Essays on Cultural Formation of Kerala

7/30/2019 Essays on Cultural Formation of Kerala

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P.J.Cherian( Ed )

Essays on the Cultural Formation of Keralaliterature, Art, Architecture, Music, Theatre, Cinema

Cultural Formation of Kerala - B. Rajeevan

The Formation /The Caste and Varna / The Joint-Family System / The Kerala Brahmans and the

Problems of Joint-Family System

The Matriarchal Joint-Family System / Emergence of a Linguistic-Cultural Identity / The

Regionalized Community of Culture

The Renaissance/ Formation of Modern Kerala Culture _ Forces and Tendencies

Studies that scientifically evaluate the factors that account fo r the distinctive features of Kerala

culture, the historical circumstances that brought about their formation and transformation, the

structural reorganizations that they underwent during various historical periods and their ideological

functions have not yet been properly undertaken. What stands on the way is the hegemonic historical

ideology that gratifies the common sense notions, and glosses over co ntradictions and the text book

methodology that sustains it.

The only way to get over this stagnation is the recognition that any reference of any time to the past

is formed w ithin a discourse of the present. The historian can, through this recognition, become aware

of the social interests that operate unconsciously behind his practice. The historian who thus becomes

aware of the interests of the present operative behind his activity, can take on a conscious position

through breaking away from the unconscious forces; and adopt a scientific approach to history.

This introduction is nothing but the beginning o f an attempt to study the history o f Kerala culture with

this kind of an awareness of the contradictions of the present that impel to present different

portrayals of the past.

Such an attempt is mainly to get over the two methodological approaches which, though are

fundamentally the products of one and the same field of discourse, assume antithetical forms on the

practical plane. The first is the manner of viewing the culture of a people as an absolute force that

transcends the material life and that is self-determined and autonomous. It would have each culture

taken as an external manifestation of an eternal and absolute essence. It views the history o f culture

as that o f the series of rise and fall of these a rchetypes. This concept, while on the one hand, sees the

human history as that of the challenges and responses that the essential identity of such cultural

essence confronts, on the other, reduces the history of each people to its cultural specifics. This

method that considers the history of culture as the determining force is fundamentally the same

religious method that by keeping the inexplicable as the hidden parameter employs itself to explain

everything else. In effect, it is a reductive process that integrates abstractly the various streams and

breaks of history into the abstract discourse called culture. Though this culturistic reductionism that

sees culture as all-embracing and all-determining, often masquerading as materialistic and sociological,

is basically none o ther than the fundamentally religious cyclic production of knowledge that produces

nothing new.

The next is the limitation o f the so ciological approaches that keep itself apart from the abstract

humanism that attends on these culturistic reduction. Most o f the so ciological studies that claim to be

objective and scientific are caught up in an unscientific notion of science itself. Its method is to see the

concept of objectivity as one o f positivism; and it tends to consider the reduction of social

phenomena into the formation of inductive - deductive logic as scientific. In the absence of concrete

theories that reach beyond the generalization of tangible facts and that could be o f use in the study o f

history and culture, these sociological studies eventually become reductions to some determining

essence or the other. By reducing in this manner the culture specifics of a people to its geography or

to race or to some social institutions or even to its food habits, it can be presented as scientific truth.

When those historians who would like to be known as Marxists assume this scientificity, the culture of

a people gets reduced to economic essence more than to o ther essences. It is not the Marxist

concept of science but the positivist concept that operates here. According to the Marxist concept of

history, the determination of the economic factor is not a concept based on the method of

considering the economic factor as the supreme truth and everything else as its ephemeral

phenomena. Marxist historiography when seen as on empiricist methodology, becomes one among

the many reductionist methods o f sociological kind.

It is only by taking these culturistic and sociologistic reductions as points of divergence that the history

of a people's culture can be subjected to a scientific analysis. Such an analysis cannot consider culture

as located w ithin the limits o f the discourse o f culture as formulated by the European bourgeois

nationalism that has come into being in the wake of the decline o f feudalism, in its attempt to

perpetuate its own ideological forms. It has also to steer clear of the orientalistic cultural studies that

were formed in an attempt t o extend as world-wide this concept o f culture that had been the basis o f

a new system o f knowledge originating from the eighteenth century.

Orientalism was mainly another outcome of the studies on o riental countries within the field discourse

of culture that was a concomitant of the attempt to perpetuate the ideological forms of bourgeois

nationalism by generalizing them. The privileged western position characteristic of the Euro-centric

concept of man and the infatuation for the east were its inherent contradictions. The contradiction

involved plundering the colonies and at the same time to have to bring them under new productionrelations and to have to incorporate the old world into the new without shaking its foundations.

Orientalism was nothing but the ideological sphere that theoretically legitimized the oriental studies of

the Europeans necessitated by this contradiction. The ideologues o f Indian nationalism studying its

culture, by following and imitating the Europeans, were also acting within this sphere. Even today,

those who go into raptures over such matters as the Indian religion, Indian philosophy and Indian

aesthetics are conditioned in their thinking habits by this field of discourse.

The task that a study of Indian culture or o f the Kerala culture as its part faces is not so much that o f

answering the polemics formed within the former problematic as that of shifting that problematic

itself. Such a shift does not call for a redefinition of an abstraction of an essence-culture, but instead

an explanation o f how such definitions themselves have come about. What it really calls for is the

concrete materialist interpretation that is at variance with the value world of abstract universalist

humanism that is the undercurrent of such definitions. It is because the study of culture is nothing but

the objective analysis of the functions and of the concrete mode of operation of the ideological forms

and the contradictions implicit in it, that are necessitated by each historical phase. It is the material life

and not the abstract essence ca lled culture, that develops in the process o f human history. This is not

to say that it is only the economic life of man that is real and that the ideological forms are false.

Economic structure and ideological forms do no t operate as mutually exclusive. They are interrelated

and interdependent realities. The ideological sphere is as much concrete and real as the economic one,

being the different fronts of struggle of the very material life.

In short, a scientific study of the history o f Kerala culture cannot be bound down to the ideology that

bodied forth in terms of the newly formed Kerala nationalism. The ideology of Kerala nationalism,

though it is a historically generated reality is one that tends to view culture as the continuation of an

abstract human essence, like that of any other nationalisms elsewhere. In fact, a class that came into

being at a certain stage of Kerala history, by projecting its value system on to the past, was

endeavouring to confirm its own existence as that of man of all times. Such an outlook o f history can

only perceive the forms of family, of the state and the allied social institutions that existed from time

to time in the past, from within its own frame. A historian who adheres to such a frame can conceive

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of the sexuality of any o ther time only in terms of the sexuality which he himself partakes of; and can

consider the structure of power-relations of any other time only with reference to those which he

himself is a part o f. Even the best of our history text books would bear this out.

Now, understandably, this can lead to a series of questions in this context. Cannot the limitation,

described above, be justified in the light of the statement made earlier, that any reference of any time

to the past is formulated only within a discourse of the present? Accordingly, what else can even

those who try to break away from this limitation hope to do o ther than to project from within

another perspective, their own self image on to the past? If so, is it not pointless to call to question

this perennial inadequacy of historiography of any time?

It is here that the matter o f the contradistinction between subjective and objective concepts o f

history grounded in class positions, makes itself felt. It is a matter of the contradistinction between

ideological subjectivity and the scientific-theoretical objectivity. History being the projection o f

self-consciousness of a class and being the object of knowledge of a science are two contrary

concerns. Incidentally, it may be noted that what is proposed here as the science of history does not

imply the generalization of factual data, derived from the parameters o f o ther empirical sciences, as is

commo n in sociologistic reductions.

These are the issues o f an emergent new science through the coming into practice of a specific

theoretical field and its own object of knowledge together with a mode o f discourse that relates them.

