Pungent Irrationality and Troubled Modernity in Kerala

Abstract The street protests of the upper caste Hindus and the members of the erstwhile royal family under the leadership of the BJP–RSS against the verdict of the Supreme Court of India on opening the Sabarimala temple for women of all age groups demonstrate the deep malaise of creeping irrationality in the globally acclaimed project of Kerala modernity. In fact, such outbursts not only unveil the longstanding contradictions of Kerala modernity and the inadequacies of its developmental model but also bound to have serious implications for the multicultural ethos and the radical politics of the state. The rising tide of social conservatism and obscurantism retard Kerala into state of gloom and the depletion of its vibrant civil society and solid social capital leading communalising everyday life and public sphere.