Surviving in Contemporary Kerala: Reflections from Recent Research in a Fisher Village

Abstract

This article is based on mixed‐method field research in Adimalathura, a coastal village in south Kerala, India, which has been identified as one of the poorest communities in the area. Although this fishing community has been facing severe ecological challenges, including massive resource depletion, it has been able to put up stiff resistance to impending dispossession in the face of a large port project actively promoted by the government, most major political parties and globalized capital. This article traces the history of public action and work in Adimalathura since the early 20th century, and reflects on its significance in the context of the present resistance. It examines the role of women in bolstering the community in times of severe challenges to men's livelihoods, and highlights the importance of women's provisioning work. Ultimately, the author cautions against exaggerating community strength and the capacities of the women even when they are able to utilize available resources competently.

Women’s Labour, Patriarchy and Feminism in Twenty-first Century Kerala: Reflections on the Glocal Present

“…Fieldwork among dalit agricultural workers in Kuttanad indicates that younger women do seek paid work but insist that it does not interfere with the many forms of domestic labour that they identify as 'women's work' (Sunny, 2016)-a view confirmed by my own recent field work at a fisher village in Kerala (Devika, 2017). It also seems that when women are able to entrust children and their education to other institutions, they do perform gainful labour in and around the home (Abraham & Devika, 2014;Devika, 2017).…”

“…Even today the perceived crisis of the family is inevitably regarded as unimpeachable evidence for social breakdown. 3 Not surprising perhaps, given that the modern family was projected as the very meeting ground of nature and culture, and its breakdown a signifier of a crisis of both (Devika, 2007).…”

“…Not surprisingly then, women gained a great deal of visibility and access to the public through both reservation in local bodies as well as the statewide network of SHGs in Kerala, known as the Kudumbashree. It is also true that the 'unintended consequences' of such mobilisation has evoked interesting challenges to reigning patriarchies in micro-sites (Devika, 2016a). However, the fundamentals of the new patriarchy were not affected.…”

“…1 Nevertheless, this need not be through a confrontation of the 'global' and the 'local' understood as essential categories as modern notions of gender as they emerged in Kerala were neither exclusively global nor local. The family in 20th-century Malayali society was definitely shaped by colonialism, which not so much destroyed indigenous structures and values, as allowed them to mutate (Devika, 2007). Events like the Great Depression and transnational concerns such as population control decisively shaped the family in post-independence decades (Devika, 2008).…”

“…The family in 20th-century Malayali society was definitely shaped by colonialism, which not so much destroyed indigenous structures and values, as allowed them to mutate (Devika, 2007). Events like the Great Depression and transnational concerns such as population control decisively shaped the family in post-independence decades (Devika, 2008). 2 Not just the 20th-century modernised Malayali family, but also its critiques have no unambiguously local (or global) roots.…”