Teyyam and Resistance

In this paper, I examine how Teyyam, a spectacular faith-based ritual and cultural performance of North Kerala produces interstices of resistance even as it upholds structures of dominance. Labelled as hereditary privilege (cherujanmam avakasam) it is also obligatory caste labour for lowered caste men who perform all teyyams [except Devakoothu]. For the ritual, the teyyakkaran ‘becomes’ a specific deity who might be an ancestor, a goddess/god, or a spirit animal and performs daunting feats. A performer’s caste-inscribed body as a receptacle for the spirit of a deity is thus temporarily transformed and elevated to divine status. People across social hierarchy queue up to make offerings to and seek blessings. Paradoxically, Kerala’s various dominant¹ castes who once considered teyyakkars untouchables² also venerated them as embodied teyyam deities and allowed them access to spaces that as human beings they would be restricted from. Such ambivalence while making caste hierarchy pivotal to teyyam, allows for the creation of liminal spaces that allow for contestation and resistance. As a result, hierarchies are not upheld in an uncontested fashion though tensions across stakeholders in the community—both structural and intentional—may prevent radical/substantive change.