Social Mobility in Kerala
Modernity and Identity in Conflict
This study examines how Izhavas, through repudiation of their nineteenth-century identity and search for mobility, have come into complex relationships with modernity, colonialism and globalisation. Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella highlight the complexities and contradictions of modern identity, both locally and globally. The authors' approach builds upon and goes beyond a south Asian focus, showing how the Izhavas represent the rise of formerly stigmatised groups who remain at the same time trapped by stereotype and material disadvantage. Absolute mobility, they argue, has not led to relative mobility within a society which remains stratified and prone to new forms of social exclusion.
Filippo Osella is the Professor Of Anthropology And South Asian Studies at the University of Sussex. He is the author of Social Mobility in Kerala (Pluto Press, 2000) and the editor of Religion and the morality of the market (CUP, 2017).
Caroline Osella is a Reader in Anthropology with a specialism in South Asia. She teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of Social Mobility in Kerala (Pluto Press, 2000).
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Working for Progress
3. Marriage and Mobility
4. Consumption: Promises of Escape
5. Religion as a Tool for Mobility
6. Mobility and Power
7. Micropolitics, or the Political in the Personal
8. Conclusions
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
135mm x 215mm