Patterns of Political Violence and the Creation of Party Societies in North Malabar (India)

This paper seeks to analyse the nature of political violence in North Malabar, Kerala, and how it has permeated the social relations in the areas where it is prevalent. Mutual killings of party workers of the dominant Marxist party and the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, the ideological backbone of the BJP, the Hindu rightist party that is ruling at the centre, has led to a situation where violence came to be normalized and accorded heroic status through martyr’s memorials and annual commorations. The space for genuine democratic engagement in an agonistic sense is absent in the region. Partisanship has permeated all aspects of social life in the area, and it is reinforced by local party leaders who have a grip over the party enclaves.The paper looks at the nature and pattern of political violence, its transformation through time, the territorial marking of enclaves of the two political parties, and the ways and means by which the violence is made to assume a systemic character in certain pockets of North Malabar, Kerala. It also examines how such crude violence in a tit-for-tat fashion in North Malabar has led to democratic backsliding in the region, tarnishing the image of Kerala as a state with higher levels of democracy compared to the other states in India. The paper will be based on key informant interviews and focus group discussions supplemented by secondary sources.