An eminent anthropologist's pioneering work in Kerala
I came across her seminal work and read several papers she wrote on Nair kinship many years ago while trying to understand the history of the Nairs of Kerala, and as part of my effort to grasp some of our customs. The first time I got hold of the ‘Matrilineal Kinship’ book, coauthored by Gough with Schneider, was after my late uncle, a history postgraduate and enthusiast, passed away. His copy of the book had been unused for decades by then, and I took it across to America. It was difficult to use because it had become musty and yellowed over time, making it impossible to read without an antihistamine. Eventually, I found another copy on the used books market and replaced the older edition. Over time, my collection of Gough’s papers has grown, and they have been constant companions during my many years working on articles about the people of Malabar.
Her interest extended beyond the Nairs and Moplahs to the
development and overall condition of Kerala, which improved following her
initial visit. I found it remarkable that, in yesterday's local body election
results in Kerala, voters delivered a verdict against the ruling LDF party,
just as Kathleen Gough had predicted. She had advised Joan Mencher, who
followed her in the field many decades ago, that the Leftist party in Kerala,
by concentrating all its efforts on electoral politics and ignoring employment
issues, was not addressing the needs of its constituents—the very people who
had entrusted it with power, implying that the people would eventually react
against it.
Born in Hunsingore, Yorkshire, UK, in 1925, to Albert Gough
and Eleanor, she was raised in a rural setting and experienced the effects of
industrial expansion on traditional British country life. After studying
anthropology and archaeology at Cambridge, she married Eric Miller in 1947, and
both received scholarships to conduct field studies in India in 1948-49.
Although they earned their PhDs in 1950, they faced persistent difficulties due
to strict nepotism policies. She recalled it this way: if your husband is
chosen for a job, we can't employ you; if he isn't, we can't hire you and
humiliate him. Perhaps this was to ignite her firm feminist convictions,
which motivated her throughout her life.
After issues related to nepotism, failure to secure a
teaching position, and others, Gough’s marriage to Miller ended. The situation
that women professionals in the Western world have faced since the late 19th
century, especially the underlying belief that a man's career takes precedence
over his wife's, continued to cause serious problems for talented academics
like Gough.
After Kathleen Gough's marriage to Miller broke up, she
returned alone to South India to study ritual and mythology in addition to
kinship. She was eager to understand and share information about the
fascinating people of South India, as well as the stark contrasts between the
ritualistic Tamil Brahmin and the free-wheeling (as she described it) Nairs of
Malabar, and so she returned to Malabar and Madras in 1951. Settling among the
very communities she studied, she observed, interviewed, and carefully documented
the communities, their histories, and changes over time. Her first major
publication was the book I mentioned at the beginning of this article,
Matrilineal Kinship. Matrilineal Kinship was published in 1961.
I have not yet posted my articles on Matriliny, polyandry, Nayar
marriage customs, and related topics because I planned to write them after an
introduction to Kathleen Gough. Her studies are arguably the gold standard,
although some aspects could use refinement. She had early on surmised that matriliny
was destined to be the inevitable victim of capitalist development and the rise
of the nuclear family, and that describing Nayar marriage customs as polyandry
in the strict sense was oversimplified and procrustean. Therefore, I will
discuss Nair matriliny, Tali Kettu, and Sambandham separately, with this
article focusing more on the individual and her era in Kerala. Her papers and
books have long been available to researchers, offering detailed analyses of
kinship, family life, and relationships from medieval times to the 1970s.
She then spent a year at Harvard as a Visiting Research
Fellow before taking a teaching position at Manchester in 1954. However, she
never advanced into what promised to be a prestigious career. In 1955, she
remarried, left her position, and moved to the United States, only to find that
opportunities for married women academics were no better there.
Now, let's return to her initial visit to the sleepy
villages of Malabar. For a woman from Britain, it must have seemed unfamiliar,
primitive, and incredibly challenging. Malabar was still developing and was
part of the Madras state, while Travancore and Cochin were independent
kingdoms, as Kerala had not yet been established. Although there is little published
on her time in Kerala, her papers and books offer valuable insights into Nayar
and Moplah life in North and South Malabar and Cochin, along with brief notes
on similar communities in Travancore.
