Religion, social space and identity: the prathyaksha raksha daiva sabha and the making of cultural boundaries in twentieth century kerala1

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse one of the social movements of twentieth century Kerala that tried to engage with the problems of material and spiritual progress in the context of modernity by investigating the rise of the Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (hereafter PRDS). The movement originated within the framework of missionary Christianity, but moved beyond the limits of the missionary project and eventually offered a critique of it. The introductory part of the paper discusses the social and economic transformation of the erstwhile Travancore State during the colonial period, focusing on the transformation of the local caste structure. The problem of colonial modernity is then dealt with, as the issues analysed in the paper bear testimony to the transformation that modernity brought about. This is followed by discussions on the problems of caste, Christianity and the transformation of Dalit (formerly untouchable) communities in Travancore. Issues such as myths and histories of appropriation, notions of history and new bodily and physical practices, along with questions of identity formation, are taken up later on to delineate the trajectories of change. 1An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference of Subaltern Historians in 1998. I am grateful to Gautam Bhadra, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Gyan Pandey and Susie Tharu for their valuable interventions. Thanks are also due to Nizar Ahmad, T.M. Yesudasan, Partha Chatterjee, Anjan Ghosh, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya and Raziuddin Aquil. A stimulating and prolonged discussion with Saurabh Dube helped me to reconsider some of the problems posed in the paper.