TY  - BOOK
AU  - Osella, Filippo.
AU  - ; Osella, Caroline.
AU  - Filippo Osella.
TI  - Social mobility in Kerala : : modernity and identity in conflict
SN  - 0745316948
U1  - 305.513 OSE 
PY  - 2000///
CY  - , London
PB  - : Pluto Press
KW  - Social mobility
KW  - Social Classes
KW  - India Kerala
KW  - Anthropology
N1  - AcknowledgementsPreface1. Introduction2. Working for Progress3. Marriage and Mobility4. Consumption: Promises of Escape5. Religion as a Tool for Mobility6. Mobility and Power7. Micropolitics, or the Political in the Personal8. ConclusionsGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex
N2  - 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
ER  -