'A people united in development' : developmentalism in modern Malayalee identity

The desire for ‘Development’ — often defined vaguely, working as a catch-all term for economic growth, social welfare, and socialistic redistribution of resources— has been intimately linked to the construction of the idea of a ‘Malayalee People’ as a distinct socio-cultural entity in the post-independence period. In this paper, the effort is to trace out some of these links in greater clarity. Put very briefly, the attempt is to draw upon public sphere debates in Malayalee society in the immediate post-independence decades, more specifically on speech and writing accruing around the distinctiveness of Malayalee culture and Aikya Keralam (United Kerala). Through this I hope to demonstrate the centrality of Developmentalism in both the conception of a unified ‘Malayalee People’ and their relation with other similar entities as the other States, and the Indian state. In the conclusion I try to reflect on themes that could possibly take forward the research on Malayalee identity in the late twentieth century and after. Keywords: Developmentalism, (sub)nationality, United Kerala, Malayalee identit

Family planning as 'liberation' : the ambiguities of 'emancipation from biology' in Keralam

In the early debates on the desirability of artificial birth control in Malayalee society, artificial birth control was often opposed on the grounds that it undercut some of the crucial conditions for the ushering in of full-fledged modernity, which was frequently conceived of in entirely Developmentalist terms. The concern expressed was mainly that it was incompatible with the project of modern self-building, tied as it was to the attainment of a high degree of sexual self- control. However, by the 1960s, such fears had vanished or become marginal, and now the reverse appeared true, i.e., Family Planning appeared to be part and parcel of disciplined, abstemious and prudent domesticity. The paper tries to explore some aspects of this transformation of associations. Some of the conditions that made this transformation possible had been already taking shape before the full-scale arrival of the Family Planning Programme into Keralam. These included changes in key notions like the nature and social function of sexual desire and activity, modern conjugal marriage and the forces sustaining it, and so on. The Family Planning propaganda of mid 20th century was bolstered, directly or indirectly, by these ongoing elaborations. Also important was the Family Planning propaganda’s active furthering of the emergent forms of power in modern Malayalee society that were already defining and guiding its modernisation, such as the newer form of patriarchy in which (modern educated) men design and oversee the process of ‘Women’s Liberation’, the new elitism of modern knowledge that marginalises all other ways of knowing and sharply differentiates ‘mental’ work and ‘physical’ labour, the passivising power of reformism which authorises non- reciprocal relations between the reformers and the objects of reform. The overall effort of the paper is to highlight the ambiguities of ‘liberation’ in 20th century Keralam and to problematise the tradition/modernity binary that too often organises the writing of the history of 20th century Malayalee society. Key words: natural birth-control, artificial birth control, modern, liberation, modern conjugality, domesticity, sexual self disciplin

Modernity with democracy? : gender and governance in the People's Planning Campaign, Keralam

This paper takes advantage of the possibility of a critical perspective afforded by the feminist perspective in analyzing the interactions between political and civil societies in the shaping of specific developmental interventions by the state, to examine the People’s Planning Campaign (PPC) in Keralam. Implemented in the mid-90s, this was hailed as an important experiment in mainstreaming gender concerns in development. The objectives of this paper go beyond reporting on the degree of success/ failure of the effort at mainstreaming gender concerns in the PPC, though it draws upon many such reports. It will raise a few questions essentially historical in nature: given the fact that political society in Keralam has never displayed any acute concern for gender justice, and that this was a marginal issue even within civil society here, under what conditions did it come to be acknowledged as a key element in a political experiment as momentous as the PPC? Gender justice has been addressed in people’s planning (at least in some locations, to some extent) in some specific ways, excluding other ways– what determines this selection process? In the first section of this paper I trace the emergence of civil and political societies in 20th century Keralam, with special attention to the ways in which they have been gendered, and simultaneously worked as gendering spaces. This account may help us to understand how gender justice came to be both ‘in’ and ‘out’, at one and the same time, in the momentous political experiment of the PPC. In the second section, several points of agreement between numerous reports on gender and governance in the PPC are taken up and discussed in the wider historical context. These reports generally point out, for instance, that that the active involvement of social movements like the KSSP in democratic decentralization has not effected a significant change in the general attitude of misogyny prevalent in political society. The conclusion considers the implications of some of two significant developments — the entry of women into local governance, and the wide reach attained by the women SHGs — for the future of gender politics in Kerala. Keywords: Gender Justice, Framework of Democracy, Framework of Modernity, Civil Society, Political Societ

