Abstract: This article which appeared in May 1968 in Mathrubhumi Weekly chronicles the different stages in the life of a Namboothiri woman and holds up a mirror to reflect the living hell inside the illam. Keywords: sartorial practices, habits, male…
I The erstwhile princely states of Travancore and Cochin (which were merged with the British Malabar in 1956 to form the linguistic state of Kerala) witnessed an unprecedented mushrooming of organisations which can generally be described as community-based in the…
Abstract: I presented this paper at the International Women and Justice Summit organised by the KADEM (Kadin ve Domokrasi Derneği), an NGO, and the Ministry of the Family and Social Policy in Istanbul, November 24-25, 2014. The paper was assigned…
ProfileofaFeminist This issue of Samyukta gives a profile of Juliet Mitchell in its regular series on major feminists. I think there seems overwhelming justification for the charge that the many different psychotherapeutic practices, including those that by the formal definition…
Forum for Discussion In this issue of Samyukta we foreground the problems of fishworkers in the context of globalisation. ‘Without women in fisheries, no fish in the sea’ was the conclusion of an International Workshop of Women who were either…
Abstract: Women’s reading and artistic appreciation shows that the distance between artistic truth and actual truth is frighteningly huge. Patriarchal art generates its aesthetics and standards by distorting and suppressing the reality of women’s lives. Patriarchal art maintains that beauty…
Abstract: ‘Pennezhuthu’ (feminist writing or écriture feminine) entered common parlance in Kerala from the introduction written by the Malayalam poet cum critic Satchidanandan for a collection of short stories by writer and activist, Sarah Joseph. The term came to be…
Abstract: This paper is an effort towards resolving ‘twin’ questions that recur in the context of discussions of women’s erstwhile property rights among the matrilineal social groups, particularly the Nairs, in Kerala. “Is it then the legal system that made…
Abstract: This article conceptualizes the well-documented trial of Thathri in 1905 not as an objective historical incident, but as an event the contours and lineaments of which are constantly changing due to continuous processes of repetition and imagination.
Abstract: This piece, a compilation of excerpts from the monograph Smarthavicharam by P. Bhaskaranunni, provides the basic bearings and orientation of the Namboothiri community which entailed rigorous measures like the chastity trial.
Abstract: This paper, attempts to locate and historicize the activities of some women from the dominant Namboothiri community who fought on their own to achieve greater causes and staked claims to their natural rights during the early decades of twentieth century, without the support of the male reformers of the community.
Abstract: This article which appeared in Samakalika Malayalam Weekly in July 2005, offers a glimpse into the world of men who were ostracized and is a different take on the Thathri effect in their lives. The author well known for her novel Yajnam which deals with Smarthavicharam is brutally honest when she confesses that she doesn’t think much of what Thathri is said to have accomplished.
