Transnational relationships and virtual technology: an ethnographic study of the left-behind wives in Kerala

Abstract

Modern technology plays a complicated role in (re)shaping the transnational relationships between migrated men and their left-behind wives in Kerala. Since the 1990s, the Malabar region in Kerala has witnessed large-scale migration of its workforce to the Gulf countries. As these women juggle between family, migration, and gaps in socio-economic development, multiple forms of technologies and surveillance complicate the institutionalization of patriarchy within the private sphere in the name of women’s safety. Technological devices turn the migrants’ wives into docile bodies, observable at any moment by their husbands’ virtual eyes. This paper argues that using modern technology, which is operated around the idea of surveillance, migrant husbands foster a “mediated patriarchy.” Further, modern technology (re)shapes transnational relationships and functions as a double-edged weapon in the left-behind wives’ lives. Qualitative approaches and ethnography have been used to understand the demographic profile and personal experiences of the left-behind wives in Kerala.

Keywords:

• left-behind wives
• virtual technology
• mediated patriarchy
• Kerala

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my research supervisor Prof. K. Raja Mohan Rao (Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, University of Hyderabad), for his guidance. I am also grateful for the suggestions and comments from Prof. Nagaraju Gundemeda (Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad), which helped me improve the paper. This paper is part of an ongoing Ph.D. thesis at the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, University of Hyderabad. I am indebted to the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, the University of Hyderabad, for their academic support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nusarath Jahan P.

Nusarath Jahan P. is a Ph.D. researcher at the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), University of Hyderabad, India. She holds a Master's degree in sociology from University of Hyderabad. Her research interests include gender and technological surveillance, migration and sociology of emotion.