Ala speaks to Ruchi Chaturvedi, whose book, Violence of Democracy, published this year, draws on years of engagement with political violence in north Kerala to think about the forms of violence produced by the very practice of democracy.
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Category: Issues
Vulnerability Amplified: Exploring the Spaces of Migrant Women and Children in Kerala
Despite outreach from the government in recent years, migrant labourers—especially dependent migrants—continue to face social, economic, and political hardships that make integration challenging. Athira writes about these hurdles, focusing on the experience of women and children who often accompany the employed male.
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Scary Spaces: Technology and Horror in Chathurmukham
The ways in which we have come to negotiate with the presence of technology in our lives are multiple and varied. Himaganga revisits the 2021 Malayalam film Chathurmukham to see how the techno-horror genre represents some of the anxieties that surround the pervasiveness of media devices in our everyday lives.
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Podcast: Fifth Anniversary Special with the Editors
As Ala turns five, tune in to this special episode with Ala’s editors, as we reflect on the blog’s journey so far, the motivation behind our workshops, podcast other experiments, and contemplate what keeps us going each month. We brainstorm about what we have in store for the next year, and we hear from mentors and former editors who have worked with Ala.
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ജനകീയ ശാസ്ത്ര ചരിത്രത്തിലെ മറന്നൊരേട്
പത്തൊൻപതാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടിന്റെ അവസാനത്തിലും ഇരുപതാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടിന്റെ തുടക്കത്തിലും പ്രഭാഷണങ്ങളിലൂടെയും പ്രദർശനങ്ങളിലൂടെയും പൊതുജനങ്ങളെ ബോധവൽക്കരിച്ച തിരുവിതാംകൂർ പബ്ലിക് ലെക്ചർ കമ്മിറ്റിയുടെ പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങൾ ഊർമിള ഉണ്ണികൃഷ്ണൻ അവലോകനം ചെയ്യുന്നു. കേരളത്തിലെ ശാസ്ത്രത്തിന്റെ ജനകീയവത്കരണ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ അധികമാരും പരാമർശിക്കാത്ത എന്നാൽ കൂടുതൽ പഠനം ആവശ്യമുള്ള ഒരേടാണത്.
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[Podcast] Rethinking ‘Keraleeyatha’: Clothing and the Politics of the Body
We wrap up this season of our podcasts with Malavika Binny and Rekha Raj. In this episode, we explore how clothing, and by extension, the body itself, have been both sites of violence and protest in Kerala, and closely tied to questions of class and caste.
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Translating the Worlds of Eighties’ Kochi: An Interview with Prabha Zacharias
What are the joys and challenges of translating Malayalam literature to English? To know more, Ala spoke to Prabha Zacharias, whose translation of V M Devadas’ 2010 novel, Pannivetta, titled The Boar Hunt, was published this July by Hachette India.
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‘Soap, Cheep, Kannadi’: Consuming Soap in Keralam, c. 1900-1950
Was foreign soap a luxury product or an everyday commodity in early-twentieth-century Kerala? Greeshma Justin John follows the interesting history of soap as a commodity at this time, examining how it became a popular staple commodity in the region.
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Monsoon, Memory, and Mushrooms: The Political Fungi of Wayanad
We rarely take much note of mushrooms that crop up in the dirt. Drawing on his locale, Abdul Basith shows how mushrooms, in fact, shape and reshape the relationships between people, property and nature.
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Caste and Tourism: The Case of Ancestral Homestays
Renovated ancestral homes have become a mainstay of tourism in Kerala. Soumithra investigates how ancestral homestays not only draw from existing caste and class hierarchies, but also play a role in sustaining these in the era of the supposedly free market.
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