Kerala - Kochi   

Call for family reforms

KOCHI: K.N. Panikkar, historian, has called for a family reform in the ‘patriarchal’ Kerala society which is ‘modern in body’ but ‘conservative in mind.’

He said the reform should aim at changing the way power in the family is exercised so that there is equality between man and woman. “Domestic reform is the most important reform Kerala society now needs,” Dr. Panikkar said in his talk at the women lawyers’ convention organised by the All-India Lawyers Union here on Sunday. He pointed out that the renaissance and freedom movements had not altered the patriarchal power structure in Kerala homes. Women had unconsciously accepted and internalised patriarchy. Though Kerala was ‘modern’ in terms of the gadgets used and facilities available, the Keralite’s mind was still conservative.

Dr. Panikkar noted that there had been constant calls to go back to the values of Kerala’s renaissance period. But what was needed was to go beyond the renaissance as the needs of society had changed—equality of genders was the issue now. Renaissance had not challenged patriarchal ideology and that was one reason for the survival of the male-centred values.

He observed that over the past 25 years, Kerala society had undergone a cultural backwardness. The Hinduisation forces were using women as ‘symbols of tradition’ and new rituals and social customs were being introduced into the social sphere to define culture in particular ways. For instance, Raksha Bandhan, a custom very specific to the north Indian way of life and which has got nothing to do with Kerala, was now being imposed on Kerala by the Hinduisation forces. “This is not as innocent as it is projected to be,” he said. This should be fought consciously by creating a counterculture.

Dr. Panikkar wanted women to be brought into the public sphere and exposed to changes. He noted that work participation rate of women was low in Kerala, as low as 4 per cent in Malappuram district. He called upon women lawyers to be a force of change among women and also urged them to spend at least one hour a week to offering free legal aid to women who are in need of it.

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