Publication

Abstract : Several convents and women religious associated with the religious institutions have been lately making news headlines in the southern state of Kerala, India. On 31st August 2008, Sister Jesme left the Congregation of Mother of Carmel, later followed by the publication of her controversial autobiography, ‘Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun’. In 2016, Sister Mary decided to leave the congregation citing harassment. In September 2018, five nuns from Kerala stood up to the church and spearheaded the fourteen-day long protest outside the High Court to ensure the rape-accused Bishop was brought before law, withstanding stiff resistance from the Church and their congregation. Later a congregation expelled Sister Lucy Kalapura, the nun who stood against the Bishop demanding his arrest, for ‘violation of the norms’. These instances which occurred in less than a span of two decades shook the basic foundations of religious life. This paper attempts to understand these events as a reflection of the loopholes in the gender roles practiced within the convents and churches. It also tries to bring to light the maladies faced by the inmates of the convents though they are portrayed as the brides of Jesus to the outside world.