The Hindu : `Superior status of Kerala women is a myth'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 31, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thrissur

`Superior status of Kerala women is a myth'

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR, JAN. 30. K.G. Sankara Pillai, poet, has said the oft-repeated concept that women in Kerala used to enjoy superior status in the past is only a myth and has no scientific basis.

Delivering the Dr. E.C. Antony Memorial Lecture on `Feminism and poetry' at the Government College, Kuttanellur, near here, on Thursday, Prof. Sankara Pillai said even though a matriarchal form of property inheritance had been prevailing here in the past, the male members here were able to misinterpret the conveniences of that system and transform this society virtually into a male dominated one. He said this was a society which even denied the right of education to women, and it was through a series of hard struggles like the `Marumarakkal Samaram' (agitation for the right of women to cover their breast) and many other social reform movements that the women in Kerala were able to wrest some rights.

However, Kerala had the largest number of women who had actively taken part in the Freedom struggle, social reform movement and in the early phase of the growth of the Communist movement. In that sense Kerala had the most politicised women in the country, and it was through their silent efforts that this had become the most politicised State. But the Kerala society was even unwilling to acknowledge the contributions of women in those struggles.

When we list out the builders of the modern Kerala, it will be full of male names like Sree Narayana Guru, R. Sankar, Pattam Thanuppillai, and Kumaranasan, and none of the names of women figure in it. But the women leaders had made yeomen contributions even in the aggressive struggles like the Kayyoor agitation and the Punnapra Vayalar struggle as well as in Gandhian movements in Kerala.

It is not well-known that even the late Arya Antharjanam, who in recent history of Kerala was being seen as the silent wife of the veteran Communist leader, the late EMS Namboodirippad, used to take classes for the women at Kayyoor during the historic agitation there.

Those women leaders were able to make other women aware about the social dimensions of the oppressions which they experienced at subjective level, by unravelling the different exploitative structures and situations like caste, feudalism, colonial subjugation, male domination, and the injustice of inequality that was prevailing in the society then. Even in the contemporary period, women outnumber men in the teaching profession in Kerala, indicating their higher share in the knowledge-generating activity in society. But all these contributions are being neglected in the male-dominated discussions, Prof. Sankara Pillai said. Emphasising that feminism is not against men per se, he said the essence of feminism is humanism, and its basic aim is to liberate the entire society by ending the evil of inequality and injustice. It strives to make the man realise his true self.

The refusal to recognise the contributions is not a deprivation faced by women alone, but other workers also.

For example, when the conventional history says that such and such king built that palace, it is the contribution of the people who actually toiled for it that gets concealed. That is why feminism and all other forms of humanistic interventions set "liberation of self and invention of subjectivity'' as their objectives, he said.

Pointing out that the women's mind is blessed with remarkable levels of grace, sensibility and creativity, Prof. Sankara Pillai said in that sense women's mind is close to nature.

The college Principal, K.K. Mohanan, presided over the function.

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