John S Moolakkattu
Biographic Data
| ID | 391499 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John S Moolakkattu |
| GIVEN NAMES | John S |
| FAMILY NAME | Moolakkattu |
| SIGNATURE | MOOLAKKATTU J S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Mahatma Gandhi University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7988-8641 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Decoloniality, Participation, Organisational Democracy, and Self-Management in Post-Apartheid South Africa and the Global South
This paper examines how colonial and neoliberal logics have influenced the ideas of self-management, democracy, and participation and how a decolonial perspective might reinterpret them. Although democracy and participation are celebrated in mainstream development discourse, they frequently serve as technologies of control that uphold market rationalities and dependency. The paper presents a conceptual model for comprehending how political and or…
Beyond ethnicity and religion: Gandhi and the crafting of civic nationalism in India
Mahatma Gandhi envisioned an inclusive Indian nationalism based on shared values rather than ethnicity, religion, or language. He supported a version of civic nationalism that respects diversity and avoids centralization or state domination. From his time in South Africa, he promoted an Indianness based on an affective sense of belonging and a relational worldview. Gandhi emphasized consent in nationhood, supported Hindustani over Hindi as a link…
Breaking Barriers: Women, Peace and Security in the Democratic Republic of Congo
This article briefly reviews UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions passed until 2019, examining their implementation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the challenges to establishing a gender-sensitive and sustainable peace in the region. The study is primarily based on desk research, supplemented by discussions held during a brief visit to Kinshasa in 2008 as part of a South African team involved in post-c…
Majoritarianism and the Differential Ownership of Democracy in India
Limitations of Community-Led Initiatives for Violence Reduction in Cases of Extreme Community Polarization in India
Changing Contours of Chinese Queer Perceptions and the Taiwanese Model
This study explores the transitions of queer understandings in China, which are considerably shaped by social, political, cultural and historical factors. While the Mao era silenced homosexuality, the reform era created new avenues for public discussions on sexuality, though they were confined to urban China. The representation of queerness in Chinese media like television, films, pop music, and so on, signifies the role of cultural identities ha…
Russia in the Horn of Africa: Re-engagement in a new strategic environment
This article discusses the role of Russia in the Horn of Africa in the context of Moscow's drive to re-engage in the region amid stiff international competition. After providing an account of the geostrategic importance of the Horn, the article discusses a number of areas in which Russia has engaged in cooperation with various regional actors. Those discussed include anti-piracy efforts, military cooperation, trade in arms, cooperation on nuclear…
Misplaced Triumphalism and Politicization of Covid-19 in Kerala
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn S. MoolakkattuJohn S. Moolakkattu is Professor, Department of International Relations & Politics, Central University of Kerala, India, and the Editor of Gandhi Marg Quarterly published by Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. E-mail: [email protected]
The Politics of the Covid-19 Pandemic in India
India responded to the COVID-19 measures abruptly and in a tough manner during the early stages of the pandemic. Its response did not take into consideration the socio-economic life of the majority of people in India who work in the informal sector and the sheer diversity of the country. The imposition of a nationwide lockdown using the Disaster Management Act 2005 enabled the Union Government to impose its will on the whole country. India has a …
Peace Profile: Albert John Luthuli
The record of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid is well known. The struggle did produce a number of Nobel peace laureates of the genre of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the
Gender-Responsive Budgeting: The Case of a Rural Local Body in Kerala
This article discusses gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) at the local level in Kerala by studying a village panchayat, the lowest tier of rural local government. GRB of a rudimentary form, known as Women Component Plan (WCP), had been in existence at the local level for the last 20 years as a key feature of participatory planning. The study adopts a fourfold classification of all projects implemented in the panchayat on the basis of their gender …
Why do women's cooperative societies languish? A study of selected societies in Kottayam, Kerala
Kerala has had a long history of cooperatives starting from the pre-independence era. The idea of women's cooperatives came much later, with the earliest ones coming into being only after 1975. This study draws on both primary and secondary data, focusing on the challenges faced by women's cooperative societies (WCSs) in Kottayam District in Southern Kerala. Most women's cooperatives function by limiting their operations to small scale banking ac…
Nonviolent Resistance to Nuclear Power Plants in South India
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn S. MoolakkattuJohn S. Moolakkattu is a Professor and Director in the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam and Kerala, India. He is also the Editor of Gandhi Marg. E-mail: [email protected]
