POSITION OF WOMEN AMONG THE MALA ARAYA COMMUNITY IN KERALA

Abstract [English]

Community studies in India are essentially a product of colonial ethnography. The ethnographers, colonial administrators cum scholars produced a good number of writings on Indigenous communities; perhaps their writings formed one of the discursive in constituting the people living on the margin as tribal. These writings are ethnographic notes, monographs, administrative reports, census reports, missionary reports, reports of committees and commissions, etc. Their works are produced in different contexts and are primarily meant to produce knowledge about them to enable colonial governance to be effective, as it plays a great role in understanding the studies other than words at face value. A woman is more considered and protected in a tribal society than a modern one. However, the concept that ancient women enjoyed equal status to men was wrong. Every tribal law was developed from the male perspective. The ultimate word is of the man; in many ways, the traditional laws destroy the freedom of the woman's community. The present paper entitled Identity and Position of Mala Araya Tribal Women in Kerala details how the identity of Mala Araya women is analyzed from a new social perspective or circumstances.