It is in Marxism that history by thus becoming the object of knowledge of a specific concrete theory

transforms itself into a science. It is at this point that historiography by ceasing to be the projection o f

the subjectivity of class positions evolves into objective scientific practice. It is from there onwards

that historiography by ceasing to be the expression of the self-consciousness of the present and by

waking into the theoretical consciousness o f the contradictions of the present, orients itself to

perceive any historical period with such an objectivity.

Still, the Marxist periodization of history, the determinacy of the infrastructure and the relation

between the infra and superstructures are taken as empirical generalizations evo lved from European

history both by most of those who approve of it and who denounce it. That is why while some hold

that periodizations of history like primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism etc., being

relevant only to the European society, have no bearing on the history either of India or Kerala, others

go on to prove that those periods in western society repeat themselves in Indian history. The former

discard the Marxist theory of historical evolution as just the empirical description of European history

and, the latter hold the empirical description itself to be the scientific theory. Both equally stop short of

distinguishing the concreteness and universality o f a scientific theory from the generalization of

empirical data. The Marxist scientific theory o f history about historical stages holds true the world over

equally well. Because, it is not the generalization o f the history o f any particular society. It is a

concrete theory that goes to embrace and interpret the infinite complexities and specificities of each

particular society.

It is in this respect that the scientific concepts regarding periodization as well as relation between the

economic structure and ideological forms of each period, are applied in this outline of the history of

Kerala culture.

The Formation

The cultural life of mo dern Kerala came into being through a long historical process of the synthesis of

various cultural forms and of the conflicts of opposing social forces. The different cultural forms that

had been at work in the formation of Kerala culture were that of the primitive tribal societies in Kerala,

other south Indian societies and religions like Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The plough-agricultural

village system that emerged out of the disruption of the primitive tribal social system, the fo rmation

of feudal society, the reorganization o f the feudal system as a regionalized community of culture, the

emergence of democratic forces fighting against the feudal-colonial domination, the appearance of

organised working class that took up the task of carrying forward the struggle for democracy __

these are the different phases with which the conflicting social forces in the process o f Kerala history

have been connected and through which the cultural life of modern Kerala took shape.

The Kerala culture thus attaining identity has got its own peculiar traits which mark it off from all other

Indian regional cultures. The Malayalam language, the life style of the Malayali, the arts and the

literature, the faiths and the political consciousness make Kerala a different cultural region that set

itself apart as much from the north Indian cultures as from the other south Indian cultures. But the

Kerala culture is an essential part of the Indian culture which is nothing but that which came into being

through the development o f the various regional cultures. The such-vented Indianness is not an

abstract eternal essence which transcends all other regional cultural forms in India. Indianness has

been nothing but a reality that is closely related to the development o f regional cultures. It figured

differently in accordance with the different phases of the development and unity of regional cultures in

different times. In this sense the medieval and the modern Kerala culture partake in the general

characteristics of the Indian culture at large.

Linguistically and culturally the pre-Aryan tribal situation in Kerala had been definitely a part of the

south Indian primitive life. As has been elsewhere in India the basic structure of feudalism in Kerala also

was introduced through the plough agricultural system. Like all other feudal societies in India the feudal

system in Kerala also emerged and flourished under the Hindu Brahman religion. The process of

formation of Kerala culture as a regionalized community of culture also was parallel to those that

evolved politically and linguistically in almost all other parts of India. And when considering the relation

of the birth of nationalities in India with the struggle against the colonial domination, the modern

Kerala scene is a constituent of the broader Indian spectrum.

Thus the peculiar traits of Kerala culture that set itself apart from all other national cultures in India

have been evo lved by the necessary inter-relations o f Kerala with the different phases of t he history

of India.

The elements responsible for the peculiarities of the Kerala culture took shape under the feudal set up

in Kerala. But the structure of feudalism in Kerala had been different from that of north India as well as

of south. The land relations, the political set up, the caste system, man-woman relationships, modes

of succession, the forms of worship and rituals, the language, the art and literature and the dress - in

all these Kerala feudal society had its own peculiar forms. The conditions out of which these peculiar

features originated can be traced only through a scientific and historical elucidation of the factors at

work in the formation of social life in Kerala.

The modern historians with a scientific perspective since D.D. Kosambi are in agreement that the

process through which the different regions of ancient India came under the plough-agricultural village

system had something in common in their diversity. It was a process of diffusion of the plough-

agricultural village system of the Aryan tribes which formed in the Gangetic plains into the vast Indian

territories, and that of accommodation and of abso rption o f different tribal societies as castes into the

structure of t he agricultural village system. This was the process at work in the beginning in the

formation o f the various regional cultural forms in India. But this being the general process the

diversity of the products were immense. Thus the question arises, how the resultant product became

different from one another though the process was the same. By endeavouring to answer this

question we get ourselves closer to the factors determining the specific features o f the various cultural

forms in India including that of Kerala.


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The plough-agricultural village system in the Gangetic plains itself had emerged out of the disruption of

the Aryan tribal social structure. The division of labour reflected in the chaturvarnya system represents

a higher form of production relation w hich makes impossible the primeval unity in the tribes. This

agricultural village system depending upon the iron plough, the calendar and the rain making rituals

was one in which the separation between mental and physical labour was complete. This developed

class society with its mode o f production and value system interfered in the tribal social forms which

were set in different levels of development. The forms o f contradictions generated by this

confrontation of antagonistic systems might be at the root of the diversity of the cultures which

emerged out the general process by which the tribes were transformed and frozen as castes at a

definite stage in their development.

The agricultural village system and culture that took shape in south India too were having its own

unique traits evolved from the specific nature o f contradictions at work in its formation. The

proportion and strength of non-Aryan elements were comparatively much more determining in this

case. The division of labour in the tribal societies in the Kaveri delta where the tribal heads had become

kings, was at a higher stage of development and it could be accommodated in the Aryan varna

system. The Kaveri delta had been connected to a trade route which trod from south to north and

then to other Asian countries in the early centuries of the Christian era. There were castes in that

society denoting the nature of work performed, but not as an inalienable quality by birth. This was the

tribal society which had been at a higher stage of development of transition from classless to class

society, and this transition was completed by its interaction with the feudal agrarian order structured

by the varna-jatisystem that was transformed into the form of Aryan agricultural village with varna

system. The contradictions which determined the peculiarities of the agricultural village societies in the

Kaveri delta were specified by this nature of transformation. The conflicts of this transition from the

tribal to the class society moulded by the varna-jatisystem of chaturvarnya have been reflected in

the ancient Tamil literature.

Is this process of transformation applicable to the formation of agricultural village system in Kerala? Is

the agricultural village society in Kerala a mere continuation o f the south Indian model with a

difference? There are many among the scholars who think so. But all of them are in agreement that

the Kerala culture has got its own peculiarities the reasons of which are yet to be disclosed.

The discrepancy found between the theoretical and practical forms of the varna-jati chaturvarnya

system in Kerala, the observance oftindappad, (certain distances to avoid pollution) among the upper

castes and lower castes, the joint family and customs o f Kerala Brahmans which separate them from

their counterparts elsewhere, the matriarchal joint family and succession among the castes included in

the varna-jatisystem, and above all the peculiar forms of the feudal land relations in Kerala; it is

evident from all these realities that the formation of the agricultural village system in Kerala took

shape in a different situation from that of south and north. This means the nature of contradictions

that evolved from the process of accommodation and absorption of tribes into the village system

were of a different sort in Kerala. That difference might be at the root of the identity of Kerala culture.

The Caste and Varna

The varna system which was prevalent in all other Indian village societies had never been in existence

in Kerala in the same pattern. There are no such groups of people in Kerala which include themselves

perfectly in the four-fold division ofBrahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. If there is any section of

people in Kerala which fully satisfies the concepts ofvarna division, it is Brahmans. Originally there is

not separate section of people in Kerala which practiced the varna-dharma ofKshatriya and Sudras.

