Thursday, October 27, 2005
Price of Neglect – Early Southern Revolts Against the Christian British
P R J Pradeep
When independent India celebrates the heroes who fought the British the earliest uprisings against the British in South India are not given their due place. Velu Thambi and Paliath Achan in Travancore - Cochin (1805-09), Pazhassi Raja in Malabar (1785-1805) and Kattabomman in Thirunelveli, Tamilnadu ( 1795-99) were most important among these. Despite being an Islamic tyrant Tippu Sultan of Mysore ( 1795-99) also fought the imperial British. Most of the historians consider the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 as the first major opposition to British rule in India. This is an anomaly in history as the stratagems the British used and the role of Christian faith in that remains unaccounted for. For one and a half centuries after 1800, India, what was the richest country in the world, came under organized loot. What indirectly continues. Post-colonial India had accepted secularism, a product of the Christian west, as state policy. It was now immoral and such debates were tabooed. To add on to this was the North- Indian bias in Indian history. How India continued to commit the same mistakes and the Indian state took a soft approach to Christianity and the west with calamitous effects. Impact of this neo-colonisation is still not fully realized.
It is not a coincidence that the famous `Kundara Vilambaram' a proclamation by Velu Thambi on January 11, 1809 calls on the Hindus to be aware of the designs of the Christian British and defeat them. He categorically states that `they will put crosses on temples' and 'dishonour the faith and the Brahmins'. Thambi was instrumental in attacking the British forces and the Syrian Christians of Kerala who supported them. Once refugees to Kerala given shelter by the Hindu kings they plotted for a Christian kingdom. Many Christian priests were killed in the Hindu uprising and sunk in the back waters. A major population of the Christians from Kollam, once capital of Venad, fled from the place. But at the end of the day Christians won the game and today the same Christians have come to rule Kerala. Legendary Malabar, Kerala now, has become the world capital of suicides. The ecosystem is devastated. Rich and clever Syrian Christians have captured most of the Kerala lands. The temples are indeed under the Christian rulers, what Velu Thambi predicted with uncanny precision. Paliathachan of Cochin also joined Thambi and gave a call to the `Nayars and Theeyas' to fight the British. Whole of south- central Kerala rose in revolt. British called in troupes from other regions and they were surrounded. Travancore kings also gave a call to arrest Velu Thambi and send forces. How they remained as the insiders thereafter. After a heroic resistance Velu Thambi committed suicide at a goddess temple at Mannady in 1809 as British historians later told. Dead body of Velu Thambi was brought to Kannammoola at Thiruvananthapuram and insulted, where a Christian monastery, United Theological Seminary, now stands in all majesty. Paliathachan was sent out on exile.
The game plans and lessons the British learned in this phase is of crucial importance in the later history of India. A company from a far off little island called Britain who came to trade in spices became the rulers of India with the help of crude tactics and Christianity. Where the faith and the local Christians played a central role. In Kerala having been here for long they knew the values of the local people, what came handy for the Europeans. How Tippu Sultan also targeted the local Christians whom he called `spies of the British'. In Travancore it was a triangle of faiths that clashed, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. When Tippu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali tried to forcibly convert people, what all other Islamic rulers of the time did in India, the Hindu kings of Travancore sought British help. Initially the British did not help as promised but Travancore defeated Tippu. Later the British asked for `protection money and expenses of war', impossible sums from the small kingdom. They trapped Travancore in debt and took over the rule. Not paying back `debt' was painful for the values of the place. They created that `debt' and made the rulers feel guilty. It was a clear psychological device, later versions of history tell that the British took bribes from Tippu as well. These officers were put under punishment and a famous English novel has this story as its theme.
