Articles by Nandagopal R Menon

Why was public outrage in Kerala against the brutal chopping of the hand of a teacher in July, for allegedly denigrating Islam, far more than many other such violent acts in the state in the past? Perhaps the episode ruffled too many emotional and moral feathers because it impinged on the two virtues that provide a distinct identity to the imagined community of Kerala. It was seen as sullying the image of a communally harmonious and literate Kerala. And Muslims and Islam were to be blamed for the blot. They had, in this perception, once again placed themselves outside the boundaries of that imagined space.