Linda Luiz

This Malayalam article is situated at the intersection of women's studies courses and the treatment of their pedagogy, as seen through the lens of the question paper.

Kerala is renowned for its high performance in terms of development and gender indices. Yet, an examination of courses on gender in Kerala reveals many contradictions. The paper begins with an exploration of misconceptions in Kerala related to women's empowerment and feminism. It then examines the foundational aims of courses on gender and how they may clash with existing patriarchal structures especially during syllabus formation and classroom transactions. The paper adopts a reflexive, inter-subjective manner. The focus moves to the role of question papers in the present exam-centric system of higher education. Questions papers from ten postgraduate-level courses on/related to gender from universities and autonomous colleges in Kerala are analysed in light of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

The paper calls for mainstreaming courses on gender and provides some practical suggestions regarding question papers and pedagogic practices that can raise the standards of the discipline and revitalize gender studies courses in Kerala.

This Malayalam article which appeared in Ezhuthu masika takes a historical-anthropological view of dowry and domestic violence in Kerala from the take-off point of increased incidents of domestic violence and dowry deaths during the covid pandemic. The article also examines the 'gender paradox' in Kerala and how education has not broken traditional patriarchal structures. Specific suggestions to remedy the situation are given at the end.

Kerala is renowned for its high performance in terms of development and gender indices. Yet, an examination of courses on gender in Kerala reveals many contradictions. The paper will begin with an exploration of misconceptions in Kerala related to women's empowerment and feminism. The paper will examine the foundational aims of courses on gender and how they may clash with existing patriarchal structures especially during syllabus formation and classroom transactions. The paper will do so in a reflexive, inter-subjective manner. Next, the paper will focus on the role of question papers in the present exam-centric system of higher education. The paper will critically analyze questions papers from ten postgraduate-level courses on/related to gender from different institutions in Kerala in light of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. The paper will call for mainstreaming courses on gender and will provide some practical suggestions regarding question papers and pedagogic practices that can raise the standards of the discipline and revitalize gender studies courses in Kerala.

This Malayalam article analyses the ruling of the Indian Supreme Court permitting passive euthanasia - the withdrawal of artificial life support systems when there is no hope of life in its absence. The implications of this ruling are analyzed examining various possible scenarios and a note of caution is sounded regarding the possible misuse of the provisions of this judgement. The article concludes by stressing the right to a healthy life, and also the importance of palliative care.

This Malayalam article attempts to make visible the phenomenon of housework, which has remained invisible in much of social life, social science discourse and policymaking. The secondary status accorded to housework and its implications for individuals, society and women as a group are analysed here. The significance of this at a national-international level, the necessity of including housework in national income accounting and the relevance of further studies in this area are touched upon.

The purpose of reserving seats in public transport is, as the liberal idea goes, to encourage more women to access the public sphere by earmarking spaces for them where they would otherwise be marginalized. But what if these very reservations are turned on their head? What if the seats which are set aside for women become the only seats to which women are confined? In this paper I examine how the policy of reservation, which is meant to integrate the marginalized into the body politic, can act as a deterrent in certain contexts.

On the basis of personal experiences and other anecdotal material related to different forms of public transport such as buses, local and metro trains in Delhi, Mumbai and Kerala, I reflect upon whether reservation of seats is having the desired effect. The concept of ‘Othering’ is used to provide a theoretical framework.

I observe that the formal doctrine of reservation when implemented leads to different manifestations in practice depending upon the socio-cultural context. In conclusion I attempt to find parallels in other forms of reservation and generalize from the case of public transport to that of politics.

In this paper I attempt to delineate some of the socio-historical reasons for the under-development of Sociology in Kerala, taking up the specific context of the state and linking it to the general status of the discipline in India from pre-independence times. From this I turn to the absence of professional sociologists in the spheres of planning and public engagement. A discussion of the way Sociology is practiced today, its institutional contexts, and its relevance follows. I argue that the discipline is in danger of disappearing unless course corrections are made. This could be in the form of increased student and faculty exchange and exposure. The active promotion of bilingual education could also be a step in the right direction, given the range of social scientific debates happening in Malayalam outside the realm of professional sociology. Students of Sociology should be encouraged to reflect and write about society. In this manner, we could create a space for the discipline in the public sphere of Kerala and bring about the practice of a ‘public sociology’. An ‘autonomous sociological tradition’ however, may take longer in forming. I conclude with an examination of the self-perception of sociologists in Kerala from a micro-sociological perspective.