Now the process of conversions to Christianity began, efforts to neutralize the Hindu faith were also under way. Community owned temples were taken over and brought under the British government, what continues to this day. Temple rituals were altered by `laws'. Famous temple centred Kalari culture of the martial people Nayars, where decentralized armies were part of Kerala, was dissolved. What kept the place impossible to colonise so far. Christian institutions of justice replaced the local ones, where the local Christians were pushed in by state orders. They spread exaggerated stories of upper caste oppression and got the lower castes converted. Converts stood by them. Obviously the caste Brahmin phase had created severe caste divisions and these were cleverly used by the missionaries. The refugee population of Syrian Christians and the new converts were given many privileges. Exorbitant rates of taxation, to pay the British, broke the local economy. Fleecing tax was entrusted to the old nobility Nayars who had to face punishment if the quotas were not met. Obviously they became enemies of the ordinary people. Conversions gave tax exemptions and people flocked to Christianity. Many of the British officers went back to Britain and became leaders at the Christian support missions for conversions in India like the Church Mission Society. It was a long term political plan more than faith.
In Malabar where Pazhassi Raja rose in revolt the scene was very similar, on one side was the threat of Muslim rulers from Mysore whose cruelty to the `kafirs' was beyond description. Younger one of the ruling family in Kottayam, which extended from Tellicherry to Kudaku including the tribal belts of Wynad, Pazhassi Raja too sought the help of the British to fight the Muslims. Had to repent this later and here again faith was central. He wrote to Ayilyath Nambiar, a Nayar chiefton around 1800, `the whites have desecrated Manathana, the abode of Perumal and Bhagawathy (God and the Goddess) and firings have taken place there, I have decided to oppose them'. The early clashes of Pazhassy Raja were also related to faith and heavy taxation. Emboldened by the presence of Tippu and the British the local Muslims started building places of worship at Kottayam bazaar without taking permission from the Raja. Pazhassi ordered its demolition and this angered the British now assuming sovereignty. They plotted to make the small kings to fight each other and made them pay huge taxes. Unable to pay the unbearable taxes many farmers abandoned their villages. Where Pazhassy, who swore by Porkali Bhagawathy, the family deity, took up armed struggle.
The Nayar chieftons, local Nambiar families and the warlike tribals like Kurichiar and Kurumbar stood by him. It was one of the longest revolts that the British had to face in India and lasted for around ten years. Large number of British soldiers and officers had to pay with their lives and the Raja and his tribal warriors had the forest tracks of Wynad to their advantage. The British plotted giving various advantages to the local kings and made them enemies of each other, Pazhassi Raja refused to oblige despite offers of peace. He stood his ground and demanded that the taxes be waived. Later phases of the clash saw the Raja going to the old enemy Tippu himself for alliance. The Moppila Muslims of Malabar, mainly descendants of the Arabian traders and those converted to Islam, now supported Pazhassi Raja. They realized the British motives and forgot the differences. But the British defeated and killed Tippu at Sreerangapatnam in 1799. Pazhassi Raja was their next target. The British famous for their planning was buying time and making preparations in the region for a final assault. Their positions in Sreerangapatnam was reinforced and the plan was to attack from different directions what they did with Velu Thambi in Travancore as well. The small kings had valour but did not have the broad frame of operation in India as the British had. The British officers, called Collectors, since their main job was collecting taxes, took several steps like waving the oppressive taxes from selected people and winning them over. But majority of the people stood with Pazhassi. As a reminder of the colonized minds fossils of the `Collectors' still remain in India.
When the final war came they offered prices for catching the leaders of the `rebels'. The rates were Pazhassi Raja, and his two nephews - Pagoda 5000 (around Rs. 15000/), four people from the Edachena Nayar family - Pagoda 2000. Kurichiar tribals, Palloor, Ittikombath, Mundottil Nayar families were also associated with the revolt and offered prices for heads. Pazhassi called on the people to fight in the name of the hill deities of Wynad and the final assault was planned based at the Seethadevi temple at Pulpalli. But at last they were defeated by a team under the Collector T H Babar and Pazhassi Raja was killed on 30 Nov. 1805. It was Babar who also captured Thalaykkal Chanthu a Kurichia tribal leader. When killed Pazhassi had his wife from the Avinjat Nayar family with him. Getting the reward money kept Babar plotting again and he reported that only a gold dagger and waist band was all that he could put hands on. Pazhassi's dead body was given due honors by Babar who wrote about the great man with respect. Perhaps they had learned the lessons after Velu Thambi's dead body was subjected to insult. Soon the British promoted their own people in the region and made all efforts to keep the war like tribals in control, the forests where they could hide were made British reserves and white officers put in charge. Settlements of Christian in Wynad, mainly the Syrian Christians begins from the south, begins here. As a British officer himself wrote about the time ` the traditional social controls have broken down, any one can loot anything here'. Today Wynad and the hill areas are almost totally under the Syrian Christians and the tribals are thrown out of their own lands. The many of the old Nayar families have been made laborers of the Christians in most places. With the state ruled by a Christian Muslim coalition they flex their muscles and have also destroyed the rain forest ecosystem. Pulppally is a mafia center of the Christian eco-criminals who remain out of the law enforcement mechanisms. Poaching and cultivation of Indian hemp, Gunja, is the core activity here. Where the Christian politicians in the capital have their stakes.