The gaps of these two varnas came to be filled by the Naircastes. A section that functioned as the

third caste Vaisya is totally absent in Kerala. How did this disagreement between theory and practice

happen in Kerala? The only clear answer which is irresistible in this background is that in the pre-Aryan

primitive tribes in Kerala the division o f labour had not reached such an advanced stage as to divide

itself to be fit in the four-fold division ofvarna system.

The absence of a trader caste in the Kerala model varna system is highly significant against the

background of the minute division of castes and sub-castes for each minor occupation.

The most notable characteristic of the caste system in Kerala is the practice of untouchability which

figures even the upper castes as untouchables. Usually the Brahmans elsewhere in India do not

observe untouchability except towards castes outside the varnas, yet in Kerala the Brahmans observe

a form of untouchability towards the caste even inside the varna system.

Another notable feature of caste system in Kerala is the observance of the forms of untouchability

prevalent among all the low castes including the lowest ones.

Nayadi is the caste which has to observe the farthest distance from the NamboodiriBrahmans to

avoid the po lluting effect caused by it. If a nayadipollutes a Brahman the latter can regain his purity

not only by a ritual bath but after the ritual bath he has to change the sacred thread and to eat the

five products o f the cow (milk, curd, butter, liquid and so lid excreta used in the rituals of purification).

For this most abhorred nayadithe food polluted by a Pulaya or Paraya is forbidden but this Pulaya and

Paraya are castes mutually polluting by touch and have to be themselves purified through a bathing by

immersion. If an Ullada pollutes a Pulaya he can only be relieved from it by a seven course bath and

by trickling out a few drops of blood from his little finger. But this Ullada is one who considers himself

as holy as to abandon the food touched by a Pulaya.

These two main above mentioned characteristics of the varna-castesystem in Kerala definitely brings

to light one fact relating to the origin of the system. Each o f the pre-Aryan tribe which had been

accommodated into a model of Aryan class society was mutually excluding itself in the name of tribal

purity. These tribes might have been deployed in the division o f labour o f the agricultural village

system along with their mutually excluding purity concepts. Thus the o ld tribal concepts of purity was

retained in the tribes turned into castes as the mutually polluting caste purity concepts. In this way the

universal observance o f untouchability became a structural characteristic of the caste system in

Kerala. That is, the caste system with untouchability in Kerala became a mechanism that enables the

self deployment of human bodies by their mutual repulsion without any unified application of pressure

from above as usual.

Since the consolidation of the agricultural village system, w ithout any fundamental change except the

proliferation of sub-castes caused by the development of division of labour till the advent of the

modern democratic struggle, this caste mechanism functioned as a political structure. To say that the

caste system in Kerala served as a political device based on the human any change is not to mean

that there was no history in Kerala. This mechanism was able to perform different functions acco rding

to the different phases of history and thus could survive the changes in history. If it once functioned as

a political structure of an economic base which combined the relations of slavery and feudalism, at

another phase it functioned as a clever device of the feudal-colonial exploitation.

The Joint-Family System

The joint family with various forms o f polygamy and polyandry were prevalent in Kerala till recently.

Historians have arrived at different conjectures about the reasons of the continued existence of this

institutions till modern epoch in Kerala. But among these it seems that the mo re scientific is that

based on the studies of the evolution of family by so cial scientists like Morgan and Engels. According

to this view the various fo rms of man-woman relationship in the joint-family systems in Kerala are the

different transitional forms from group marriage to pairing marriage.

But one question remains to be answered. How this transitional forms got ossified without natural

transformations despite the structural breaks in the history o f Kerala. The reason for this might be the

insertion of tribes which were at the different levels of their developments into an alien structure which


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has got its own mechanisms that can operate at the expense of the former's natural growth. So the

continued existence of the tribal forms o f joint-family system in Kerala was ultimately determined by

the advanced structure of the Aryan class so ciety and its economy. Thus the undeveloped tribal forms

were kept intact for centuries to come. The logical explanation for this contradiction is that the

relatively autonomous sphere o f culture with its own specific laws will not mechanically reflect the

changes in the economic structure.

The Kerala Brahmans and

the Problems of Joint-Family System

The family system and succession of the Kerala Brahmans resist this conjecture, according to the

traditional beliefs. Why only the eldest son in the Brahman joint family does marry from his own caste

while others go out to court other low caste women? Why do the Kerala Brahman, who according to

the traditional belief are Aryan, live in the impartible jo int-family while they follow the patriarchal

succession? All these questions lead to another question: Was the Brahman family system an artificial

construct contrary to the usual practice of their counterparts elsewhere in order to keep their wealth

intact and to sustain their domination in the society? In this way if the Namboodiris could consciously

create a family system, it becomes rational that the matriarchal joint-family system among the caste

like Nairs who had been following the patriarchal system, was introduced from above by the

Namboodiris themselves so as to manipulate them according to their will. If the state of affairs is so

the theory o f the joint-family system in Kerala based on the evolution of the family systems becomes

sloppy.

Here the theoretical problem of the relation between a form of culture and the group of people who

practice it or live in it becomes significant. Just like what was stated above as there is no one to one

relation between the economic structure and culture, synchronizing a cultural form with the blood

heritage of the people who practice it is not a necessity. That is, the blood flowing in the veins of

those who practice the Aryan way o f life need not necessarily be Aryan. Just like this, a group of

people who belong to the blood heritage of the Aryans need not necessarily be entrenched eternally in

the cultural form of Aryan religion. It is the racial interpretation of history which forcefully identifies

blood and culture as an inalienable unity and as a self-evident natural truth contrary to the fact that

blood heritage and cultural heritage are of different levels and have go t their own specific structures

and history. If we consider the structural specificities it becomes clear that all Brahmans in India belong

to the Aryan religion and culture, but racially they may not necessarily be so . Like any other religion

and culture Brahman religion and culture has nothing to do with the blood of those who owe faith to

it.

Following the racial interpretation it is believed that all the people belonging to different castes in

Kerala, except the primitive dwellers, had physically migrated to Kerala in different times. If it is true

the Christians and the Muslims in Kerala also might be the direct descendants of those who came here

with these religions. Without any theory it is evident that the fact is not so.

In the case of Brahmans in Kerala it is indisputable that the bearers of the Brahman religion and culture

came into Kerala from outside. But as the racial interpretation o f history becomes unscientific the

stake o f blood heritage itself disappears over w hich the scholars have hitherto been making disputes.

Just as the formation o f the Brahman caste in the Kaveri delta, where there was an intellectual group

prior to the advent of the Brahman religion who could easily be transformed into Brahmans under the

village system, in Kerala from among the most advanced tribal groups who came under the village

system and Brahman religion, some adapted themself as Brahman to meet the needs o f religious

dispensations. In these days religion was not as spiritualistic in the sense as it is now and it worked as

a direct material force to co-ordinate a definite production relation. The section of the people who had

to take the role of the Brahmans here also had to study and safeguard the secrecy of the Vedas. So

they had to make themselves a group with a difference while they shared the tribal traits of life in

commo n with others who came under the village system. The Kerala Brahmans thus acquired a dual

cultural existence.

All the institutions of the NamboodiriBrahman culture directly reflect o r suppress and ideologically

represent this duality. The family system, the concept of man-woman relationship, the forms o fworship, the rituals and customs o fNamboodiris have got two faces: one that o f the Brahman religion

in general and the other that of the tribal culture shared by all the caste Hindus in Kerala.

