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Author Osella, Filippo

Title Social mobility in Kerala : modernity and identity in conflict / Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella
Published London ; Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, ©2000

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 320 pages) : maps
Series Anthropology, culture, and society
Anthropology, culture, and society.
Summary Annotation The Izhavas are an ex-untouchable community in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Politically and economically weak, stigmatised as 'toddy tappers' and 'devil dancers', and considered unapproachable by clean caste Hindus, a century ago Izhavas were associated with other manual-labouring untouchable castes. In recent decades they have sought to improve their position by accumulating economic, symbolic and cultural capital through employment, religion, politics, migration, marriage, education and have tried to assert their right to mobility, often in the face of opposition from their high status Christian and Nayar neighbours. 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-306) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Ezhavas.
Social mobility -- India -- Kerala
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Social Classes.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- General.
Ezhavas
Social mobility
Sociale mobiliteit.
Etnische minderheden.
India -- Kerala
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Form Electronic book
Author Osella, Caroline
ISBN 9781849641029
1849641021
0745316948
9780745316949
0585426082
9780585426082
074531693X
9780745316932