Her-Self: Early Writings on Gender by Malayalee Women, 1898-1938

This collection reveals the vigorous debate over modern gender relations that was taking place in this period. The authors hailed mostly from those groups which had obtained access to modern education and ways of life like the Nairs, Syrian Christians and Ezhavas. There are other voices too, a few women from the Nambutiri Brahmin caste and two Muslim women. Women reflected on what was 'Womanly' on education, duties, vocation and civil roles, first influenced by reformism and later by nationalist and communist ideas. The editor also points to the need to define what is non-Womanly.