Though the Namboodiris accepted the concept o f chastity and father-right to make themselves as

Brahmans in the strict ritualistic sense, they continued the old form of joint family. In order to

introduce father-right in family system the man-woman relationship should be modified so as to

enable the father to identify his own o ffsprings from that o f others. So the Namboodiris introduced

strict monogamy for the women. But the men-folk continued polygamy and participation in the

remnants of the group marriage system prevalent in the other castes. Thus the tribal group who

turned Brahman while living in polygamy and participating in the remnants o f group marriage sys tem

and continuing the joint-family system as before, they became the priestly class like all other vedic

Brahmans. The contradictions that emerged from this duality have been found epitomized in certain

institutions that support the Namboodiri family system. The most important one is the ritual trial to

prove the chastity ofNamboodiriwomen - smarthavicharam. The existence of this unique institution

itself tells much about the functional importance of chastity of the Brahman woman then a moral

concept cherished by the society. In a society where polygamy and relics of group marriage system

were the o rder of the day, it was natural that chastity had become an element to be safeguarded with

such tedious and prolonged rituals.

While the eldest son in the Namboodirifamily was allowed to marry from his own caste the younger

ones were prohibited to do so. And according to the custom the younger ones had to receive asceticlife and they had to consider the eldest brother's son as their own in principle to perform their funerary

rituals. The ghosha system of the Namboodiriwomen towards their husband's brothers had been

considered as a very important custom failing which might even lead to a chastity proving trial. This

prohibition and understandings that prevailed inside the Namboodirijoint family inevitably leads to the

consideration of the emergence of the Namboodiri family system. It may be suggested that the

Namboodiris emerged from a group o f people who practiced fraternal polyandry which is one fo rm of

group marriage system in the tribal society.

Thus the family system ofNamboodiribeing only a modified one among other forms of joint-family

system, it does not o ffer resistance to the conclusion that the joint-family system prevalent in Kerala

till recently was nothing but a manifestation of different transitional forms.

The Matriarchal Joint-Family System

The matriarchal* joint-family system is another institution peculiar to Kerala which attracted wide

attention due to its continuity despite the social changes. Among the Nairs and among most of the

caste Hindus except Namboodiris this system was prevalent till recently. As mentioned above

according to a theory this system was a re-introduction by Namboodiris in the medieval period among

Nairs and o ther castes supplanting their o riginal patriarchal system. But whatever may be the

interpretation this theory of re-introduction or super-imposition cannot stand the widely accepted

scientific formulation regarding the evolution of family and society.

While the theory o f re-introduction of matriarchal joint-family system consciously tries to negate tribal

origin of the system. A historian of the high stature like K.P. Padmanabha Menon boldly traces the

origin of the family system back to the primitive forms o f life. His unequivocal statement like the

following is highly significant in this respect.

"In seeking, however, to ascertain the origin of the Marumakkathayam institutions, now extant in


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Malabar, it becomes necessary to go back to their early stages and examine the conditions of society

which gave rise to them. If, in doing so we find that the Nairs belonged originally to a stock that

practiced polyandry or even promiscuity in an early stage of its history, we need hardly be ashamed o f

it. For, there is nothing strange or peculiar in the phenomenon. It has been the common lot of all.

While others have thrown off their shackles forged by this relic of ancient barbarism, the Nairs who

had hitherto been prevented from doing so by a concatenation of circumstances over which they

have no control, are endeavouring their level best to free themselves from * The term matriarchalis

used here not in the sense that women in medieval Kerala acted as a public power, as in the case of

matriarchal tribes in other parts of the world, but that they exercised dominance in the joint-family

systems, which in turn exercised public power.

the chains of the self-same barbarism which still binds them. Bachofen, Mc.Lennan and Mo rgan have

shown that polyandry and kinship through females are phases or stages, in the evolution of human

societies."

But to pursue this different course and investigation we have also to set aside the theory o f migration

of the castes in Kerala which is methodologically connected with the theory of re-introduction,

because the matriarchal joint- family system of the Nairs cannot be analysed as an isolated

phenomenon. It is to be studied against the background of the other jo int-family systems in the same

society in the same epoch. If we take all the forms of joint family among all the caste Hindus,

altogether it becomes clear that they are nothing but definite articulations of a total system. While

comparing the different forms of jo int- family system with one another the determining structural

factor which unites this forms as a t otal system gets emerged. It is that o f the pre-Aryan tribal group

marriage system. Engels when he refers to the marriage system of the Nairs in his famous book

Origin of Family touches upon this basic nature of the matriarchal joint family in Kerala, though he

misses the details.

But the apparent differences of all these family systems, ranging from that of the Brahmans to the

Nairs, are basically due to the levels of social stratification in which they have been deployed by the

division of labour set by the new mode of production i.e., the plough agricultural economy. This means

the difference in the degree of adaptation o f the group marriage system acco rding to the difference of

the level might be behind the diversity of the jo int-family system o f the cas te Hindus. The Brahmans

being at the highest in the hierarchy their family system had to adapt the most and the Nairs being at

the lowest had to adapt their's the least.

Thus the tribal group marriage system continued with a difference in the institution of matriarchal joint

family and it could continue without change even in the class societies, because of its contradictory

nature; i.e., structurally being tribal and functionally being classy, historically being transitional and

institutionally being static.

The above mentioned mode of adaptation and preservation which is peculiar to the form of Kerala

culture is not co nfined only to the realm of caste and kinship. But this extends to the complex form of

worship, rituals, art forms, superstitions and popular customs. Form of w orship in Kerala is an archive

in which the combined forms of Aryan and primitive styles are preserved at the various levels of their

evolution.

Serpent worship and Kalicult in Kerala are two significant forms in this respect, since the genealogy of

which specifically reflect the evo lution o f cultural form in Kerala through the process of adaptation,

symbiosis and preservation.

A detailed study of these forms could throw light upon several special features of ancient Kerala

Society. For example Kerala Brahmans also took part, just as other castes, in serpent worship,

offerings to Kaliand other superstitions. However, in

order to differentiate themselves from other castes, the Kerala Brahmans have introduced separate

form in the modes of worship and the related rituals. Thus parallel forms in the same mode of

worship, one belonging to the Brahmans and the other to non-Brahmans, came into being. The basic

unity and artificial differentiations seen in the modes of worship throw light on the double faced

character of the Brahmans described above and the contradictions in the agricultural village society in

Kerala which gave shape to the brahmanical social form.

This description of the formation of the plough agricultural village system of Kerala and the ideological

structures that developed from the contradictions in that system, can be completed only by

considering certain spatio-temporal factors also.

The geographical region in which the Kerala model of plough agricultural village system took shape

does not comprise the entire stretch of the present Kerala state. This is restricted to the region from

Kollam in the south upto Putuppattanam in the north. The northern Malabar which has become

Kasargode district, and the parts o f the Kerala state to the south o f Kollam are not included in it.

Wayanad and Palakkad were also outside the cultural frontiers of the Kerala agricultural village.

The coastal reclamations and the network o f back waters from Kayamkulam to Kozhikode where

majority of the population in Kerala live at present, had not been formed then. Besides, large parts of

the area suggested above as comprising the Kerala cultural region consisted of dense monsoon

forests.

It should be surmised that the Kerala plough agricultural villages were formed on the river valleys in


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the region excluding Kolathunad, Wayanad, Palakkad and southern Tiruvitamkur. The group of plough

agricultural villages were formed in this well defined region much after the formation of similar villages

in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. The plough agricultural villages in Kerala were formed only as late as

seventh century A.D. If these spatio-temporal peculiarities, and the nature of material life that might

have prevailed there are taken into account, it should be surmised that they had a determinant

influence on the cultural formation of Kerala agricultural village. The passing reference by D.D. Kosambi

on matrilineal system, help us to enter into the cultural specificities of the Kerala agricultural village:

"Matriarchal institutions still survive in the parts of the country that took last to the plough economy,

e.g., Tiruvitamkur, Kochi and among so me tribesmen. The reason is that, originally there existed no

concept of property except for the few tools prepared by the individual, which supposedly contained

some extension of his personality. Land was territory, not property, game and food gathered was

shared out to all."