Joan Mencher, who continued with similar anthropological work,
explains – She went to Kerala immediately after Indian Independence in the
late 1940s. This was a period of considerable turmoil in the area. During the
1930s in each of the main regions of Kerala (Travancore, Cochin, and the
Malabar District of Madras State), a wide variety of legal reforms had been
enacted that led to profound changes in the structure and organization of life
among the land-owning matrilineal castes. Kathleen was the first to study these
changes in detail, as well as the earlier changes that had resulted from
contact with the colonizing Western powers, the invasions of Malabar by Haider
Ali and his son Tipoo Sultan and the subsequent betrayal of the Zamorin of
Calicut by the British which led to British rule in Malabar. She worked in two
parts of the former Malabar District: (a) in a small town in South Malabar, and
(b) in the northern part of the district in a village about 18 miles from the
coastal cities of Cannanore and Tellicherry, where she studied not only the
Nayars but also two other matrilineal groups, the Tiyyas (or Ezhavas) and
matrilineal Muslims, as well as (c) in a village in Trichur District of Cochin
State.
I was pleased to see a Westerner emphasizing the betrayal of
the Zamorin of Calicut by the British, which led to British rule in Malabar. It
is something I mentioned earlier and that most historians overlook.
Getting further details of her stay in Kerala during 1947-49
was not easy, but I did get a good idea of her days from her unpublished
thesis. Interestingly, Gough was looking forward to revising it and publishing
it, but never got to it during her turbulent life thereafter.
Thus, it was with Eric Miller, her husband, that Kathleen
set out for Kerala in Nov 1947. Miller was analyzing the Hindu caste system in
its interaction with the broader social structure in certain parts of the
Malabar Coast. Working in tandem, Gough concentrated on matriliny and the Nairs
as well as the Moplah castes in the same geographic areas. She spent the first
six months in Valluvanad, more specifically Perinthalmanna, collecting data on
Nairs and Moplahs. However, she admits that the information on Nairs was
insufficient, as it came from a cross-section living in an urban setting,
whereas her intention was to get to the roots in a regular village
setting.
She then moved to Pattanur in Kottayam (Pazhassi Rajas'
realm) in North Malabar, between Mattanur and Irrikur. It appears that she
received assistance in developing a better understanding of the social
structure from KT Kunhi Kammaran Nambiyar, the local MLA in the Madras
Legislative Assembly. Interestingly, this Nambiyar hails from the same family that
was home to our famous or infamous Ayaz Khan (Hyatt Saheb), the Chirakkal boy
who was forcibly converted and adopted by Hyder Ali and who later crossed
swords with Tipu Sultan. After 6 months at Pattanur, she and her husband moved
to Puthurkara near Ayanthole in Trichur, where they spent another 8 months. Now
you must understand that in the late 40’s there were no lodges or similar
facilities in these rural areas, and homes had no en-suite toilets. Imagine a
British couple in such surroundings! It was only last week that I learned that
the grateful villagers (Pattanur I presume) constructed an outdoor toilet for
the British couple whom they later came to respect and adore.
In passing, I must mention a comment made by Mencher: it
appears that Gough had advised Mencher that she would never learn much from
Nair women and that most of the input she received came from Nair men. Mencher
later clarified that her experience differed when speaking with free-minded
lower-class Tiyya women and younger Nair girls.
After gathering information on village structures, caste
rules, and details about local chieftains and minor Rajas, they made brief
visits to Palghat, a few small villages in Central Travancore, and several
coastal towns, including Payyannur, Cannanore, Tellicherry, Mahe, Calicut,
Ponnani, Ernakulam, Cochin, Quilon, and Trivandrum. As expected, she fell ill,
possibly with a stomach ailment, which ended the trip early. Naturally, they
learned some Malayalam, likely including the Northern and Southern Malabar and
Moplah dialects. If you can imagine, this was a significant challenge for a
foreigner traveling in Kerala during the 40s, especially since most villages
lacked electricity and basic infrastructure such as regular motorized road
transport.
Reading her papers, books, thesis, and articles makes it clear
that, as a trained anthropologist, she developed a solid understanding of prevailing
systems fairly quickly. My doubt was always about her interpretation of the raw
data she collected and how she filtered it, since each caste and person in
Kerala tends to twist the story to fit their own perspectives. By increasing
the sample size and considering regional differences, she did a really good
job, actually, though I will admit that you can, as expected, notice a little
Christian morality here and there, and the impression she gives is that she was
acting as an observer from above, trying to remain as detached as possible.
