The politics of representation and the “ideal Malayalee woman”: Remembering Malayalam women’s magazines of the early 20th-century Kerala, South India

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the early-20th-century Malayalam women’s magazines of Kerala in terms of their politics of representation. These magazines emerged at a time when Kerala was on the cusp of modernity and catered to Malayalee women with the aim of transforming them into “ideal gendered selves”. However, the contributions of these magazines, managed and edited mostly by the early feminists of Kerala, are seldom acknowledged or remembered within the larger discourse of Kerala’s colonial modernity. The magazines can be viewed as principal sites which recorded the responses of the emergent modern Malayalee community, particularly its women, to the notion of the “ideal Malayalee woman”. This article explores the entrenched patriarchal ideology and caste–class nexus that informed the content of these publications, and reveals the politics inherent in their seemingly apolitical stance.

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s magazines
• Kerala
• gender ideology
• colonial modernity
• caste
• politics of representation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Kerala is a state in the southern part of India. Before its formation in 1956, the Malayalam-speaking regions comprised the two princely states of Travancore and Cochin, and Malabar, part of Madras Presidency.

2. Devika (2007) explicates in detail how the social ordering based on caste was replaced by gender. The community reform movements reformed caste groups into modern communities by envisioning the transformation of individuals into ideal gendered selves.

3. Raghavan (1985) and Priyadarsanan (2011) provide a chronicle of the history of early Malayalam women’s magazines.

4. B. Bhageerathy Amma, T.C. Kalyani Amma, T. Ammukkutty Amma, Parvathy Ayyappan, B. Kalyani Amma and Haleema Beevi were on the editorial boards of some of these magazines. Also, many of the leading cultural figures and reformers of the time, including Devaki Narikkattiri, Tharavathu Ammalu Amma, Annie Mascarene, K. Kelappan and others, wrote for them.

5. Keraleeyasugunabodhini began publication in 1885 from Travancore, led by a group of male reformers, but ceased publishing within six months. It was revamped in 1892 (Raghavan 1985).

6. Lakshmi Bhai, published from Thrissur (then part of Cochin princely state), was one of the earliest women’s magazines and ran for more than three decades. It was published by Bharatha Vilasam Press. Sarada was published initially from Tripunithura (under the princely state of Cochin); K. Narayana Menon was its owner and manager. The Senior Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bhai and Junior Rani Sethu Parvathi Bhai of the Travancore royal family, and Ikku Amma Thampuram were the patrons of this publication (Raghavan 1985).

7. Sumangala, launched in memory of Gopalakrishna Gokhale, was published from Palakkad (part of Malabar); other details regarding the editors and publishers are not available. Mahila, an illustrated monthly, had the patronage of the Junior Rani Sethu Parvathi Bhai of the Travancore royal family. This magazine was subscribed to by the government schools as per the dictum of the government of Travancore.

8. Sthree was founded by the social reformer, politician and journalist K. Aiyappan. It was published by Sahodaran Press, Ernakulum, and, despite severe financial constraints, he maintained its publication (Priyadarsanan 2011).

9. Magazines like Mahila quite often issued notices to readers requesting prompt payment of their subscription fee.

10. Mahila and Lakshmi Bhai, two of the longest-running magazines, were in circulation for more than three decades.

11. All translations from Malayalam to English are by the authors.

12. Each issue of these magazines began with blessings by leading poets such as Vallathol Narayana Menon, Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer and others. This is also a marker of the support and encouragement these magazines enjoyed from the literary and cultural sphere.

13. Reports of the All India Women’s Conference were published in Sreemathi, Mahila and Sarada. Some of them also included speeches delivered at these conferences.

14. Devika (2007) extrapolates how the late-19th- and early-20th-century reform movements in Kerala were, in fact, an “engendering” process. She delineates the demarcation of space based on gender by analysing various aspects of society such as gender-specific education and sartorial codes.

15. Sati and Savitri are two Hindu mythological characters, both regarded as paragons of chastity. Velayudhan’s (1994) reading of the magazines illustrates this tension between tradition and modernity.

16. Sati was a ritualistic practice in which widows were expected to immolate themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands.

17. Matriliny was the kinship pattern followed by Nairs. The Nair women could engage in sambandham (literally, “a bond”) with Nairs or Nambuthiris. Marriage was not seen as a sacred bond. They were free to have multiple partners in their lives. Therefore, widowhood did not really affect their lives. Besides, sati was not practised by women in Kerala.

18. Breast tax was the tax imposed on lower-caste women by upper-caste landlords. The Upper Cloth Revolt of 1858, also known as the Channar Revolt or Breast Cloth controversy, refers to the rebellion by women of Channar community for their right to wear the upper cloth and cover their breasts. In 1859 a proclamation was passed permitting Nadar women to wear upper cloth. Smaartavicharam refers to the ritualistic trial of a Nambuthiri woman accused of adultery.

19. The Nairs are one of the upper-caste communities of Kerala.

20. The Nambuthiri is the Malayala Brahmin community, hence at the top of the caste hierarchy.

21. The protagonist of the eponymous 1889 novel Indulekha, written by O. Chandu Menon, has been regarded as the embodiment of the ideal Malayalee woman. Educated in western ways, Indulekha is presented as a modern, independent and progressive woman, while rooting herself in the tradition and culture of the land and taking pride in her matrilineal legacy.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sruthi Vinayan

Sruthi Vinayan is a research scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Her research interests include Indian writing in English, literary history, and the early-20th-century literary and cultural narratives from Kerala.

Merin Simi Raj

Merin Simi Raj is an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Her current research is in the area of historiography studies and postcolonial narratives.