Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

scale chanthas of the kind of Tirurangadi chantha, where people gather from the morning,
exchange information, but only marketplaces, which people visit only for their purchases,
and the interaction is limited. Religious spaces are now totally controlled by separate
religious groups and trespassing is nearly impossible, except on processions and public
speeches, and even they are attended mainly by the respective believers. The promotion
of religious spaces in recent years have led to further insulation of the believers into
separate camps, and there is a very strong spirit of inbreeding, by which the philosophy
and ritual codes of each group is reproduced within the group, to the exclusion of others,
and interaction is limited to orchestrated ‘debates’ in which those who organize it will
have the final say. Moreover, all schismatic groups have their own institutions from
madrasa to a higher education institution and it is possible to teach the student according
to their philosophy during the formative years and monitor his work through the
organizations during the later years. The Hindus do not have an institutional framework
of this kind within the region, and hence the temple and the festival take up this role. RSS
and VHP also have a specific role, and so are organizations of the godmen. Separate caste
organizations have not gained much foothold in the area, although there is caste solidarity
in the traditional sense, in the festivals in various kavus and other rituals. This means that
growth of communitarians has corresponded to the growth of the ‘modern’ public sphere.
And this has resulted in the fragmentation of social life in the region. The fragmentation
and insulation has allowed the co-existence of different belief systems although the
process of inbreeding, and has encouraged the other group to be treated with suspicion
and hatred.
This was clear in the political situation immediately after the violence at Marad.
Although no overt 'incident’ took place in the area, there were highly inflammable
speeches on the violence from both sides, and the research team came across a
videocassette show which presented the incident from a certain point of view being