of Rural Proletarian Struggles: Mobilization and Organization of Rural Workers in South-West India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kapikad, Sunny M. 2008. “Beyond Just a ‘Home and Name’: Speech at Night Vigil, 7 March 2008.” http://kafila.org/2008/06/14/beyond-just-a-home-and-a-name/ [accessed May 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Krishnaji, N. 2007. “Kerala Milestones: On the Parliamentary Road to Socialism.” Economic and Political Weekly, June 9, 2169–76.Google Scholar
Kunhaman, M. 1989. Development of Tribal Economy. New Delhi: Classical Publishing.Google Scholar
Kunhikrishnan, K. K. 1996. Keraleeyanum Karshakaprastanavum [Keraleeyan and the peasant movement]. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publications.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J. 1998. An Ethical Critique of Land Reform: With Special Reference to Kerala Land Reform Amendment Act, 1969. New Delhi: Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society.Google Scholar
Lindberg, Anna. 2001. Experience and Identity: A Historical Account of Class, Caste and Gender among the Cashew Workers of Kerala, 1930–2000. Lund: Department of History, University of Lund.Google Scholar
Mankekar, D. R. 1965. The Red Riddle of Kerala. Bombay: Manaktalas.Google Scholar
Mann, M. 2003. “The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms and Results.” In State/Space: A Reader, ed. Brenner, Neil, Jessop, Bob, Jones, Martin, and McLeod, Gordon, 53–64. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menon, Dilip M. 1994. Caste, Nationalism, and Communism in South India: Malabar, 1900–1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Menon, Dilip M. 1999. “Being a Brahmin the Marxist Way: E. M. S. Nambutiripad and the Pasts of Kerala.” In Invoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia, ed. Ali, Daud, 55–90. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Menon, Dilip M. 2002. “Lost Visions? Imagining a National Culture in the 1950s.” In Land, Labour and Rights: Ten Daniel Thorner Memorial Lectures, ed. Thorner, Alice, 234–56. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Mohanakumar, S. 2008. “Kerala Agricultural Labourers: Victims of a Crisis.” Economic and Political Weekly, May 10, 27–29.Google Scholar
Mukhopadhyay, Swapna, ed. 2007. The Enigma of the Kerala Woman: A Failed Promise of Literacy. New Delhi: Social Science Press.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1936. “Keralatthile Samudaaya Sanghatanakal: Avayodu Perumaarendathengane?” [Community organizations in Kerala: What position to take about them?]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 2, 1936–38, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 86–94. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1937. “Krishikkaar Sanghatikkendatu Enthinu, Engane?” [Why and how must the peasant organize?]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 2, 1936–38 ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 220–25. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1943. “Communism Neenaal Vaazhum” [Communism will live long]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 4, 1942–44, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 288–302. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1944a. “Putiya Chattangal” [New codes of conduct]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 5, 1944–45, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 172–217. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1944b. Preface to EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS] vol. 5, 1944–45, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 137–38. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1944c. “Nambutiriye Manushanakkaan” [To make the Nambutiri human]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 5, 1944–45, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 268–315. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1944d. “Acchadakkattode Pravarttikkuka” [Be disciplined workers]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 5, 1944–45, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 234–54. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1946a. “Kochi Rajavinte Aikyakeralam: British Kammattathiladicha Kallananayam” [The Cochin Maharaja's united Kerala: The false coin from the British Mint]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 7, 1946–47, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 176–201. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1946b. “Onnekaal Koti Malayalikal” [One and a half Crore Malayalees]. In EMS Sampoorna Kritikal [Collected works of EMS], vol. 6, 1945–46, ed. Pillai, P. Govinda, 288–347. Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1952. Keralattinte Desheeya Prsanam [The national question in Kerala]. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1967. Kerala: Society and Politics. New Delhi: National Book Centre, 1984.Google Scholar
Namboodiripad, E. M. S. 1981. “Once Again on Castes and Classes.” Social Scientist 9 (12): 212–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayanan, N. C. 2003. “For and Against the Grain: Politics of Rice in Kerala, India.” Working Paper no. 376, Institute of Social Studies.Google Scholar
Nigam, Aditya. 2000. “Secularism, Modernity, Nation: An Epistemology of the Dalit Critique.” Economic and Political Weekly, November 25, 4256–68.Google Scholar
Noronha, Ernesto. 2006. “Headload Workers of Kerala, India: The Critical Role of ‘Detrading.’” Working Paper no. 6, Indian Institute of Management.Google Scholar
