Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

enthusiasm was not shown by middle class women, who were confined to their
households, and were very reticent in answering queries from outside. However, this
reticence was not shown by old women. Majority of them had been working women.
Many of them still work as agricultural laborers and daily wage laborers. They showed
considerable awareness of the changes taking place in their surroundings and were
familiar with all the political and social incidents. Old women of some of the elite
families also showed similar awareness and were extremely good informants.
Political and social organizations conformed to the standard pattern elsewhere in the
state. Nearly all the major places and mini-market centers had offices of political parties.
Muslim League had the largest number of offices, spread in all the areas, followed by the
CPI (M) and Congress (I). We saw a few offices of the INL. Other parties were
practically non –existent, although CPI and BJP had members in several Panchayats.
Probably the more widespread offices belonged to the Sunni and Mujahid organizations.
Nearly every angadi had an office of the SSF, SYS, SKSSF, MSM, ISM and the sectarian
organizations. Flags and posters of the above organizations, and a number of others,
including SIO, Solidarity, NDF and CPI (ML) Red Flag were seen in many major
angadis. There were also posters of organizations which emerge locally on specific
issues, one example being the posters of a janakeeyavedi which protested against the
corruption in the Kodinji mosque. Among the organizations there seemed to be a
predominance of the symbols and posters of religious and sectarian organizations.
Compared to the Muslim organizations the boards and posters of ‘Hindu ‘organisations
were fewer, although there were a few epigraphs of VHP and RSS. The more prominent
are the notices and boards of different temples and festivals, which were flashily
displayed in multi-colour boards.
The spread of the political organizations cannot be gauged from their offices and
signboards alone. In the present political structure, the Panchayat offices also function as