This reference by D.D. Kosambi which touches upon spatio-temporal features throws light into a

number of contradictions that resulted in the formation of Kerala

agricultural village system and its cultural specificities.

Emergence of a L inguistic-Cultural Identity

The consolidation of the plough agricultural village system in Kerala ended up in smashing the basic

structure of the old tribal mode of existence though retaining its live relics in social life. Thus a temple

centered class society based on the division of labour ofvarna and caste came into being.

It is quite natural in this division o f labour of the new mode o f production that the Namboodiris were

the most privileged section, being the core of the village system. They who kept themselves totally

away from the manual labour gradually could engage themselves completely in the realm of

intellectual revelry. But then their mother-tongue being only a tribal dialect, in the intellectual activities

they had to alienate and co nfine themselves w ithin the terrain o f Sanskrit language only. But this

situation made them qualified to imbibe the tradition of the Sanskrit literature and thought. Thus they

could raise themselves upto a level so that they were able to make contributions to and enrich the

Indian Brahmanic philosophy and other branches o f know ledge. Not only this much, but certain

debates in the history of Indian Brahman religion was supposed to have been connected with the

contributions o f some Kerala Brahmans. The relation o f Sankaracharya myth to Kerala is mo st telling

in this respect.

But the early agricultural villages which flourished along the three main rivers of Kerala, would not have

continued in this state forever. The growth of material production set by the introduction of the new

system had naturally paved the way to the increase in population. But the family system of the

Namboodiris was such as we have seen, that had been checking their proportionate increase in

number. Within a few centuries the population of non-Brahmans might have considerably increased.

Naturally this might have caused the spread of the Nairvillages, taras, by pushing back all the other

upper and lower castes and the formation of a cultural style of its o wn in which matriarchal joint family

with all its clannish vestiges and primitive fo rms o f worship and superstitions persisted, though at the

same time being incorporated with the Brahman religion.

William Logan who wrote the first history of Malabar after having completed his expansive wo rk,

added a preface in which he epitomised the result of his long and laborious enquiry. In this preface the

one and only thing he has to state about the Malayali society is thus:

"I would more especially call attention to the central point of interest, as I look at it, in any descriptive

and historical account of the Malayali race - the position, namely, which was occupied for centuries on

centuries by the Nair caste in the civil and military organization of the province, - a position so unique

and so lasting that but for

foreign intervention there seems no reason why it should not have continued to endure for centuries

on centuries to come."

After the early stages of the self-sufficient village so cieties this clannish Nairculture that emerged

within the Brahman religion became a total system which determined the self identity of a group of

people under the feudal system in Kerala. This cultural self identity of a major section of the Naircaste

though it was different from that of the modern mass societies, might be a regulating force in the

power relations of caste system, it being a political system than a mere form o f the division of labour.

It was a force that consolidated itself in the later stages of the feudal Kerala as a morale booster to

resist the alien interferences in culture and in politics.

It might be with this diffusion of the Nairvillages that the feudal system in Kerala had attained its

typical traits by passing from its early stage to a higher one. The initial impulse o f the village system

had been getting feeble by this time.

A reading of Logan's description o f the role of the Nairs in the feudal system and the change occurring

in the land tenure since the fall of the perumals, from a point of view which takes into account the

material reality behind the mythical history, would definitely bring to light certain facts regarding the

above mentioned change in the feudal society of Kerala. Logan's description is thus:

"The Nairs were as the Keralolpattiexpressely says, the people of "the eye", "the hand" and "the


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order" and it was their duty to prevent the rights from being curtailed or suffered to fall into disuse. So

that they had as a guild higher functions in the body politic than merely ploughing the rice fields and

controlling the irrigated lands... The Six Hundred were the heads of the Nair militia of the nad, the

karanavar (elders or managers) of the families of authority - taravads - in the taras (Nair villages)

constituting the Nad(country)...In fact the o ther function appertaining to the Six Hundred, namely

kanam (supervision) appears to have been the function of giving the land in trust to the proper

workers in the body politic and o f gathering from them in due course the shares o f produce due to the

persons in authority. The Nairs were no doubt spread over the whole phase of the country (as they

still are) protecting all rights suffering none to fall into disuse. But with the extinction o f the supreme

Kon or King in the 9th century A.D. the share of produce due to him did not pass to those (the

present Rajas) who supplied in some measures his place, but the great bulk of the people - the Nairs,

the Six Hundred - with whom in their corporate capacities all power rested."

The first point which can be read from this text is that there occurred a qualitative change from the

early stage of the agricultural village system to a higher one. The second point is that despite this

change the role of the kings had continued to be

confined to the ceremonial political dispensations without any power over the hereditary land holdings

as it might have been in the early Brahman theocratic agricultural village systems, the distant memory

of which lingers in theperumalmyth, though it was originated out of a later contradiction due to the

power conflicts between the kings and the priestly class.

These points are much revealing with regard to the economy and po lity o f the feudal system in Kerala

which marks it off from the rest of India in this respect.

As had been e lsewhere in India the land was not 'tilled in common' under the system o f village

community. The evolution of private property in Kerala took a different course. Though land was not

tilled in common it was not private property in the modern sense. The land was not related to its

traditional holders -janmis - so as to endow them with the status of the sole owners of the property.

Contrary to this the land functioned in Kerala under the feudal set up as a natural means which relates

to it certain socially determined status and rights of the different groups o f people in the soc iety.

Logan while correcting the British officials who confused the land ownership in Kerala with that of the

modern private ownership thus makes clear this fact which comes up in the context o f the traditional

land exchanges.

"What in fact the Malayalis were buying and selling in this instance was not the soil, but a position with

emoluments ( in Malayalam sthanam, manam) conferring authority of different kinds, and of varying

degrees over the classes residents within the limit to specially laid down in the deeds the European

looks to the soil, and nothing but the soil. The Malayali on the contrary looks chiefly to the people

located on the soil. And the surprising fact which has frequently been commented on that even the soil

itself might drop away from the owner of a janmam holding and yet leave him as completely as

before theJanmiof the w hole of it, becomes under the above interpretation a perfectly natural - nay,

a necessary - consequence."

It becomes evident from this description that the right of the janmihad been nothing but a status

which determined his right for a certain share of the produce from the land and he was not the sole

owner o f the land in the modern sense. Yet this traditional right for the share of the produce from land

was not confined only to the janmi. All the different groups in the village life including the manual

labourers and craftsmen had their own traditional right over the produce from the land.

Thus though the land was not tilled in common, the elements of village community system were at

work in the feudal land relation of Kerala. But what caused it to be different in short, was the

consolidation of the caste system as a political structure which fixed the status and rights to certain

castes. As again, Logan states:

"If however the fundamental idea of the Malayali land tenures referred to above is

borne in mind, namely, that the land was made over in trust to certain classes for cultivation, the

above will be seen to be a most natural outcome of the Hindu system."

This peculiar nature o f land relations in Kerala, because of its theocratic nature, determined, the

position and role of the naduvazhis. The king in Kerala was not a sovereign whose power was

unconditional and total o ver the land and people within the reach of his reign. He was only one among

the o ther traditional landholders having certain duties to dispense according to custom. He was

denominated as koil adhikarikal, or koyma, the supervisor of the temple which is self explaining o f his

duties and position. So the king in the feudal political structure of Kerala was not one who occupied

the highest position in the power hierarchy, not having tamed the priestly class so as to make use o f

the religious ideology as a state apparatus.

