Reform, Law and Gendered Identity-Marriage among Ezhavas of Kerala

Marriage among Ezhavas of Kerala Meera Velayudhan SINCE the 1970s, a number of studies have debated issues arising front the idea of the "Kerala model' which upheld the state's achievements in terms of equity, balanced socio-economic growth, quality of life, female education, societal changes in attitudes to family size and so on. They have linked the question of demographic changes to movements for social justice, to political and economic reforms based on the interests of the poor and to the long period of various kinds of institution- building which preceded these changes [UN 1977, Ratcliffe 1978 and Morris and McAlpine !982].Could the 'Kerala model' be duplicated? The debate persists.