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The land of ‘gender paradox’? Getting past the commonsense of contemporary Kerala

2007; Routledge; Volume: 8; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14649370601118966

1469-8447

Sharmila Sreekumar,

South Asian Studies and Conflicts

Abstract Abstract 'Gender paradox' in Kerala refers to the 'contradiction' whereby women's high showing in socio‐demographic indicators of development exists simultaneously with their low public participation and the increasing incidence of violence upon them. Given that 'gender paradox' has become the overwhelming context for imagining women in Kerala today, this paper seeks to examine its anatomy. The paper argues that there are two divergent descriptions of contemporary Kerala which circulate with comparable energy – Kerala as utopia and as dystopia. Theorisations of paradox bring these two worlds together, but without having sufficiently reckoned with their internal dynamics. Consequently, the paper explores the interiors of these worlds. It examines utopia through two discrete, yet intersecting social discourses – (a) the Kerala model of development and (b) tourism. It then proceeds to examine dystopia through the discourses around AIDS and sexual violence, which tend to be configured in analogous ways. The paper focuses on how women are gendered in these two worlds and concludes that they evoke two very different kinds of women. In the light of these explorations the paper goes on to lay out some of the implications and inadequacies of using gender paradox as the condition for speaking about women in Kerala. It argues that, instead of serving as a site for radical critique and productive feminist politics, gender paradox often become an occasion for conservative re‐telling. Keywords: Utopiadystopiagender paradoxKerala model of developmenttourismAIDSsexual violence Notes 1. Kerala is a small coastal state in the south‐west of India. It has an area of 38,863 sq km and a population (according to the 2001 census) of 31.8 million, making it the second most densely populated state in India. 2. The Gender Development Index (1996) published by the United Nations Development Programme places Kerala on top of all other Indian states (Venkitakrishnan and Kurien 2003 Venkitakrishnan, U. and Kurien, S.G. 2003. Rape Victims in Kerala, Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development, Centre for Development Studies. [Google Scholar]: 26). As per the National Human Development Report 2001, it was also ranked first among Indian States in the Human Development Index in 1981, 1991 and 2001 (Devi 2002 Devi, Lakshmy K.R. 2002. Education, Employment, and Job Preference of Women in Kerala: A micro‐level case study, Centre for Development Studies: Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development. [Google Scholar]: 6). 3. A. Sreedhara Menon's study of Kerala's History is a quick and useful reader. The changes in eighteenth and nineteenth century Kerala are mostly sketched out in the chapter significantly titled 'Towards a New Society' (Menon 1985 Menon, A. Sreedhara. 1985. A Survey of Kerala History, Madras: Vishwanathan. [Google Scholar]: 317–334). See also Jeffrey (1992 Jeffrey, Robin. 1992. Politics, Women and Well Being: How Kerala Became 'a Model', Houndmills: Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 4. K.K. George analyses how the Kerala model finds itself incapable of generating enough revenue to finance and maintain its developmental initiatives. He argues that Kerala is unable to sustain its achievements and is consequently losing its lead in social development (George 1993 George, K. K. 1993. 'The decline of the Kerala model (Keralamathrukayude Thalarcha)'. Keralapathanangal, : 243–253. [Google Scholar]). See also George (2001 George, K.K. 2001. Limits to Kerala Model of Development (Kerala Mathrukayude Parimithikal), Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Bhasha Institute. [Google Scholar]). 5. See exchange between Tharamangalam, and Franke and Chasin in the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (Tharamangalam 1998 Tharamangalam, Joseph. 1998. 'The perils of social development without economic growth: the development debacle of Kerala, India'. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 30(1): 23–34. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; Franke and Chasin 1998 Franke, Richard W. and Chasin, Barbara H. 1998. 'Kerala: a valid alternative to the new world order'. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 30(3): 25–28. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). I am grateful to the referee of this paper for suggesting that this debate could be used to lay out the divergent positions on the Kerala model. 6. In fact, nearly the entire cassette is devoted to delineating the sweeping spread of dissolution in Kerala. Apart from the song mentioned above, there is one that describes the death of democracy, another about dead telephone lines, and so on. 7. Tharamangalam in his critique had picked on this signification and called it a 'false paradox' (Tharamangalam 1998 Tharamangalam, Joseph. 1998. 'The perils of social development without economic growth: the development debacle of Kerala, India'. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 30(1): 23–34. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]: 26). 8. Kerala is one of the few states in India, which has notified tourism as an industry. This was as early as 1986. However, it was in the 1990s that tourism procured the primacy of place, which it enjoys today. In November 1995, the government selected 15 places that were to be extensively developed as tourist centres. Later in the decade, as a repeatedly aired promotional on television happily advertised, Kerala received a shot in the arm when the National Geographic channel chose it as among the 50 greatest destinations in the world. For other details see Government of Kerala, Tourism Policy Kerala (Government of Kerala 1995 Government of Kerala. 