Though the naduvazhis gradually became powerful and power conflicts between the naduvazhis and

the Namboodiris were progressively at w ork, as Logan states, the Hindu religion being a determining

factor in the production relation and the co re of which being the priestly class, the Namboodiris in the

feudal system of Kerala had a different role. In short, in the Kerala feudal society the kings were not a

centre of power exercised from above; the priestly class were not mere ideologues of the ruling

section; and the peasant slaves were considered as if they were the natural extension of the land.

Thus the feudal society in Kerala, where the economic life and c ivil society, the private and public

existence of individuals had been identified into one structure and where the undemocratic


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stratification of the soc iety attained a general consensus as if it simply manifests a natural truth, had

been similar to the same elsewhere in the world in basic aspects. But empirically it had a different

existence.

Under this feudal system, in its new phase which sets in with the growth o f Nair taras and the

interference of the foreign traders since Arabs, the tendencies of Kerala becoming a different linguistic-

cultural region are getting manifested. The number of people who could subsist totally relieved o f

manual labour increased in this phase due to the growth in production. These quantitative changes

might have led to a change in quality consisting the emergence of Malayalam language and culture

which began to find itself throw ing the shackles o f alien linguistic and cultural domination. At this

background, a literary culture peculiar to Malayalam also emerges setting itself free from that of

Sanskrit and Tamil and by the sixteenth century which marks the colonial penetration, this process

attains completion.

The Regionalized Community of Culture

In the cultural history of Kerala the period from the sixteenth to the close of the eighteenth century

stands out fo r its complexity and change of momentum. This is

the span of time which is marked out by the coming of the Portuguese on the one end and the

takeover o f the po litical power by the English on the other. And this is the period in which the feudal

society in Kerala has been integrated as a regionalized community of culture.

Though the disintegrating elements of castes and sub-castes continued to be vital, it was in this period

that in the realm of art and literature cultural streams which transcended the social sections took

shape. And it was at this period that the political power o f the petty chieftains had been crushed and

the small principalities began to be integrated into large kingdoms. Thus this integration was not

merely a continuation of the feudal social structure. But the production relations o f the so ciety being

not yet capitalistic, it cannot be stated that the feudal society had been transformed into a capitalist

one in this period. As had been elsewhere in India this structural change o ccurs in Kerala only under

the British colonial rule. So this intervening epoch between feudalism and capitalism is to be considered

as a special one in which the political and cultural life took a new orientation. The modern historians

have tried to define this interim formation as the 'regionalized community of culture.'

Such integration of a people based on their language and culture is not restricted only to the process

of the development o f language and culture. The linguistic cultural integration of a people will be

realized only by their mutual relations becoming a necessity impelled by their day-to-day life. In short

the precondition o f such an integration is the fo rmation of a people as an economic community.

Though the disruption of the autonomy of the agricultural village system had been under way, by the

interference of the Portuguese in the economic and political life of Kerala it becomes almost complete.

The impact of the Portuguese on Kerala was a different one from that of the early foreign traders as

Jews, Christians and Muslims. While these early foreign traders and their religions were absorbed in

different ways into the erstwhile economic and cultural life of Kerala, the Portuguese stood apart being

the offshoo t of a new world market which was in the making. Thus their interference made a different

effect which could make the beginning of Kerala becoming a community of economic cohesion.

But the changes due to this in the economic and political life of Kerala did not lead to the formation o f

a new society by breaking away from the feudal relations and thus from its superstructures as it

happened in the European societies.

From this perspective, behind this tendency of political and cultural integration, a struggle for the

survival of feudalism facing the new economic challenges can be discerned. So the formation of the

cultural life in Kerala as a regionalized community of culture was definitely a resistance to the foreign

elements, but at the same time it was the re-organization of the feudal culture impelled by the new

challenges.

With the political interference of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English the power relations o f the

feudal system in Kerala began to change. And as the role and function of the kings began to change,

they became centres of power in contradistinction to their posture in the theoretically determined

feudal disposition. The nature of power acquired by the new type o f kings who came up from the old

relations, the centre o f which was the priestly class, was different. This new change in the power

relations demanded a transformation in the ideological sphere. That is, the new ruling sections in

whom the state power began to concentrate was in need of a co rresponding ideology as an

apparatus supporting the new power structure. Due to this power shift, the Hindu religion which was

identified with the production relation and political structure in the typical feudal system of Kerala, was

now severing its connection w ith the concrete life and becoming an ideological shell devoid of content

enough to contain anything abstract. Thus this Hindu religion which was being disconnected from the

concrete life, itself became capable of serving the spiritual needs of the changing political structure

centering the kings. In short, the Hindu religion was thus transferred into the ideology of the new rulingsection. Most o f the chieftains who got the upper hand in the political life became patrons o f poets and

artists who upheld this new ideology of Hinduism. Thus this ideology worked as a motive force behind

the linguistic - cultural integration and because of it the flowering of a new kind of art and literature

which was rooted itself in the folk cultural traditions.

Though this ideology helped the ruling section to maintain their power by breaking the use o f all out


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dated beliefs and customs and thus being the ideology of a new state power, it was set against the

old system of temple oriented Brahman centered feudal culture. That is, the ideologically transformed

Hindu religion attaining a new content, was itself set against its old po litical function. This was the

contradiction of the religious ideology which functioned as an integrating force in this epoch.

Ezhuthassan and Poonthanam were the great poets who distinguished themselves, their work being

the best examples of this new religious ideology with its contradictions. The linguistic style and the

poetic effect o f their work were radically against the o ld Brahman religion though consciously they did

partake in the old beliefs and customs.

The above mentioned economic, political and ideological changes and shifts thus prepared the

background for uniting the people of Kerala as one w ho shares the same culture of tradition and

language. It was at this time that the emancipation of Malayalam as a literary language got itself

proclaimed. The works of Ezhuthassan are also the record of this struggle and emancipation in the

realm of language as well as of culture.

Just like this, in the case of art forms the development and transformation that took place were

tremendous. During this time the art traditions so far separated

devoid of mutual contacts, were complexly integrated into new forms. The best example for this is

kathakali.

In kathakalinot only the elements of the temple ritual art but the elements of the tribal ritual forms,

extending from south Canara to the southern Kerala coast which belongs to a common tradition

though diverse in manifestation, and even the Christian and Muslim elements also were brilliantly

integrated. Till then almost all art fo rms in Kerala were confined to rituals of temples or fo rms o f tribal

worship. And because of this, those art forms were strictly adhered to by certain castes who

traditionally practise it. But kathakali is the first to become a national art form transcending this

caste-bound ritualism.

Thus the important cultural trend of this period essentially connected w ith the above mentioned

ideological shift is the growth and spread of the peripheral cultural forms into the mainstream which

stood stunted for centuries outside the temple centered life and culture. Though this trend is

commonly applicable to the work of Ezhuthassan and kathakali, it finds its highest expression in

Kunchan Nambiar. As an art form and literature the tullalof Kunchan Nambiar represents not only the

awakening of the peripheral folk traditions but its irresistible advance even in outdating the upper

tradition.

Another notable feature of this period is the consolidation of Christian and Muslim communities as

cultural groups w ith their own identities. This phenomenon is directly connected w ith the po litical and

ideological changes and the corresponding new orientation of the Hindu religion. The new cultural

demarcation which gave the Christian and the Muslim their own group identity also found expression in

their art forms. These art forms are also to be considered as another mode of awakening of the folk

culture, as these sections were set aside along with other non-caste Hindus from the mainstream of

feudal culture. The Mappila songs and chavittu natakam are best examples though the chavittu

natakam is a Christian counterpart of kathakali. But structurally it is modelled after the European

opera and ballet.

With these specific trends, the making of Kerala as a regionalised community of culture, functioned as

a cultural unconscious producing the dream of a united Kerala and later the struggle for the realization

of it.

