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Th e preceding examples present similar orientations in people from various
class, gender and religious backgrounds, but further investigation may reveal
variations along these lines. Class, caste, gender, religion and linguistic dif-
ferences may well correspond to varied phenomenological sensibilities within
Kerala and throughout India. In fact, the Indian philosophies described
earlier are to some degree elite discourses, but what may make Kerala unique
is that these elite philosophies and phenomenologies seem to be popularly
consumed.
Kerala State Phenomenology?
Living in Kerala, one becomes accustomed to the variety of acronyms
for high-profi le programs developed by the state government—from the
KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transportation Corporation) buses that ply the
roads of every town in the state to the reliable but modest KTDC (Kerala
Tourist Development Corporation) hotels to the KSFDC (Kerala State Film
Development Corporation) whose festivals promote prestigious independent
directors. Although the Government of Kerala extends its reach into many
aspects of civic life, it would be odd to imagine a particular phenomenology, a
way of experiencing the world, associated with this modern state, yet people’s
phenomenological orientations appear to be associated with processes of the
modern state as well as other, earlier features of place. Key elements of con-
temporary phenomenological orientations can be found in the Malayalam lan-
guage and the philosophical views of the person, both lay and literate, that go
back hundreds of years, and there are contemporary social processes and state
practices that have a role in how people in contemporary Kerala experience the
world and, in particular, “mental” distress.
One assertion of this study is that phenomenological orientations vary
by place and time, and social and historical practices have helped shape the
phenomenological orientation that organizes and mediates experience among
people I spoke to in Kerala. We may be seeing this process in action as people
in Kerala engage with Western/biomedical idioms of distress, such as “tension”
and “depression,” which accompany the proliferation of biomedical psychiatric
services and discourses.
Th e expressions of distress exhibited by patients in Kerala diff er from those
Langford (1998) observed at an ayurvedic psychotherapy practice in north
India. According to Langford, many patients of ayurvedic therapist Dr. Singh
present somatic symptoms (e.g., weakness, stomach pain, constipation) which
the doctor diagnoses as a problem with vata (one of the dosas, the underlying