Annals on Kerala Women
Ancient texts like Chilapathikaram, Chandrotsavam, contain innumerable references to the female powers in diverse fields such as dance, poetry, music, language, sanskrit, Malayalam and martial arts. The influential pieces of writing on women in the early period were Chandu Menon's Indulekha. This first novel Par excellence dramatizes the resistance of a progressive woman named Indulekha. Indulekha, the heroine of the novel, is the symbol of the emancipated womanhood that emerged in modern Kerala in its march towards a new society. She showed greater courage and determination in resisting meaningless conventions and superstitions. In its simplicity of style, Indulekha stands out as a masterpiece of its kind in Malayalam Literature.
Women in Kerala with her diversified roles at home and civic spheres do made incredible contributions in the course of Kerala history. Through a series of hard struggles like the `Upper Cloth Movement' and many other socio-cultural movements that women in Kerala were able to establish their own identities. Education was the key to the liberation of women from the oppressive attitudes to a great extent. To appreciate how far they have come forward it is important to be aware of the small victories and hard won battles of women who have not enjoyed fame or even recognition. It is important to know the stories of the hard core women who had struggled in reforming the societies in which they lived. The brief profiles of women whose names may be unfamiliar but whose deeds articulate the role of women as history makers is indeed an eye opening reality and thought provoking. Certainly, it unveiled the fact, when we sweep into the history of Kerala, it was populated by an awesome struggles of women to attain the present position which was indeed only one of its kind.
However, Kerala had the largest number of women who had actively taken part in the Freedom struggle, social reform movements and it was through their hard core struggles that women of today enjoys the much acclaimed high status than her counterparts.