The Renaissance

It was under the British colonial rule that a basic change took place in the life of Kerala. It was a period

of break from the continuity of the past. The colonial rule shattered the old stubborn structure of

economy. Though the production for local consumption had been gradually giving way to the

production for market, it was only during the British rule that Kerala has been integrated to the world

market.

This change deeply affected the feudal structure and subsequently the social and cultural life.

But the economy o f colonial exploitation was one that hindered the development of Kerala as a

modern so ciety which was lying shackled in the old feudal relations. The colonial economic policy

resisted the internal development of productive fo rces. Actually the co lonial rulers were making use o f

the external forms of the old structure as a less expensive tool for exploitation. They made the kings

the chieftains and the landlords their servile mediators. As for the former ruling section they were

given back the formal status and privileges and as for the janmis they were made owners of the land,

in the modern sense, and all of them in return accepted the supremacy of the British ultimately at the

loss o f the freedom of the people. Thus the colonial rulers retained feudal disposition as a form devoid

of content to make the exploitation more smooth. Hence this period of feudal-colonial exploitation in

which old customs and faiths were used as ideological state apparatus to exploit the people with their

own co nsent, is the most complex and grotesque one in the history o f Kerala.

The feudal colonial system which could only function by making use of old forms for new purposes

was naturally full of contradictions. On the one side the growing market economy was uniting the


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people of Kerala into a national economy despite their political and social fragmentation. On the o ther

side the feudal-colonial system and its administration were trying to perpetuate the political divisions

and social hierarchies. On the one s ide the process of alienating land as commodity was gaining

momentum and on the other side the clutches of feudal forms were being accelerated. Thus the

contradictions in this period, brought about by the irresistible formation of new relations and new

classes, and the resistance offered by the political system, were complex.

The Kerala scene from the close of the eighteenth to the close of the nineteenth century was that of

the co-existence o f change and changelessness. In those days Kerala was connected with the modern

world as part of t he growing world market but at the same time it was being shackled in the world of

the past. It was a society in which tribal, slave and feudal forms co-existed under co lonial domination.

The caste, sub-caste system, untouchability, joint-family, serpent worship, devil worship, witch craft,

evil-eye, all these relics from the co-existing phases of history turned Kerala a living museum under

the co lonial protection.

All the elements of feudalism which had been identified with the custom bound human existence in the

past now transformed completely into ideological tools of the new janmi-naduvazhi system,

re-organized by the colonial rule. The caste, sub-caste system became a new oppressive apparatus

which has been deprived of its deep relations due to the transformation in the concept of the land

ownership. Thus

the nineteenth century Kerala, though it had been connected with global system, culturally remained

bound up far back for centuries. For the resolution of these extreme contradictions, Kerala had to

make a giant leap from the remote past to the modern present. The history of renaissance in Kerala

which laid out the background for the setting of modern Kerala is the story of this long leap.

So the cultural renaissance in Kerala was a complex and multifarious process in a phased manner from

the close of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. The motive force behind

this process was the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles of the people co rresponding to the class

relations that took shape in different phases.

The feudal co lonial system in Kerala attained its conso lidation by crushing the early anti-imperialist

revolts. These early revolts have got a cultural significance also. These were the resistance offered by

the cultural past of Kerala against an alien power to protect its identity. But being the resistance of the

old world against an historically advanced force its failure was inevitable.

As the revolts like these held under the leadership o f Pazhassi Raja and Velu Tampi have been

suppressed, all the former ruling classes as a whole acquiesced themselves and accepted Britain as

the supreme ruler. But though this feudal-colonial alliance could abandon the common people like

those who rallied behind Velu Tampi and Pazhassi Raja into frustration, it was not able to prevent the

formation of new class relations thanks to their means o f exploitation. Thus though meagre, new

class relations were in the making. The contradictions o f the fo rmation of this new class relations were

the impetus that worked behind the launching of the leap of Kerala from the cultural remoteness to

the present.

The primary condition necessary for the existence of any modern society is the freedom of the people

to move, associate, and co-habitate themselves at their will. But in the case of Kerala even these

primary conditions fo r the existence of a civil society had to be attained only through fierce struggles.

The strict observance of untouchability prevailed in the caste system of Kerala forcefully maintained

the separation of the people lived within the limits of the caste without mutual contacts. Not o nly this

much, but even the possibility of mingling together within the same cas te was also hindered. Because

the caste system of Kerala itself was based on the mechanism of the caste within the caste. All the

castes in Kerala were divided into sub-castes devoid of inter-marriage and inter-dining.

Another necessary elements for the formation of a new civil society is the modern bourgeois family

system. The poss ibility of natural emergence of this new family system was also closed down in

Kerala due to its deep entanglement in the different forms of joint-family system. So at the outset,

the content of the renaissance in Kerala

was the spontaneous and conscious struggles for the creation of the primary conditions of a civil

society by breaking the barriers of caste and family systems.

The following were the first explosive events which set out transforming the people of Kerala from

their state of being as bodies, the movements of which were limited by the ritualistic dispositions of

caste and joint family, to human individuals endowed with the power of will and self consciousness.

The consecration o f the temple in Aruvippuram by Sri Narayana in 1888, the publication of the novel

Indulekha written by O.Chandu Menon in 1889, the presentation of the Marumakkathaya Marriage Bill

by Sir C. Sankaran Nair in 1890 and the Malayali Memorial in 1891. The temporal closeness and

sequences of these events occurring just before the onset of the twentieth century were not

accidental. They were nothing but the specific manifestations o f definite historical process. But to

flatteringly generalize this process at the loss o f the specificities o f the trends and events w ill bedistorting it.

To be precise the renaissance in Kerala was a historical process o f subversion of the structure of the

old world into which different specific streams, the one which manifested in the form of Sree Narayana

Movement was the most significant. Because this was a movement which acted as an external force

in toppling down the structural deployment of the caste system based upon the feudal relations.


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The basic structure of the caste system in Kerala was a Brahman centered and caste Hindu oriented.

This structure was a closed one which cannot help act upon itself to effect a subversion but moving

around itself. So an external force was needed to carry out this historical necessity. The downtrodden

castes beginning from the Ezhavas though they were included in the production process found their

existence outside the core structure of the caste system consisting the caste Hindus. Among these

peripheral castes Ezhavas were the first to engage themselves in the production for the market as

cultivators, craftsmen, while others confined themselves in the production for the local consumption

as before. Thus the Ezhavas happened to be the first section by becoming the part of the national

market who had to unite themselves spontaneously outside the feudal mode of production tied up by

the colonial system as a parallel mobilization. It was because of this that the Ezhava caste could

enable itself to function as an external agent to break-open the closed structure of the caste system.

Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (S.N.D.P.), the caste reform movement of the Ezhavas

under the leadership of Dr. Palpu was launched in 1903. At the outset it was confined to the upper

strata o f the caste which was eco nomically advanced and so cially backward. Drawing inspiration from

this model all lower and upper castes began to organize themselves to fight social inequalities, and

bad customs prevalent among the upper castes. Among them the Sadhujana Paripalana Yogam

led by Ayyankali deserves special mention not only for its low caste origin but fo r its militancy which

was unimaginable on the part of the agricultural slaves.

Though the caste reform movement of the Naircaste, Nair Service Society (N.S.S.) came into being

in 1914 the community began to participate much earlier in the renaissance of Kerala. This had been

set out from the resentment of the Nair youth hailing from the landlord class who could catch a

glimpse o f the modern world through English education. The Nairs being the protectors of the caste-

hierarchy and thus bound to the Brahman stipulation, it was natural that the first target of their attack

had to be the Brahman domination, in order to set themselves free and rise up to the level of the free

individuals. Chattampi Swamikal the spiritual leader of the Nair renaissance stressed the need of

regaining the Naircommunity from the shackles of the Brahman domination in his writings.

