The Lady and the Gentleman: Changing Gender Relations and Anxieties in Early Malayalam Cartoons

Abstract

Kerala, towards the end of the nineteenth century, witnessed an awakening which left impressions on all the walks of the society. The advent of modernity, which was triggered by the British rule as well the state’s attempt to widen education and welfare measures, initiated reform movements among almost all the communities. The accessibility to modern education and resultant exposure to scientific, philosophic and humanistic values as well as ideas such as liberty, equality, secularism and individualism changed the perception of men and women towards the society and towards the self.

This also resulted in the formation and spread of media and journalism, which in turn led to the rise of humour magazines and eventually, cartoons in Malayalam. However, the perception of these media and medium towards the other aspects of modernity was quite complex to say the least.

The western educated woman and man, it can be found, have been featured in quite a number of cartoons across magazines. The article, therefore, focuses on the representations of changing gender relations in the Malayali society through cartoons published in humour magazines (Sanjayan, Vishwaroopam, Naradar and Sarasan) from late 1930s to 1960s. Starting with Sanjayan, these cartoons targeted the ‘modern’ women and men, albeit in different ways. Those on women lampooned their emancipation, education, access to the public sphere etc. and its perceived effect on the sociocultural setup, especially within and in relation to the institutions of marriage and family. On the other hand, men were ridiculed for their westernisation and emasculation.

Keywords

Modernity Kerala Malayalam cartoons gender relations humour magazines print culture

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abraham

Binumol

. ‘Humour and History of Mentality: A Study of Popular Culture in Colonial Keralam’. Unpublished Thesis, University of Hyderabad, 2009.

Anderson

Benedict

. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Books, 2006.

Arunima

‘Matriliny and Its Discontents’. India International Centre Quarterly, 22, no. 2–3 (1995): 157–167.

‘Blouse’. Naradar, 1, no. 6 (1941): 32.

Cohn

Bernard S.

Colonialism and Its forms of Knowledge: The British in India. Princeton University Press, 1996.

Desai

Manali

. ‘Indirect British Rule, State Formation, and Welfarism in Kerala, India, 1860–1957’. Social Science History, 29, no. 3 (2005): 457–488.

Devi

Manjula S.

Women’s Movement in Kerala: Challenges and Prospects’. Unpublished Dissertation, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, 1995.

Forbes, Geraldine, and Geraldine Hancock Forbes. Women in Modern India, Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Jeffrey

Robin

. ‘Governments and Culture: How Women Made Kerala Literate’. Pacific Affairs, 60, no. 3 (1987): 447–472.

10.

Joseph

Sibi

. ‘Socio-Cultural Dualism: Process of Growth of Westernisation and Its Impact on Kerala Economy’. Unpublished Thesis, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, 2007.

11.

Khanduri

Ritu Gairola

. ‘The Politics of the Visual: The Image of the State and the Nationalist in Early Twentieth Century Colonial India’. Unpublished Dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994.

12.

Kumar

Prabhat

. ‘From Punch to Matvala: Transcultural Lives of a Literary Format’. In Asian Punches a Transcultural Affair, edited by Harder

Hans

and Mittler

Barbara

, 75–110. Heidelberg: Springer, 2013.

13.

Menon

Shangoonny P.

A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times. Madras, 1878.

14.

Mitter

Partha

. ‘Cartoons of the Raj’. History Today, 47, no. 9 (1997): 16.

15.

Mitter

Partha

. ‘Punch and Indian cartoons: The reception of a transnational phenomenon’. In Asian Punches a Transcultural Affair, edited by Harder

Hans

and Mittler

Barbara

, 47–64, Heidelberg: Springer, 2013.

16.

Paranjpe

Swarali

. ‘Crossing Boundaries: Punch and the Marathi Weekly Hindu Panca’. In Asian Punches a Transcultural Affair, edited by Harder

Hans

and Mittler

Barbara

, 151–164, Heidelberg: Springer, 2013.

17.

Rajasekharan

P. K.

‘Lecture Series in Malayalam Modernity: Mind and Body’ (Lecture IV)’. indiavideo.org. https://www.indiavideo.org/kerala/land-and-people/infrastructure/education/lecture-series-malayalam-pk-rajasekharan–4–8564.php

18.

Sundaram

Master

. ‘Mistressism, Athava Mohana Geeta’ [Mistressism, i.e., the Beautiful Geeta]. Naradar, 1, no. 6 (1941): 15.

19.

Sunderason

Sanjukta

. ‘A Study of Graphic Satire and Caricature in Colonial Calcutta 1850–1930’. Unpublished Dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2006.

20.

T. K. ‘Vineetha Smaranakal’ [Humble Memories]. In Hasyaprakasham: Sanjayan Smaraka Grantham [Sanjayan Memorial Volume], edited by Nair

V. Unnikrishnan

, 511–513. Kozhikode, 1958.

21.

Tarlo

Emma

. Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India. London: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

22.

Vasanthi

. ‘Women in Public Life in Malabar 1900–1957’. Unpublished Dissertation, University of Calicut, 2009.