Women Component Plan at the Village Panchayat Level in Kerala: Does it Live Up to its Promise
This article looks at the performance of the Women Component Plan (WCP) introduced at the local level in Kerala to encourage participatory planning by studying the experience of five village panchayats over a 10 year reference period. There has been a marked difference among projects carried out under the WCP and general sector projects and projects meant for Scheduled Castes in expenditure efficiency. The article also looks at the nature of proj…
Greater Primacy for State-Building in Congo
One of the functions of politics is to mediate between competing groups in society vying for access to resources of various kinds. This is a function that cannot be easily left to nongovernmental a
The Role of the African Union in Continental Peace and Security Governance
This article traces the evolution of the African Union as a successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity in terms of its mandate for conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace-building. The Union has established a continent-wide peace and security architecture through its Peace and Security Council. The paper looks at the different elements of this architecture with special focus on peacekeeping operations and institu…
Gandhi as a Human Ecologist
This paper looks at the claim that Gandhi is a human ecologist. After briefly stating the main elements of human ecology, the paper delineates the major influences, both Eastern and Western, on Gandhi’s environmental thought. The paper argues that Gandhi’s ideas on the environment emerged from his vision of an alternative economy and polity that he envisaged for the country. It also examines the influence Gandhi had on the various environmental m…
Robert W. Cox and Critical Theory of International Relations
Robert W. Cox’s contribution to International Relations theory places the discipline in a transformational framework. Building on Gramsci’s ideas and a variety of other sources eclectically, his theory goes beyond the neorealist statecentric framework and brings out the connections between material conditions, ideas and institutions in what he terms the formation of ‘world orders’. How people organize themselves in the sphere of production not on…
Land Reforms and Peaceful Change in Kerala
Land reforms, carried out by governments with a top‐down approach and narrow bureaucratic implementation, are often insufficient to address the problem of land conflicts. Popular and democratic sup
Feminism and Peace Studies: Taking Stock of a Quarter Century of Efforts
This article selectively surveys the feminist literature to identify ideas and practices that have had an impact on the relatively young discipline of peace studies, taking the last 25 years as the main reference period. Feminism has deconstructed some of the dominant discourses in peace studies, opened up new frontiers of enquiry, provided new meanings to concepts like peace, security, development and power, and helped generate a number of usefu…
The Concept and Practice of Conflict Prevention: A Critical Reappraisal
The idea of conflict prevention, with its supposedly straightforward appeal remains complex and contested. The inter-texuality of globalization and the conflict prevention discourse as well as the embeddedness of both in a project of global governance make it a disciplinary tool presented in a format of humanitarianism. Globalization is an uncontested foundational entity in the discourse. The idea of prevention often carries with it a mark of heg…
Peace Facilitation by Small States: Norway in Sri Lanka
It is now four years since Norway formally embarked on the difficult task of facilitating negotiations in the protracted ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. With an international record in peace-making and development assistance, Norway entered the fray with unmatched legitimacy. Unlike Norway's previous efforts aimed at brokering peace, the Sri Lankan facilitation was undertaken by assigning a conspicuous role to key governmental functionaries, and wa…
Salvaging the fractured Sri Lankan peace process
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn Moolakkattu John Moolakkattu is a Reader attached to the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatama Gandhi University. Correspondence: School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies, Mahatama Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India 686572. E‐mail: [email protected] John Moolakkattu is a Reader attached to the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatama…
The Primacy of Gender in STD and HIV Prevention Programmes: The Case of Female Sex Workers of Kottayam, Kerala
Intervention projects aimed at preventing STD and HIV generally tend to target women sex workers and through them their clients. This approach sees women sex workers as agents of change, with the attendant burden, but has failed to recognise gender issues surrounding sexual health, particularly power relations existing in society. While gender justice is a recognised legitimate concern, the discourse has excluded sex workers from its purview maki…
Empowerment of Women Panchayat Members: Learning from Kerala (India)
This study seeks to examine some initial outcomes of the incorporation of women in local governance, following the introduction of 33 percent reservation of seats for women representatives in local-level political bodies in rural areas of India in 1995. The paper is therefore based on extensive interviews with 27 women, who were elected members of bodies of local governance, i.e, panchayats, of Vaikom Block in Kottayam District, Kerala, the south…