The Malayali Memorial of 1891 was the result of a movement sprang from the resentment of the

educated Nairyouth against the Tamil Brahman domination in the government civil service. Ezhavas

and Christians who were also kept at a distance from the civil service also joined hands with the Nairs

in the Malayali Memorial. Dr. Palpu and Father Immanuel Nidhiri were also there among the leaders of

Malayali Memorial movement.

The pamphlet named 'Tiruvithamkoor for Tiruvithamkoorian' written by Barrister G.P.Pillai deserves to

be considered as the manifesto o f the Malayali memorial movement, since it contained fierce criticism

against the Tamil Brahman domination and the then Dewan, who was also a Tamil Brahman. Though

this movement was apparently motivated by the interest of the Nair youth, po litically it was

nationalistic. Thus Malayali Memorial was the first political event which marked out the beginning of the

latter series of political struggles in Tiruvitamkur for freedom and democracy. But it was significant in

another way also. The government could make a rift in the movement by indulging a section's

communal feelings and thus could succeed in breaking away the rising sense of unity beyond caste

seclusions. But another section could resist this exploitation of caste feelings and manipulation. This

section which pursued the path of secularistic nationalism, led by Barrister G.P. Pillai, Swadeshabhimani

Ramakrishna Pillai and C. Krishna Pillai, the eminent nationalists, who bravely carried forward the

political spirit of secularism at the risk of facing bitter challenges from the part of the state.

The general effect of the caste reform movement w as the internal re-organization of t he castes which

were actually divided as sub-castes devoid of mutual contacts, into coherent mass communities. So

the basic task of these caste movements was the fight against the old customs and practices mainly

regarding marriage system and succession prevailing within each caste. The separate legislations as

NairRegulation,

NamboodiriAct, Kshatriya Act, Ezhava Regulation etc., were the results of these struggles.

The renaissance of Kerala naturally involved the process of the creation of a public sphere, through

which the people can identify themselves as members of a new civil society. Without a structural

change in the realm of language, literature and arts the creation of a public sphere could not have

been carried out. It is the historic importance of the novel Indulekha that it epitomises the different

dimension o f this structural break which resulted in the fo rmation of a civil society in Kerala. The

transformation occurred at the linguistic, artistic and social ideologies converge in this work as a

condition of its own existence and at the same time as an effect of its functioning.

Indulekha is not a phenomenal mirror reflection of the life of a matrilinealNairfamily of its time. But it

is realistic in a deeper sense. The novel artistically resolves the contradiction between the social

background which was yet to be liberated from the past and the field of western values without which

the portrayal of life in the novel was not possible. So this work could involve the reader in the deep

contradiction reflected in the different levels of ideology.

In the feudal literary culture, Malayalam was subservient to Sanskrit. But this state o f affairs

underwent a change through the work of Ezhuthassan which was widely disseminated by the local

vernacular schools run by village teachers known as asans. However Malayalam language was quite

different from the modern prose. The language of Malayalam was developed into modern prose, by

the activities of Christian Missionaries. This fact will become very clear if we make a close examination


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of the conscious activities of missionaries for the formulation and development of Malayalam prose

from the formulation of the Canons of Synod at Udayamperur. The formation of Malayalam prose

was completed by the spread of English language by the missionaries.

In the process of renaissance in Kerala, along with the propaganda of the Christian morality, the

growth and development of Malayalam prose by which the common people were brought near to

new know ledge forms had a very significant role. The modern Malayalam prose emerged from a

parallel culture, which gets its clean and clear appearance in Indulekha and which developed to

communicate with the people who were outside the folds of the caste Hindu society.

Christian values are not merely related to a religious belief. Today, civilized people all over the world in

one way or other share the concepts of Christian morality. Victorian Christian morality is a major

factor which shaped civilized civil society's concept of sexuality. The conflict between the opposite

worlds represented in Indulekha became intensified in this background of Christian morality.

Indulekha epitomises the conflict between the contradictory value systems o f modern capitalist

society and feudal society but also the conflict between the two contradictory concepts regarding

aesthetic values associated with them. Modern novel is a new art-form, which with its very existence

negates feudal aesthetic conceptions that art and literature are only accessible to upper castes who

are co nnoisseurs disciplined in aesthetic appreciation. Accordingly art-form like the novel is closely

related to modern democratic society. It is not a fortress that could be entered only by a titled

connoisseur. But any literate man regardless of caste discriminations can make his entrance into it.

Thus in this sense, Indulekha was a heavy blow to the upper caste literary conceptions.

Taking Indulekha as the model, the process by which democratic values came to operate within the

spheres of language and literature during the renaissance in Kerala has been described above. Another

cultural sphere which was different but related to the trend described above also arose as part of the

renaissance in Kerala.

The literary and cultural sphere was attempting to compromise with new situations in order to sustain

the feudal aesthetic concepts against new challenges. This sphere came into existence, centred

around the ruling families of Tiruvitamkur, Kochi and Malabar. This cultural tendency obtained its clear

manifestation through the literary activities under the leadership of Kerala Varma Valiakoil Tampuran

and Kodungallur Kunhikkuttan Tampuran.

Literary controversies like 'Rhyme Debate' exemplifies the clear evidence of contradictions which

existed among the poets and within the mind o f individual poets who were involved in it. All of them

had tried to protect Malayalam literature w ith Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature with Malayalam. But it

should not be forgotten that certain positive consequences related to the renaissance could be

generated by their activities because of the special nature of the historical context.

Most of the poets of venmani school composed their poems using mythologies as well as the

day-to-day experiences as their subject matter. Their literary compositions very well shook the old

literary concepts of those who considered poetry as an eternal model of deriving aesthetic pleasure

and subject matter as its attribute for craftsmanship. They transformed the poetry as the tool for the

narration o f the routine life experiences rather than mere craftsmanship. But because o f the limitation

of their experiences they were not able to use meaningfully the changed approach towards the poe tic

art itself. But their works made the poetic language more dynamic, communicative and descriptive.

Thus Malayalam language as means of poetic communication became respectable among the elite as

the elite literary tradition began to use the inherent strength of Malayalam language to overcome new

challenges. The translations of Sanskrit classics

including Vyasa Mahabharata indicate the growth and prominence of Malayalam language during this

period.

The dynamic forms of narration and expression which emerge in this atmosphere as a time related

entity in the poetic structure later developed into a strong tradition in the Malayalam poetic

composition. The creation of this poetic tradition which was the most prominent in modern Malayalam

poetry was the contribution of the great poet Vallathol Narayana Menon who applied this to the

history and life of the people.

In this defensive feudal literary atmosphere a new prose style was developed, in order to

communicate with the sub-literate sections who were excluded from the elite cultural sphere. This

developed as a parallel to the prose style formulated by activities of t he missionaries and which rose

to the literary plain with the publication ofIndulekha. This prose fo rm developed even as the tendency

to use poetry fo r all the functions envisaged by the use of prose like writing letters, diaries and giving

speeches continued to persist. This prose style was complex and filled with Sanskrit wo rds. Kerala

Varma Valiya Koil Tampuran's prose writings are the best examples for this. Nonetheless this style

deeply influenced the academic community which developed with Tiruvananthapuram as its centre fo r

a long period.

Even though C.V. Raman Pillai's Sanskrit inspired Malayalam prose belonged to this tradition, as a

novelist in the context o f the renaissance he had a distinct ro le. The three novels of C.V. Raman Pillai

named Marthanda Varma, Dharma Raja and Ramaraja Bahadurcame into being in the background of

the newly emerging national consciousness in Tiruvitamkur. A new class imbued with self awareness

developed from a stagnant society which had no past, present or future, it was necessary for the


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emerging class to create a past that would give

Documents

Essays on Cultural Formation of Kerala