Domesticating Malayalees : family planning, the nation and home-centered anxieties in mid-20th century Keralam

The paper tries to unsettle the naturalized association often assumed in the existent literature between the modern family and the small family in 20th century Malayalee society. Instead, it attempts to trace out the shaping of certain life-options in discourse from the mid- 19th century onwards that would increasingly mobilize the desire of modern Malayalees and play an important role in directing them towards the small family norm. The entire notion of parental responsibility was redefined in a crucial way in and through these processes; secondly, the ability of the state to intervene in the family was also strengthened and legitimized. These were, of course central to the willing acceptance of the Family Planning Programme in mid-20th century Malayalee society. It is also important to inquire about the specific paths through which these life-options began to appear both reasonable and desirable to different social groups in this society, but since this points at far more intensive and prolonged research, the paper attempts only to open up some ground tentatively. Further, it considers the question why Malayalee sub-nationalist sentiment, which peaked in the 1950s, actually sanctioned a reduction in the numbers of Malayalees, and why calls for assertion of the Malayalee identity were fully compatible with the desperate call to reduce their numbers. In conclusion, the paper gestures at what is called the process of ‘Domestication’: a process by which the major share of the energies, interests, desires etc. of individuals have been directed into their families, in which the Family Planning Programme is taken to be a major event. The political implications of this process are briefly discussed. Keywords : Small family, modern family, responsible parenting, state, salaried employment, householder, Developmentalism, Malayalee sub-nationalism

Imagining women's social space in early modern Keralam

The paper argues that the formation of modern gender identities in late 19th and early 20th Century Keralam was deeply implicated in the project of shaping governable subjects who were, at the one and same time, ‘free’ and already inserted into modern institutions. Because gender appeared both ‘natural’ and ‘social’, both ‘individualised’ and ‘general’, it appeared to be a superior form of social order compared to the established jati-based ordering. The actualisation of a superior society ordered by gender was seen to be dependent upon the shaping of full-fledged Individuals with strong internalities and well-developed gendered capacities that would place them within the distinct social domains of the public and domestic as ‘free’ individuals, who, however would be bound in a complementary relationship. By the 1930s, however, this public / domestic divide came to the blurred with the rapid spread of disciplinary institutions. Womanhood came to be associated not with a domain but with a certain form of power. And with this, Malayalee women gained access to public life and with it, a highly ambiguous ‘liberation’. Key Words: public sphere, gendering, individual, domestic, modernity, womanhood, non-coercive power

A study on eclampsia and its maternal and perinatal outcome

Background: Eclampsia is one of the major causes of maternal and perinatal mortality in India. Here authors present a prospective study which was conducted in a tertiary health centre to study the cases of eclampsia, the mode of presentation and the maternal and perinatal outcomes.Methods: A total 95 women were diagnosed as eclampsia during the period of 2 years. Various parameters and their effects on maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality were studied. Maternal outcomes were assessed based on parameters like antenatal care received, mode of delivery, complications associated with eclampsia. Perinatal outcomes were noted depending upon the period of gestation, NICU admission, stillbirths and neonatal deaths.Results: Authors found the incidence of eclampsia to be 0.9%. 52.7% women had irregular antenatal follow up at any nearby health centre. A total 76.8% women had antepartum eclampsia. 56.8% delivered by caesarean section while 7.4% required operative vaginal delivery. 61.1% women delivered within 10 hours of onset of convulsion. Authors had 02 deaths in the study group, one due to ARDS with DIC and the other attributed to pulmonary oedema. There were 51.6% preterm deliveries. 21 neonates required NICU admission with 5 neonatal deaths and 11 stillbirths.Conclusions: Due to inadequate antenatal care, most of the cases of pre-eclampsia go unnoticed increasing the referrals to tertiary care centre for intensive care. Thus, it is necessary to emphasise on timely interventions and availability of blood bank, ICU and NICU facilities at the closest referral centre for better maternal and perinatal outcome

