Haneena PA

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will examine the significance and impact of printed Arabi-Malayalam magazines run by women publishers and editors from the Mappila community in Kerala in the early 20th century. Through a study of the readers, writers, content, and topics covered by the magazines, the project will explore the subaltern history of Mappila women and document unrecorded and unrecognised voices of this minority community. Haneena PA is the Coordinator for this project. 

Haneena PA is a researcher based in Mumbai and Kerala. She has a Master’s degree in Media and Cultural Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and has worked as a journalist reporting on politics, culture and human rights in India. Her interests include research, production and storytelling. Given her experience, she is best suited to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA. Jazeela Basheer, an exhibition designer, will join Haneena as a collaborator for this project. 

During the late 19th and early 20th century, Kerala witnessed the emergence of magazines. Of these, over 30 magazines were primarily published for women. Like other communities, the Mappila community published several magazines, including Ansari, Vanitha, Isha’ath, Al-Bayan, Al-Manar and Nissa-ul-Islam, among others, for community education and reform. Some of these were exclusively run or edited by women. This project will examine the significance of these Arabi-Malayalam magazines run and edited by women and the processes that went into their making. It will study the contents of the magazines, the topics they covered, the lives of writers who wrote for them, and the intended readers they were published for. In addition, the project will examine the factors responsible for the emergence of the magazines and the sociopolitical and cultural factors that led to their marginalisation and subsequent effacement. 

The Project Coordinator and her collaborator will access the magazines in libraries and private and public archives across Kerala, including Mappila Heritage Library, Calicut, Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust, Trivandrum and Thrissur Sahitya Academy Library, among others. However, the lack of awareness about the significance of archiving, and dearth of space and resources has made it difficult for many libraries to function. Consequently, many important magazines are discarded frequently. Considering this, studying Mappila women’s magazines has become all the more important before they are lost to history. In the course of the research, the project will also study and document the varying archiving practices through interviews with community members who have been able to preserve these magazines through their private collections. In addition, semi-structured interviews with family members of the editors and publishers of the Mappila magazines, and scholars in the field of Mappila studies will be conducted to corroborate the findings in the archives. 

The outcomes of this project will be an exhibition and audiovisual documentation of magazines and interviews from the field. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be a documentation of the exhibition and audiovisual documentation of magazines and interviews from the field.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme as it attempts to bring to the fore the hitherto marginalised history and contributions of women from a minority community in a state that is known for its literary heritage; and yet has not given this history its due.    

IFA will ensure that the project is implemented on time and that the funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with the Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.