Omvedt, Gail. 1994. Dalits and the Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit Movement in Colonial India. New Delhi: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Omvedt, Gail. 2008. Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals. New Delhi: Navayana Publishing.Google Scholar
Oommen, M. A. 1990. “Land Reforms and Economic Change: Experience and Lessons from Kerala.” In Essays on Kerala Economy, 1–22. Delhi: Oxford University Press and India Book House.Google Scholar
Oommen, T. K. 1985. From Mobilisation to Institutionalisation: The Dynamics of the Agrarian Movement in Twentieth Century Kerala. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
Osella, Caroline, and Osella, Filippo. 2000. Social Mobility in Kerala: Modernity in Conflict. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Pandian, M. S. S. 2002. One Step Outside Modernity: Caste, Identity Politics, and Public Sphere. Amsterdam: SEPHIS/CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Parayil, Govindan, ed. 2000. Kerala: The Development Experience: Reflections on Sustainability and Replicability. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Pattomkary, Samkutty. 2008. “Horses That Walk Backwards.” http://kafila.org/2008/08/18/horses-that-walk-backwards-samkutty-pattomkary/ [accessed May 4, 2010].Google Scholar
Pillai, Kesari A. Balakrishna. 1934. “Malayaliyute Bhavi” [The future of Malayalees]. In Gadyakusumavali, vol. 2, ed. Nair, P. Krishnan, 19–25. Kottayam: n.p.Google Scholar
Pillai, M. S. 1992. “Social Security Schemes for Workers in the Unorganised Sector: A Case Study of Head Load Workers Welfare Schemes in Kerala.” Master of philosophy thesis, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Pisharady, Govinda Cherukad. 1974. Jeevitappata [Autobiography]. Thrissur: Current Books.Google Scholar
Proceedings of the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly. 1951. Vol. 3, nos. 1–3, 3–4.Google Scholar
Raj, Dileep, ed. 2003. Thantedangal: Kerala Samoohapadam Muthanga Samarathinushesham, [Spaces of their own: Kerala's society after the land struggle at Muthanga]. Kottayam: DC Books.Google Scholar
Raju, S. 2002. “Developmental Modernity: Man and Nature in Kerala.” Paper presented at the seminar on “Identity Politics, Globalisation and Social Conflict: Social Discourses and Cultural Texts,” March 26–28, Teen Murthy Bhavan, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Ramachandran, V. K. 1997. “On Kerala's Development Achievements.” In Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives, ed. Drèze, Jean and Sen, Amartya, 205–25. Delhi: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramakumar, R. 2006. “Public Action, Agrarian Change and the Standard of Living of Agricultural Workers: A Study of a Village in Kerala.” Journal of Agrarian Change 6 (3): 306–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rammohan, K. T. 1996. “Material Processes and Developmentalism: Interpreting Economic Change in Colonial Tiruvitamkoor 1800–1945.” PhD diss., Centre for Development Studies.Google Scholar
Rangaswamy, Vanaja. 1981. The Story of Integration: A New Interpretation. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Saradamoni, K. 1996. “Kerala Model: Time for Rethinking.” In Kerala's Development Experience, vol. 1, ed. Oommen, M. A., 159–74. New Delhi: Institute of Social Sciences.Google Scholar
Singh, Jitendra. 1959. Communist Rule in Kerala. New Delhi: Diwan Chand India Information Centre.Google Scholar
Sivanandan, P. 1976. “Economic Backwardness of Harijans in Kerala.” Social Scientist 4 (10): 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subrahmanian, K. K., and Prasad, Syam. 2008. “Rising Inequality with High Growth—Isn't this Trend Worrisome? Analysis of Kerala Experience.” Working Paper no. 401, Centre for Development Studies.Google Scholar
Sugatan, R. 1961. “Tiruvonam Desheeyotsavamakenamo?” [Should Tiruvonam be made into a national festival?]. In Sakhavu Sugatante Tiranjedutta Lekhanangal [Selected articles by Comrade Sugathan], ed. Raghavan, Putuppally, 41–42. Thiruvananthapuram: Prabhat Publishers, 1979.Google Scholar
Tharakan, P. K. Michael. 2002. “Land Relations in Contemporary Keralam: A Survey.” In Agrarian Studies: Essays on Agrarian Relations in Less Developed Countries, ed. Ramachandran, V. K. and Swaminathan, Madhura, 355–61. New Delhi: Tulika.Google Scholar
Varghese, V. J. 2007. “The Alluring Music of Labour: Modernity, Migrations, and the Re-Creation of the Syrian Christian Community.” Tapasam 2 (3–4): 501–38.Google Scholar
Velayudhan, Meera. 1999. “Reform, Law and Gendered Identity.” In Rethinking Development: Kerala's Development Experience, vol. 1, ed. Oommen, M. A., 60–72. New Delhi: Institute of Social Research.Google Scholar
Vijayan, K. P. 2002a. “Ekkaalatheyum Peerangitteetta Etu Janam?” [Which people are the cannon fodder of all times?]. In Brahmana Communisavum Mattu Padhanangalum [Brahmin communism and other essays], by Vijayan, K. P., 104–8. Thrissur: Current Books.Google Scholar
Vijayan, K. P. 2002b. “Kerala Rashtriyattile Irunda Adhyayanagal” [The dark chapters of Kerala's history]. In Brahmana Communisavum Mattu Padhanangalum [Brahmin communism and other essays], by Vijayan, K. P., 109–22. Thrissur: Current Books.Google Scholar
Zachariah, M., and Sooryamoorthy, R.. 1994. Science for Social Revolution? Achievements and Dilemmas of a Development Movement—The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Zacharias, Usha, and Devika, J.. 2006. “Powers of the Weak: Violence, Marginality and Fear in Communal Discourse.” In Beyond Exceptionalism: Modernity, Democracy, and Extreme Violence in India, ed. Basu, Amrita and Roy, Srirupa, 123–47. London: Seagull Press.Google Scholar