Robert W. Cox and Critical Theory of International Relations
Robert W. Cox’s contribution to International Relations theory places the discipline in a transformational framework. Building on Gramsci’s ideas and a variety of other sources eclectically, his theory goes beyond the neorealist statecentric framework and brings out the connections between material conditions, ideas and institutions in what he terms the formation of ‘world orders’. How people organize themselves in the sphere of production not on…
Peace Facilitation by Small States: Norway in Sri Lanka
It is now four years since Norway formally embarked on the difficult task of facilitating negotiations in the protracted ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. With an international record in peace-making and development assistance, Norway entered the fray with unmatched legitimacy. Unlike Norway's previous efforts aimed at brokering peace, the Sri Lankan facilitation was undertaken by assigning a conspicuous role to key governmental functionaries, and wa…
Empowerment of Women Panchayat Members: Learning from Kerala (India)
This study seeks to examine some initial outcomes of the incorporation of women in local governance, following the introduction of 33 percent reservation of seats for women representatives in local-level political bodies in rural areas of India in 1995. The paper is therefore based on extensive interviews with 27 women, who were elected members of bodies of local governance, i.e, panchayats, of Vaikom Block in Kottayam District, Kerala, the south…
The Politics of the Covid-19 Pandemic in India
India responded to the COVID-19 measures abruptly and in a tough manner during the early stages of the pandemic. Its response did not take into consideration the socio-economic life of the majority of people in India who work in the informal sector and the sheer diversity of the country. The imposition of a nationwide lockdown using the Disaster Management Act 2005 enabled the Union Government to impose its will on the whole country. India has a …
Women Component Plan at the Village Panchayat Level in Kerala: Does it Live Up to its Promise
This article looks at the performance of the Women Component Plan (WCP) introduced at the local level in Kerala to encourage participatory planning by studying the experience of five village panchayats over a 10 year reference period. There has been a marked difference among projects carried out under the WCP and general sector projects and projects meant for Scheduled Castes in expenditure efficiency. The article also looks at the nature of proj…
The Role of the African Union in Continental Peace and Security Governance
This article traces the evolution of the African Union as a successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity in terms of its mandate for conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace-building. The Union has established a continent-wide peace and security architecture through its Peace and Security Council. The paper looks at the different elements of this architecture with special focus on peacekeeping operations and institu…
Feminism and Peace Studies: Taking Stock of a Quarter Century of Efforts
This article selectively surveys the feminist literature to identify ideas and practices that have had an impact on the relatively young discipline of peace studies, taking the last 25 years as the main reference period. Feminism has deconstructed some of the dominant discourses in peace studies, opened up new frontiers of enquiry, provided new meanings to concepts like peace, security, development and power, and helped generate a number of usefu…
The Concept and Practice of Conflict Prevention: A Critical Reappraisal
The idea of conflict prevention, with its supposedly straightforward appeal remains complex and contested. The inter-texuality of globalization and the conflict prevention discourse as well as the embeddedness of both in a project of global governance make it a disciplinary tool presented in a format of humanitarianism. Globalization is an uncontested foundational entity in the discourse. The idea of prevention often carries with it a mark of heg…
Russia in the Horn of Africa: Re-engagement in a new strategic environment
This article discusses the role of Russia in the Horn of Africa in the context of Moscow's drive to re-engage in the region amid stiff international competition. After providing an account of the geostrategic importance of the Horn, the article discusses a number of areas in which Russia has engaged in cooperation with various regional actors. Those discussed include anti-piracy efforts, military cooperation, trade in arms, cooperation on nuclear…
Gandhi as a Human Ecologist
This paper looks at the claim that Gandhi is a human ecologist. After briefly stating the main elements of human ecology, the paper delineates the major influences, both Eastern and Western, on Gandhi’s environmental thought. The paper argues that Gandhi’s ideas on the environment emerged from his vision of an alternative economy and polity that he envisaged for the country. It also examines the influence Gandhi had on the various environmental m…
The Primacy of Gender in STD and HIV Prevention Programmes: The Case of Female Sex Workers of Kottayam, Kerala
Intervention projects aimed at preventing STD and HIV generally tend to target women sex workers and through them their clients. This approach sees women sex workers as agents of change, with the attendant burden, but has failed to recognise gender issues surrounding sexual health, particularly power relations existing in society. While gender justice is a recognised legitimate concern, the discourse has excluded sex workers from its purview maki…
