Youth, Gender & Tourism in Kerale, South India

Belinda Green

Research program: TBA

This thesis is concerned with the everyday lives of a sub-culture of Scheduled caste male youth in the tourist space of Kovalam, Kerala. Locally referred to as 'Junkies' and or 'beach boys', these men utilize the tourist site as a means of economic and social mobility. Through their occupation of the tourist space, the Junkies construct a sense of self which both complies and contests past and present narratives according to the gender, caste and class status as ex-outcaste Pulayas. By adopting particular forms of dress, language and behavior, the Junkies interact as intermediaries or cultural brokers for the foreign tourists' experience and consumption of Kovalam and Kerala. The Junkies's role includes performing a range of services and transactions for their international guests, ranging from the provision of sex, romance, drugs, and friendship to other tourist related activities including sightseeing and touring. The optimum tourist encounter for the junkies is one of romance, sex and marriage with a foreign woman. According to the Junkies, these encounters offered the greatest opportunity for economic and social mobility. Junkie ideas of mobility include acquiring foreign currency through the foreign woman, working and living overseas or owning and running their own business in Kovalam while providing money and favors to friends and family members.