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Thesis ID: CBB001561007

Ways of Knowing: Asaris, Nampoothiris and Colonialists in Twentieth Century Malabar, India (2012)

Emory University
Crais, Clifton
Publication date: 2012
Language: English

Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Advisor: Crais, Clifton
Physical Details: 265 pp.

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Theories of knowledge Religious institutions Colonialism Crafts and craftspeople Science and society India, civilization and culture 20th century India

This dissertation explores the historical trajectories of the different forms of knowledge production in the colonial context analyzing the community reform movements of two caste communities in twentieth century Malabar in India. Through a comparative historical study, the work investigates how Asaris (the carpenter caste) and Brahmins (the priestly caste) of Malabar, in their attempt to reform the community, differently negotiated with the colonial practices of production of knowledge . In this analysis, I mark the activities in the dominant field of knowledge both in the colonies and in post-colonies as production of knowledge and the embodied actions of knowing outside the dominant field as practices of knowing . The major objective of the study is to trace the tension between production of knowledge and practices of knowing by analyzing their interface both in the colonial and post-colonial situations. Asaris in the first half of the twentieth century assimilated the new materials and the new social relations emerged through colonialism into the fold of Asari world without entering into the order of knowledge. They avoided colonial interventions in their practices by keeping asarippani (carpentry) a practice of knowing. By the last decades of the twentieth century, general socio-economical changes in the region and technological changes in the construction field forced Asaris to incorporate elements of 'modern knowledge' which transformed asarippani into a new form. By the end of the twentieth century asarippani moved into an overlapping field of production of knowledge and practice of knowing. Nampoothiris, through the reform movement during the second quarter of the twentieth century, attempted to establish a continuity between the 'traditional' Brahmanical knowledge and 'modern' scientific knowledge. The dissertation shows that the specific way in which colonialists conceptualized knowledge, enabled Nampoothiris to enter into the order of knowledge maintaining the dominance in the society. The comparative analysis of production of knowledge and practice of knowing contributes to a politics which challenge the homogenizing tendencies in the contemporary institutional practices of knowledge. The dissertation also demonstrates and underscores the possibilities of different ways of knowing and being in this world.

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Description Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. (2012). ProQuest Doc. ID 1082014171.

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