Empowerment of Women Panchayat Members: Learning from Kerala (India)
This study seeks to examine some initial outcomes of the incorporation of women in local governance, following the introduction of 33 percent reservation of seats for women representatives in local-level political bodies in rural areas of India in 1995. The paper is therefore based on extensive interviews with 27 women, who were elected members of bodies of local governance, i.e, panchayats, of Vaikom Block in Kottayam District, Kerala, the south…
The Primacy of Gender in STD and HIV Prevention Programmes: The Case of Female Sex Workers of Kottayam, Kerala
Intervention projects aimed at preventing STD and HIV generally tend to target women sex workers and through them their clients. This approach sees women sex workers as agents of change, with the attendant burden, but has failed to recognise gender issues surrounding sexual health, particularly power relations existing in society. While gender justice is a recognised legitimate concern, the discourse has excluded sex workers from its purview maki…
Salvaging the fractured Sri Lankan peace process
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn Moolakkattu John Moolakkattu is a Reader attached to the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatama Gandhi University. Correspondence: School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies, Mahatama Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India 686572. E‐mail: [email protected] John Moolakkattu is a Reader attached to the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatama…
The Concept and Practice of Conflict Prevention: A Critical Reappraisal
The idea of conflict prevention, with its supposedly straightforward appeal remains complex and contested. The inter-texuality of globalization and the conflict prevention discourse as well as the embeddedness of both in a project of global governance make it a disciplinary tool presented in a format of humanitarianism. Globalization is an uncontested foundational entity in the discourse. The idea of prevention often carries with it a mark of heg…
Peace Facilitation by Small States: Norway in Sri Lanka
It is now four years since Norway formally embarked on the difficult task of facilitating negotiations in the protracted ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. With an international record in peace-making and development assistance, Norway entered the fray with unmatched legitimacy. Unlike Norway's previous efforts aimed at brokering peace, the Sri Lankan facilitation was undertaken by assigning a conspicuous role to key governmental functionaries, and wa…
Feminism and Peace Studies: Taking Stock of a Quarter Century of Efforts
This article selectively surveys the feminist literature to identify ideas and practices that have had an impact on the relatively young discipline of peace studies, taking the last 25 years as the main reference period. Feminism has deconstructed some of the dominant discourses in peace studies, opened up new frontiers of enquiry, provided new meanings to concepts like peace, security, development and power, and helped generate a number of usefu…
Land Reforms and Peaceful Change in Kerala
Land reforms, carried out by governments with a top‐down approach and narrow bureaucratic implementation, are often insufficient to address the problem of land conflicts. Popular and democratic sup
Robert W. Cox and Critical Theory of International Relations
Robert W. Cox’s contribution to International Relations theory places the discipline in a transformational framework. Building on Gramsci’s ideas and a variety of other sources eclectically, his theory goes beyond the neorealist statecentric framework and brings out the connections between material conditions, ideas and institutions in what he terms the formation of ‘world orders’. How people organize themselves in the sphere of production not on…
The Role of the African Union in Continental Peace and Security Governance
This article traces the evolution of the African Union as a successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity in terms of its mandate for conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace-building. The Union has established a continent-wide peace and security architecture through its Peace and Security Council. The paper looks at the different elements of this architecture with special focus on peacekeeping operations and institu…
Gandhi as a Human Ecologist
This paper looks at the claim that Gandhi is a human ecologist. After briefly stating the main elements of human ecology, the paper delineates the major influences, both Eastern and Western, on Gandhi’s environmental thought. The paper argues that Gandhi’s ideas on the environment emerged from his vision of an alternative economy and polity that he envisaged for the country. It also examines the influence Gandhi had on the various environmental m…
Greater Primacy for State-Building in Congo
One of the functions of politics is to mediate between competing groups in society vying for access to resources of various kinds. This is a function that cannot be easily left to nongovernmental a
Nonviolent Resistance to Nuclear Power Plants in South India
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn S. MoolakkattuJohn S. Moolakkattu is a Professor and Director in the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam and Kerala, India. He is also the Editor of Gandhi Marg. E-mail: [email protected]
Women Component Plan at the Village Panchayat Level in Kerala: Does it Live Up to its Promise
