At a time when disillusion with neo-liberal development nostrums is mounting, alternative models of development are being revisited. Kerala's 30 million people may not have experienced rapid growth in GDP per capita, but they have for the past several decades achieved a remarkable social record in terms of adult literacy, infant mortality, life expectancy, stabilising population growth, and narrowing gender and spatial gaps.What are the implications of the disjuncture between human development and economic growth? What are the political, social and cultural factors responsible for Kerala's success? Does its human development record necessarily relate to sustainability in environmental terms? How inclusive has the Kerala model been, particularly for the fishing community and other socially marginalised groups?Can the new people's campaign for decentralised development from below make Kerala's development experience more enduring? What realistic view can be taken of its replicability elsewhere in India or further afield in the South? These are among the most important questions explored in this timely reassessment.

With a subtle yet penetrating understanding of the intricate interplay of gender, race, and class, Sheba George examines an unusual immigration pattern to analyze what happens when women who migrate before men become the breadwinners in the family. Focusing on a group of female nurses who moved from India to the United States before their husbands, she shows that this story of economic mobility and professional achievement conceals underlying conditions of upheaval not only in the families and immigrant community but also in the sending community in India. This richly textured and impeccably researched study deftly illustrates the complex reconfigurations of gender and class relations concealed behind a quintessential American success story. When Women Come First explains how men who lost social status in the immigration process attempted to reclaim ground by creating new roles for themselves in their church. Ironically, they were stigmatized by other upper class immigrants as men who needed to "play in the church" because the "nurses were the bosses" in their homes. At the same time, the nurses were stigmatized as lower class, sexually loose women with too much independence. George's absorbing story of how these women and men negotiate this complicated network provides a groundbreaking perspective on the shifting interactions of two nations and two cultures.

Kerala, one of the smallest states in India, is located in the country's southwest corner. Known for its great beauty, religious diversity, and zero population growth, the region also boasts an exceptionally high literacy rate--reportedly above 91 percent--resulting in a large readership for books, journals, and newspapers. The quality of Kerala's literary production is very high, and this anthology represents some of its best short stories. Though educated and enterprising, women from this area face the same problems as women the world over. The stories in this collection explore their lives, giving readers everywhere a greater understanding of what it means to be a daughter of Kerala.

Articles with reference to India.

The living pulsating and ever-changing entity that is Kerala is best represented by its astute critical and deeply insightful writers of the Malayalam short story and in Feeling Kerala a selection of some of the best and sharpest narratives from the region is now translated and curated for English readers to love and cherish. While staying true to its literary form these stories provide a tour into the heart and soul of contemporary Kerala and aim at getting past the twentieth-century characterizations of the state say as defined by communist egalitarian spirit or matrilineal families. After all Kerala is unique in more ways than one thanks to the heightened experience of migration and transnationalism among other things. This collection also succinctly encapsulates the varied landscapes of Kerala: the highlands the coastal areas and the growing urban centres. They move in and out of homes and take the readers into older spaces-convents and panchayats-and the new spaces of the capital-airports and tourist resorts-as well as the world of criminals.

An analysis of gender and property throughout South Asia which argues that the most important economic factor affecting women is the gender gap in command over property.

This book presents a new perspective on the assumed links between women's literacy and development and explores current innovative approaches to research and policy around women's literacy.