A Kerala Studies Blog
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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With streaming services bringing transnational attention to Malayalam cinema, it becomes important to examine the nature of Kerala’s “new gen” cinema and to locate it in a longer history. C S Venkiteswaran, film critic, Don Palathara, film director, and Jolly Chirayath, actor, feature in Ala’s first audio essay on cinema in Kerala.
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In this episode, Ala’s Deepti Sreeram speaks with Sudha Padmaja Francis, an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker about her practice as a filmmaker and her documentary Ormajeevikal, a film that captures the city of Kozhikode through a community of music lovers
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പത്തൊൻപതാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടിലും ഇരുപതാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടിന്റെ തുടക്കത്തിലും ഉയർന്നുവന്ന കേരളത്തിലെ ഭാഷയെയും ആധുനികതയെയും പറ്റിയുള്ള സംവാദങ്ങളെക്കുറിച്ചും ലിന്റോ ഫ്രാൻസിസ് പ്രതിപാദിക്കുന്നു.
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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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In this episode of our ongoing podcast series on Keraleeyatha, we speak with Prof Dilip Menon and Dr Mahmood Kooria about the role of the Indian ocean in shaping the social and political history of Kerala, and revisit the limitations of a ‘terracentric’ idea of modernity and the nation-state.
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Why do we see ‘modernity’ as something that emerged only in the colonial era? What do the three medieval texts tell us about alternative strands of literature? Why do we mainstream some histories while marginalizing others? In this episode, we discuss these questions with Prof. T.T. Sreekumar.
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