1st Edition
Development, Democracy and the State Critiquing the Kerala Model of Development
The Indian state of Kerala is known for its high social model of development and social democratic governance. This book presents the most comprehensive analysis of the Kerala Model of Social Development to date. The model has often been identified as one worth emulating because it is seen to have taken the state to the zenith of human development and democratic governance. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the book sheds new light on the paradoxes of the Indian state and its model of economic development. The book provides a consolidated exploration and critique of the Kerala model, which usually has been portrayed as linear with the grand narrative of progress, development and democracy. Chapters discuss the past and present dimensions of the Kerala experience from a historical and political-economic perspective, thus providing a fresh understanding of the emerging concerns in the state and the construction of an ethically viable development agenda, eschewing the scourge of social inequity. A significant contribution to the literature on development, democracy and the state, it analyses the complex interconnectedness of the various political-economic and socio-cultural domains involved in these experiences.
1 The Kerala Model: situating the critique K. RAVI RAMAN
PART 1
Historical perspectives: caste, religion and development
2 Caste, public action and the Kerala Model K.T. RAMMOHAN
3 ‘Community’ as de-imagining nation: relocating the Ezhava movement in Kerala J. REGHU
4 Negotiating the Hindu state and nationalism:travails in the making of a community M.M. KHAN
PART 2
Contemporary political economy
5 Freedom, economic reform and the Kerala ‘Model’ M.A. OOMMEN
6 On the periphery: Muslims and the Kerala Model M. KABIR
7 Learning to learn: Dalit education in Kerala ROSHNI PADMANABHAN
8 Thinking through CT scanners: the value(s) of imaging technologies in Kerala CAROLINE WILSON
9 Asian Development Bank, conditionalities and the social democratic governance: Kerala Model under pressure? K. RAVI RAMAN
10 The conjuncture of ‘late socialism’ in Kerala: a critique of the narrative of social democracy NISSIM MANNATHUKKAREN
PART 3
Gender, space and identities
11 Empowerment or politicization? The limits of gender inclusiveness of Kerala’s political decentralization J. DEVIKA AND BINITHA V. THAMPI
12 The institutionalization of dowry in Kerala: feminine identity, conjugal patronage and development PRAVEENA KODOTH
13 ‘Caring’ cosmopolitans and global migration:plus ça change? SHOBA ARUN
PART 4
New social movements: political and cultural perspectives
14 Adivasi workers’ struggles and the Kerala Model:interpreting the past, confronting the present LUISA STEUR
15 Social space, civil society and transformative politics of new social movements in Kerala T.T. SREEKUMAR and GOVINDAN PARAYIL
Biography
K. Ravi Raman was a Hallsworth Research Fellow (2005–8) in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester and is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Development Studies, SOAS, London. He is the author of Global Capital and Peripheral Labour (2010) and co-editor of Corporate Social Responsibility, forthcoming.
