Essay On Traditional Education In Kerala

The social movements as well as the spread of modern education gradually began to change the social structure of Kerala. If traditional education helped in preserving social conservatism, modern English education helped the dissemination of liberal ideas of equality, brotherhood, individualism, liberty, and dignity of the human person. The employment of the educated lower castes in schools and government services resulted in the breakdown of traditional values. Joint families got divided into smaller units due to the need for some members to move from village to city, or from one city to another in search of education and better job opportunities. People also believed that nuclear family ensured more satisfaction, security and privacy, greater
The matrilineal Nayars of Kerala are different from other castes because of their peculiar marriage customs, polyandrous unions and the freedom of women for conjugal relations. Sambandham (alliance) is the socially recognized marital alliance among matrilineals. It was not a sacrament like the other Hindu marriages. Sambandham is dissoluble at will and if a husband or wife deserted the spouse, a new sambandham could be contracted with another person. The instability of marriage leading to divorce was due to the fact that sambandham guaranteed no legal obligation of maintenance to the divorced wife. The legal aspect of sambandham did not bother the earlier generations as the husband was only a ‘genitor’ of children and maintenance of its daughters and their children was the obligation of the tharawad. Even though there was not any state law regarding the legal status of sambandham, the state always took it for granted because the community always considered sambandham a valid marriage. The first legislation to declare sambandham valid was enacted in Travancore in 1912 (The Travancore Nair Regulation of 1912), in Cochin in 1920 and lastly in British Malabar in 1933 by the Madras Marmakkathayam Act of
In the absence of any such regulation, the state could not insist on his duties of maintaining his wife and children nor could it grant the claim of the wife and children in his acquisitions. The right to maintenance and half of the self-acquired property of the husband/father dying intestate was a great relief to the women and children. The Nair Regulation of 1925 (Travancore) amended the law of marriage, sucession and family management including provision for partition in marumakkathayam tharawads. Marriages were always matrilocal and the husband and wife lived in their respective homes even after marriage. They are ‘duo-local’ (Kapadia 336). The wife and husband did not rely on each other for economic support. The husband-wife relationship was not supported by familial obligations either (Alexander