Her description of the post-World War II setup in Kerala is
revealing—almost every village has its bazaar, with shops selling rationed rice
and kerosene oil, vegetables, groceries, and toilet articles. Small tea-shacks
and coffee-shacks are everywhere and have increased in number since many youths
returned from the army with a desire to start "business"
independently of their families. Besides the railways along the coast,
privately owned buses now run somewhat irregularly through all the larger
villages, creating much mobility between villages and between the coast towns
and the countryside. She adds that trade (shops, shopkeepers, artisans, port
jobs, etc.) primarily attracted non-Nairs, whereas Nairs gravitated toward
government posts, poorly paid jobs in educational institutions, and work such
as bus drivers, conductors, factory workers, and similar roles.
Her interpretations were largely accurate, and it was
evident that she received some guidance in her decision-making. One figure
frequently mentioned in her writings is KT Kunhi Kammaran Nambiyar, an MLA in
Madras at the time. However, some aspects required a better understanding in
the initial drafts, and she revisited them over time, refining her thoughts in
papers written during the 50s. I believe she took another trip in the 60s and
planned to return in the 80s to revise her thesis, which she felt was lacking.
Kerala, meanwhile, was undergoing rapid change, and
matriliny and marriage practices were fiercely challenged by younger
generations, prompting the enactment of the Malabar and Nambudiri Marriage Acts.
Marriage in Kerala was legalized, and Gough studied these developments during
her 1964 visit and continued to do so over the years, while simultaneously
facing significant professional challenges that forced her to move between
universities, migrate from the UK to the USA, and later to Canada.
Her studies led her to note that the Tharavad system was
mismanaged by the Karanaver in some instances and that the family's wealth was
not distributed evenly. Nevertheless, the feudal system was slowly giving way
to a new society, and joint family systems were shifting toward what she termed
single matri-households. Activism was taking hold, and the cries from
Christians and Muslim communities to have permanent land ownership rights were
becoming strident. A pioneer in the study of anti-imperialism, impacts of a
capitalist society on joint families, exploitation of lower classes, and a keen
student of the impact of left ideologies, which were soon becoming popular in
Kerala, got her writing about these subjects
Although personally left-leaning, Kathleen quickly observed
how different parties manipulate the public for votes and how leaders
increasingly focus on winning seats while spending less on day-to-day
organization in their villages. Her notable works include "Kerala Politics
and the 1965 Elections" (1967), “Communist Rural Councilors in Kerala"
(1968), and "Peasant Resistance and Revolt in South India" (1968-69).
However, she also pointed out that neglecting industrialization would pose a
major long-term problem for the state, and Gough emphasized that the left
party’s focus on electoral politics and its disregard for real employment
opportunities would lead to significant difficulties. Kathleen never joined any
political party, although she initially sympathized with the CPI's aims and
policies and later with those of the CPI(M). I sincerely doubt if anyone in
CPI(M) in Kerala even knows of Gough today.
Mencher adds - Towards the end, she wanted to do
something about what was happening in Kerala in the late 1980s. We shared a
common view of the situation in Kerala and were equally distressed by the way
in which Kerala was being touted as a "development model" while so many
people were without work. Without the funds received each month from
expatriates living and working in the Middle East, the Kerala situation would
be far worse. We shared our fear about what will happen when this goldmine
dries up.
It is now time to briefly trace her life after Kerala, a
period characterized by professional and personal setbacks. As mentioned
earlier, she returned to South India after her divorce in 1951 due to nepotism
rules and worked in Tanjore for a couple of years. After returning to the UK,
her first major publication was the pioneering book on Matrilineal Kinship,
co-edited with David M. Schneider (who initiated the work) and contributed to
by other scholars, with Gough writing nearly half of the book herself. Around
this time, she met David Aberle, whom she married in Manchester in 1955.
