Migration, Consumption and Gender: The Case of Rural Kerala

Development and progress, in contemporary understanding, is perceived to entail movement— largely physical, but sometimes also metaphorical. Movement denotes change, usually presumed to be positive and progressive. Thus, it might not be entirely coincidental that the development trajectory of communities with a record of progress and modernisation is linked to the experience of human migration across geographical boundaries, voluntary or forced. Migration, especially in traditional societies, has been perceived as challenging individual identities that are invariably bound by traditions and hierarchies—individuals breaking free from restricting spaces that have bound them (Devika 2005). The migrant, as an individual or as part of a group, also challenges ideas and abstractions such as nationhood and belonging, forcing the acknowledgement of the fragmented and fluidic nature of identities in the globalised world (Osella and Osella 2000).