This article looks at the performance of the Women Component Plan (WCP) introduced at the local level in Kerala to encourage participatory planning by studying the experience of five village panchayats over a 10 year reference period. There has been a marked difference among projects carried out under the WCP and general sector projects and projects meant for Scheduled Castes in expenditure efficiency. The article also looks at the nature of proj…
Why do women's cooperative societies languish? A study of selected societies in Kottayam, Kerala
Kerala has had a long history of cooperatives starting from the pre-independence era. The idea of women's cooperatives came much later, with the earliest ones coming into being only after 1975. This study draws on both primary and secondary data, focusing on the challenges faced by women's cooperative societies (WCSs) in Kottayam District in Southern Kerala. Most women's cooperatives function by limiting their operations to small scale banking ac…
Gender-Responsive Budgeting: The Case of a Rural Local Body in Kerala
This article discusses gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) at the local level in Kerala by studying a village panchayat, the lowest tier of rural local government. GRB of a rudimentary form, known as Women Component Plan (WCP), had been in existence at the local level for the last 20 years as a key feature of participatory planning. The study adopts a fourfold classification of all projects implemented in the panchayat on the basis of their gender …
Peace Profile: Albert John Luthuli
The record of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid is well known. The struggle did produce a number of Nobel peace laureates of the genre of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the
Misplaced Triumphalism and Politicization of Covid-19 in Kerala
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn S. MoolakkattuJohn S. Moolakkattu is Professor, Department of International Relations & Politics, Central University of Kerala, India, and the Editor of Gandhi Marg Quarterly published by Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. E-mail: [email protected]
The Politics of the Covid-19 Pandemic in India
India responded to the COVID-19 measures abruptly and in a tough manner during the early stages of the pandemic. Its response did not take into consideration the socio-economic life of the majority of people in India who work in the informal sector and the sheer diversity of the country. The imposition of a nationwide lockdown using the Disaster Management Act 2005 enabled the Union Government to impose its will on the whole country. India has a …
Russia in the Horn of Africa: Re-engagement in a new strategic environment
This article discusses the role of Russia in the Horn of Africa in the context of Moscow's drive to re-engage in the region amid stiff international competition. After providing an account of the geostrategic importance of the Horn, the article discusses a number of areas in which Russia has engaged in cooperation with various regional actors. Those discussed include anti-piracy efforts, military cooperation, trade in arms, cooperation on nuclear…
Changing Contours of Chinese Queer Perceptions and the Taiwanese Model
This study explores the transitions of queer understandings in China, which are considerably shaped by social, political, cultural and historical factors. While the Mao era silenced homosexuality, the reform era created new avenues for public discussions on sexuality, though they were confined to urban China. The representation of queerness in Chinese media like television, films, pop music, and so on, signifies the role of cultural identities ha…
Limitations of Community-Led Initiatives for Violence Reduction in Cases of Extreme Community Polarization in India
Breaking Barriers: Women, Peace and Security in the Democratic Republic of Congo
This article briefly reviews UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions passed until 2019, examining their implementation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the challenges to establishing a gender-sensitive and sustainable peace in the region. The study is primarily based on desk research, supplemented by discussions held during a brief visit to Kinshasa in 2008 as part of a South African team involved in post-c…
Majoritarianism and the Differential Ownership of Democracy in India
Decoloniality, Participation, Organisational Democracy, and Self-Management in Post-Apartheid South Africa and the Global South
This paper examines how colonial and neoliberal logics have influenced the ideas of self-management, democracy, and participation and how a decolonial perspective might reinterpret them. Although democracy and participation are celebrated in mainstream development discourse, they frequently serve as technologies of control that uphold market rationalities and dependency. The paper presents a conceptual model for comprehending how political and or…
Beyond ethnicity and religion: Gandhi and the crafting of civic nationalism in India
Mahatma Gandhi envisioned an inclusive Indian nationalism based on shared values rather than ethnicity, religion, or language. He supported a version of civic nationalism that respects diversity and avoids centralization or state domination. From his time in South Africa, he promoted an Indianness based on an affective sense of belonging and a relational worldview. Gandhi emphasized consent in nationhood, supported Hindustani over Hindi as a link…
Political science (22 works) · Law (18 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Geography (7 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works)