Ask a Teacher

Search



What are the social practices that O.chandu Menon criticised in Indulekha? Essay
Chandu Menon's work reveals the complicated trajectory of matrilineal families in the latter half of the nineteenth century in Malabar. Moreover, his novels depict certain aspects of this history by exploring matrilineal families and the tensions within them. In the latter half of the nineteenth century there were two factors making family disputes more acrimonious. One was that the British legal system had defined the matrilineal family as joint, had attempted to curb the division and sale of property, and forced people to live together. The second was that the changes in the educational system and the growing number of non-agricultural job opportunities meant that many of the younger Nayar men, at least from well-to-do families, were tempted to seek their fortunes elsewhere. However, this became difficult with family heads often refusing to permit the younger ones to study or at least not financing such an education or refusing to maintain those who sought jobs in distant places. In fact the karnavan, or the eldest male of the family acquiring the indisputable and exalted status of head, was part of the legal fiction of this period, which subsequently led to this period being referred to caustically as karnavanmarude kalam or the age of the karnavan. The novel was written at a time when there was an emerging class of upper caste men,  mostly Nairs who received a Western style education, and were achieving prominent positions in British India. The period was a clash of cultures, as the educated Indians were torn between Western ideals and traditional practices. The Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala, had traditionally had marital relations with Nair women, known as Sambandham, since only the oldest Nambudiri youth was allowed to marry a Brahmin girl. The younger sons were encouraged to have Sambandham with Nair women, in order to maintain male generation, since the children born from such relations belonged to their mother's family. The matriarchy practiced by the Nairs was also coming under attack during this period. Many of the Nambudiri men, though learned in Vedas and Sanskrit, had little knowledge of English and Western sciences. The novel highlights the lack of willingness of the Nambudiris to adapt to the change of times, as well as the struggle by Nair women to break out of the age-old principle of Sambandham, which had little relevance during the late 19th century.


comments powered by Disqus