Moving on to the USA, although David secured strong
positions at Stanford and other institutions, Gough failed to secure regular
appointments at universities, despite her background and substantial
accomplishments. Activism took hold, and her staunch anti-nuclear stand got her
partaking in clashes with the police on the Polaris (base at Holy Loch) and
later the Cuba policy, followed by Kennedy. In 1961, she finally secured a
regular appointment at Brandeis University, but that was also cut short when
she joined the anti-nuclear protests over U.S.-Cuba policy. David Aberle and
Kathleen resigned in protest and moved on to Oregon.
David obtained a new position in Oregon in 1963, whereas
Kathleen was appointed to a lower-ranked position as an affiliated honorary
research associate and visiting associate professor. Once again, both David and
Kathleen chose to protest the use of college grades as a basis for drafting
students into the Vietnam War. Her outspoken stance in support of civil rights
and against nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War resulted in her being placed on
an FBI watch list, and university reactions to her progressive views disrupted
her career path several times. I am not sure whether Gough was aware of the
CIA's involvement in Kerala politics at that time or of the efforts to
influence the elections.
In 1967, they decided to leave the US after a 12-year stay
and migrate to Canada, a decision she later regretted. Her work at Simon Fraser
University was also troubled, and in 1971, she concluded her work on Indian
matters and moved on to Southeast Asian studies in Vietnam and Kampuchea. Eventually,
she withdrew from academia altogether to become an independent radical scholar,
but her work continued to receive notice and was eagerly cited and used by
subsequent scholars. Throughout her life, Gough maintained her steadfast
commitment to the well-being of workers and peasants in the Third World. Always
politically relevant and fervently anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and
anti-capitalist, Gough lived with the hope of a better, more peaceful, and more
equitable world, never losing faith that such a world was within reach, much
like John Lennon did when he wrote his song "Imagine."
Richard Lee states it succinctly - In spite of enticing
offers from a number of institutions, she steadfastly remained an independent
scholar for the last decades of her life. One can only speculate on the lost
opportunities of students to work with her and the ultimate effect on the course
of Canadian scholarship to have had such an important anthropological figure
for so long on the proverbial sidelines.
Eric Miller, her first husband, after obtaining his
doctorate, moved to Thailand for field work, and later to the USA, after which
he worked in differing capacities for jute and textile mills in India, as an
expatriate employee relations manager, working to implement organizational
behavior strategies designed by the US Tavistock Institute. He was a founding
member of what became the A. K. Rice Institute in the United States and
supported similar developments in Finland, Denmark, Israel, India, and South Africa.
I don’t think Kerala figured in his thoughts after 1950, but I must admit that
his paper on the village structure in N Kerala is a valuable reference. Miller
passed away in 2002, aged 78.
David Aberle, Gough’s second husband, was also a war veteran
and held teaching assignments at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Brandeis,
Oregon, and, from 1967 until his retirement in 1983, at the University of
British Columbia. His focus, however, was on the American Southwest,
particularly the Navajo. David died on September 23rd, 2004, at Vancouver
Hospital at the age of 85. In their son Stephen's words, "They remained
inescapably, sometimes tumultuously, always lovingly married until Kathleen's
death in 1990" (Toronto Globe and Mail 2004). I believe Gough had a
daughter from the first marriage and a son, Stephen, from the second marriage,
as well as a couple of grandchildren.
Kathleen Gough Aberle died of cancer in Canada on September
8, 1990, at the age of 65. Her work continues to be a foundational influence
for anthropologists and scholars studying the Nair caste in Malabar.
References
Kathleen Gough and Research in Kerala - Joan Mencher (this paper
also provides a list of most publications by Kathleen Gough)
The Work of Kathleen Gough – R lee
I understand that Sandra Lindemann's book, A Radical
Anthropologist: The Trials and Triumphs of Kathleen Gough, will be released
soon, and I will surely read it. Some day I will try to review her vast
collection of field notes at UBC, though much of it is embargoed for 75 years
from 1964.
Joan P. Mencher is an Emerita Professor of Anthropology from
the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, and Lehman College of the
City University of New York. She supports
rural grassroots organizations in India and the United States that work with
poor and small farmers on issues of sustainable agriculture. She has worked primarily in South India but
also in West Bengal briefly, on issues of ecology, caste, land reform,
agriculture, women, and related issues over the last half century, and has published
widely both in the United States and in India on all of these subjects,
primarily in academic journals
Image - K Gough, courtesy - Utoronto