Making space for women in urban governance? Leadership and claims-making in a Kerala slum

This paper looks at the role of gender in the shaping and exercise of political authority. Its empirical focus is a slum in central Trivandrum, Kerala's capital city, which is undergoing a phased process of formalisation and rebuilding funded through a flagship Indian national programme, the JNNURM. The upgrade project should offer a dense network of ‘invited’ spaces for female participation within urban governance, both through women's presence within democratically elected municipal councils, and the deliberate linking of its implementation to Kudumbashree, Kerala's network of women-only neighbourhood groups that are responsible for implementing various antipoverty interventions throughout the state. Drawing on oral histories of the slum's evolution, interviews with project participants, and detailed ethnographic observation, we highlight the contests over identifying the list of JNNURM beneficiaries who would ultimately be granted a government-built flat at the project's completion. This key task in the project's implementation has been devolved to the local level, and therefore offers important insights into the practical efficacy of these invited spaces. The contests over this list show how ‘actually existing’ urban governance unfolds, and in particular highlight the interplay of formal and informal practices at work in ‘fixing’ a list that had local legitimacy. They also illustrate the ways in which power and authority are contested, and the role gender plays within performances of leadership. Women's political agency and efficacy are hampered both by Kerala's restrictive gender norms and by the high stakes and highly masculinist struggles present within its urban politics. The paper's theoretical contribution is to broaden our conceptualisation of leadership and claims making in the Global South, and within this to pay proper attention to the gendered nature of political space

A rare association of puerperal ovarian venous thrombosis with pseudomembranous colitis

Ovarian venous thrombosis is a rare but serious complication associated with early puerperium. The risk of this complication increases with associated puerperal infection or inflammatory condition. The present case report is of a 36-year-old lady who presented after emergency caesarean with puerperal fever and abdominal pain along with diarrhoea post antibiotic cover. Patient presented with moderate ascites and uterine subinvolution on examination. Contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT) showed evidence of bowel wall edema due of colitis along with ovarian vein thrombosis. Patients had persistent symptoms despite receiving an empirical course of injectable cephalosporins. Stool culture confirmed growth of Clostridium difficile. Patient developed a rare infection after a course of antibiotic i.e. pseudomembranous colitis caused by Clostridium difficile. Patient then received a course of injectable vancomycin after which colitis subsided. This case increases our vigilance on management of puerperal fever which could get complicated with life-threatening events like deep vein thrombosis

Zika Virus Can Strongly Infect and Disrupt Secondary Organizers in the Ventricular Zone of the Embryonic Chicken Brain

Zika virus (ZIKV) is associated with severe neurodeve- lopmental impairments in human fetuses, including microencephaly. Previous reports examining neural progenitor tropism of ZIKV in organoid and animal models did not address whether the virus infects all neural progenitors uniformly. To explore this, ZIKV was injected into the neural tube of 2-day-old chicken embryos, resulting in nonuniform periventricular infec- tion 3 days later. Recurrent foci of intense infection were present at specific signaling centers that influ- ence neuroepithelial patterning at a distance through secretion of morphogens. ZIKV infection reduced transcript levels for 3 morphogens, SHH, BMP7, and FGF8 expressed at the midbrain basal plate, hypotha- lamic floor plate, and isthmus, respectively. Levels of Patched1, a SHH-pathway downstream gene, were also reduced, and a SHH-dependent cell popula- tion in the ventral midbrain was shifted in position. Thus, the diminishment of signaling centers through ZIKV-mediated apoptosis may yield broader, non- cell-autonomous changes in brain patterning