Abstract:
The paper tries to unsettle the naturalized association often
assumed in the existent literature between the modern family and the
small family in 20th century Malayalee society. Instead, it attempts to
trace out the shaping of certain life-options in discourse from the mid19th century onwards that would increasingly mobilize the desire of
modern Malayalees and play an important role in directing them towards
the small family norm. The entire notion of parental responsibility was
redefined in a crucial way in and through these processes; secondly, the
ability of the state to intervene in the family was also strengthened and
legitimized. These were, of course central to the willing acceptance of
the Family Planning Programme in mid-20th century Malayalee society.
It is also important to inquire about the specific paths through which
these life-options began to appear both reasonable and desirable to
different social groups in this society, but since this points at far more
intensive and prolonged research, the paper attempts only to open up
some ground tentatively. Further, it considers the question why Malayalee
sub-nationalist sentiment, which peaked in the 1950s, actually
sanctioned a reduction in the numbers of Malayalees, and why calls for
assertion of the Malayalee identity were fully compatible with the
desperate call to reduce their numbers. In conclusion, the paper gestures
at what is called the process of ‘Domestication’: a process by which the
major share of the energies, interests, desires etc. of individuals have
been directed into their families, in which the Family Planning
Programme is taken to be a major event. The political implications of
this process are briefly discussed.
