As thousands of middle-class Malayali women migrate to cities outside Kerala, Ashwathy provides an intimate portrait of how they might negotiate questions of home, belonging, and anonymity.
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Category: Issues
Shinilal’s 124: The Indifference of the Law and Imprisonment of Freedom of Expression
As the Supreme Court puts the notorious Section 124A on hold, Kabani reviews Shinilal’s novel based on the controversial law, arguing that the book goes beyond a critique of the overpowering fascist ideological tendencies in state machinery to ask pertinent questions on democracy and citizenship.
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The Newness of New-Generation Malayalam Cinema
Focussing on two Malayalam films from the last decade—22 Female Kottayam (Aashiq Abu, 2012) and Varathan (Amal Neerad, 2018)—Arun Ramesh argues that despite their apparently progressive politics, new-generation films continue to be influenced by feudal norms and practices.
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Fourth Anniversary Editorial
Editors’ Update on the year-that-was and what’s planned ahead, as Ala turns four!
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Nanjiyamma and The Soundscape of Ayyappanum Koshiyum
Jaya Thampi revisits Sachy’s Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020) to explore its cinematic soundscape and the many lives of Nanjiyamma’s songs in and beyond the film.
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An International Education Shouldn’t Cost A Mother Tongue
Eliza Keyton suggests ways to improve Malayalam language education while elucidating the social landscape, student workload, teacher ability, and other factors that impact the same.
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Design Ashram: A Meeting of the Past and Present Within Space
How can we rethink the preservation of historical buildings beyond salvaging relics of a lost time? Niyati Pavithran takes up the case of Design Ashram to explore how the idea of ‘preservation’ can also accommodate the dynamic passage of time and the living present.
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[Podcast] Rethinking ‘Keraleeyatha’: Mapping Indigenous Medicine
In this episode, we speak with K.P. Girija about the modernisation of the indigenous systems of medicine in Kerala. Her recently published book Mapping the History of Ayurveda: Culture, Hegemony, and the Rhetoric of Diversity examined the history of institutionalisation of Ayurveda in the 20th century, and the complex process associated with it.
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കടൽപ്പണിക്കാരുടെ അവകാശങ്ങളും വിഴിഞ്ഞം സമരവും; കോസ്റ്റൽ കോമൺസിൻ്റെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ പ്രസക്തി
തീരദേശത്തിന്മേലുള്ള തങ്ങളുടെ പരമ്പരാഗതമായ അവകാശങ്ങൾ സ്ഥാപിക്കുവാനായി വിഴിഞ്ഞത്തെ മത്സ്യത്തൊഴിലാളി സമുദായം നടത്തുന്ന സമരം സ്റ്റേറ്റും പൊതുസമൂഹവും അംഗീകരിക്കാൻ വിമുഖത കാണിക്കുന്നതെന്തുകൊണ്ട്? അരികുവത്ക്കരണത്തിന്റെയും പ്രതിരോധത്തിന്റെയും നീണ്ട ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഒരധ്യായമായി[…]
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Communism, Caste, and the Paradox of the ‘Party Village’ in Kerala
Kerala’s political fortunes and election outcomes have long interested researchers, but the phenomenon of ‘party villages’ and their centrality to electoral democracy in Kerala have been underexplored. Nitasha and Nisar offer us a glimpse into their study of everyday politics in a party village.
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