1995. Tourism Policy Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram: Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala. [Google Scholar]). 9. So much of the anxiety around the Kerala model has been around the question of its sustainability. Even critics of the Kerala model like Tharamangalam and K.K. George do not question the utopia it lays out. Rather, they point out that economic stagnation renders it unsustainable. 10. Take these instances: 'In India as a whole, the 1991 census found that there were about 929 women per 1,000 men; in Kerala, the number was 1,040 women, about where it should be' (McKibben 1995 McKibben, Bill (1995) 'Kerala, India', http://www.ananthapuri.com/board/topic.asp?topic_id=205 [Google Scholar]); 'Thus, for example, the male‐female gap in literacy rates for Kerala in 1981–82 was 75‐66 percent, as against 47‐25 percent for India. Life expectancy for males (in 1981–82) was, in fact, lower than for females (64 years for males vs. 68 for females); the corresponding numbers for the rest of India are 57 and 56 years' (Tharamangalam 1998 Tharamangalam, Joseph. 1998. 'The perils of social development without economic growth: the development debacle of Kerala, India'. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 30(1): 23–34. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]: 24). In fact, it is with high‐income developing and developed nations that Kerala is seen to compare: 'Kerala's development indicators compare favorably with…even rich nations such as the United States' (Franke and Chasin 1996 Franke, Richard W. and Chasin, Barbara H. 'Is the Kerala model sustainable? Lessons from the past – prospects for the future'. presented at the International Conference on Kerala's Development Experience: National and Global Dimensions. December9–11. http://www.chss.montclair.edu/anthro/decconf.html [Google Scholar]: 16) 11. This is an advertisement that appeared in various newspapers and magazines in the 1990s. It urged people's participation in hosting tourists and making them welcome. 12. The figures for literacy in Kerala in the year 1991 were: total literacy – 90.6%. Percentage of male literates – 94.45%. Percentage of female literates – 87% (Ramachandran 1997 Ramachandran, V. K. 1997. "'On Kerala's development achievements'". In Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives, Edited by: Dreze, Jean and Sen, Amartya. 205–356. Delhi: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 256). Ramachandran goes on to state, 'Women in Kerala have made outstanding gains in the spheres of health and education and are more equal participants with men in education and health achievements than in any other part of India' (Ramachandran V. 1997 Ramachandran, V. K. 1997. "'On Kerala's development achievements'". In Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives, Edited by: Dreze, Jean and Sen, Amartya. 205–356. Delhi: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 317, emphasis added). 13. Men tend to be an unmarked category and are not called in as persistently into the gender regime. 14. Indeed, the 'Heritage Holidays' – a popular tourism scheme that has been enthusiastically publicized and conducted from hotels made‐over from traditional upper caste Hindu houses ('nalukettu's) – are assertive in packaging the upper‐caste Hindu life as iconic of Kerala at large. 15. Here 'ice cream' refers to a prostitution racket that was being run from an ice cream parlour. The feminist group Anweshi was responsible for uncovering it and it captured popular attention because many prominent men were accused of being involved in it. 16. From the thousands of letters that reportedly poured in as response to the AIDS advertisements, KITCO, within which the Response Cell is located, picked and filed a few. For the Sheela‐ad, the select file has a collection of 11 letters. When quoting from these letters, the references I make in parenthesis refer to the letter number as they have been filed by KITCO. 17. This is a regular column in which a noted psychologist in Kerala responds to queries. It is entitled 'Only for Women (Streekalkumatram)'. 18. It was a case of 'relay rape' of an indigent, 16 year old Muslim girl from a remote village called Vithura in Trivandrum district. She was grievously abused. The pronouncements made by the judges when the case came up in the Kerala high court have been widely criticized. 19. A newspaper article diagnoses that the sex rackets in Kerala are because of 'strong consumerism plus loose human ties' (Sooryamurthy 1997 Sooryamurthy, R. 1997. "'Strong consumerism plus loose human ties lead to Suryanellis'". In Indian Express Kochi 3 February, [Google Scholar]). Sugatha Kumari, the first chairperson of the Kerala Women's commission, has expressed similar opinions in various pubic meetings. She has attributed the increasing violence on women to the loss of Malayali cultural identity due to modernization, westernization, cable television (Indian Express 1996 1996. "'Western media blitzkrieg blamed for atrocities against women'". In Indian Express Kochi 11 July [Google Scholar]). 20. See Kodoth and Eapen (2005 Kodoth, Praveen and Eapen, Mridul. 2005. 'Looking beyond gender parity: gender inequities of some dimensions of well‐being in Kerala'. Economic and Political Weekly, XL(30): 3278–86. [Google Scholar]) for a critical engagement with select dimensions of well‐being in Kerala.