The other uprising in south India, that of Kattabomman in Thirunelveli was also similar and had in it almost all the ingredients and inhuman taxation was at the core. Unlike Kerala region Tamilnadu did not give refuge to the Syrian Christians and there was no immediate Christian connection here. What was taken care of by the British who send hordes of missionaries to the Tamilnadu villages, what continues to this day. Kattabomman who infuriated the British by shooting down a British official at the residence of the British Collector at Ramnad took to the forests of Pudukottai. The British who helped the Thondaiman kings of Ramnad against the Muslim invaders took his help and Kattabomman was caught in the forests by the Raja's forces. Legendary Kattabomman was handed over to the British by the king Raghunatha Thondaiman and was hanged at Kayathar in the presence of the Palayakkar of Thirunelveli on 17 Oct. 1799. As a warning to those revolting. Thondaiman got a horse and a Khillet for the service rendered and they continued to rule under the British as a principality, like Travancore, till independence. Where the descendants of Kattabomman and the warlike Thevar community have succumbed to misery and destitution. The British treated them as a criminal community, later known as the `Maravar', meaning guerilla fighters, this community is now in dire straights.
The early uprisings against the British in the South have important lessons for India though these are least understood even after half a century of the British leaving the Indian shores. The European Christian nations and the Arab Muslims were fighting for the trade supremacy in the Indian ocean. Where Hindu India was caught in between. Even after freedom the far sighted British had ensured that the lids remained intact and the Indian union became a member of the British Common Wealth, a crowd of old colonies owing allegiance to Britain, and continued to be an open forum for Christian missionaries and western loot. Only the devices now came in other names and shapes. If it was the East India Company then it is the World Bank and the WTO now. Indebted India continues to pay off the heavy debts, what if the poor in India have not enough to meet their daily food expenses. With its colonial hang over India is run by those who are trained by the west, the successful politicians are those from the London School of Economics. An institution set up during the period of colonization, with its biased theories of the western hegemony. Indian `Collectors' still haunt people, though they don't collect anything now. Within India the hierarchy of caste and the caste Brahmin supremacy are still intact and in many regions untouchability is widely practiced fuelling Christian conversions. Interestingly both Velu Thambi and Pazhassi Raja evoked the ' Protection of the Brahmins' as their major motto. The Hindu – Muslim divide which was broadened by the British eventually lead to the trifurcation of the country but is still alive and helping the western conspiracies. But Indian scholars or the media refuse to look at these central processes of faith as yet, they are afraid. The sagas of Velu Thambi,Pazhassi Raja and Kattabomman are rarely taught to the new generations in the south leave alone the North. Where historians of independent India have failed.
When independent India celebrates the heroes who fought the British the earliest uprisings against the British in South India are not given their due place. Velu Thambi and Paliath Achan in Travancore - Cochin (1805-09), Pazhassi Raja in Malabar (1785-1805) and Kattabomman in Thirunelveli, Tamilnadu ( 1795-99) were most important among these. Despite being an Islamic tyrant Tippu Sultan of Mysore ( 1795-99) also fought the imperial British. Most of the historians consider the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 as the first major opposition to British rule in India. This is an anomaly in history as the stratagems the British used and the role of Christian faith in that remains unaccounted for. For one and a half centuries after 1800, India, what was the richest country in the world, came under organized loot. What indirectly continues. Post-colonial India had accepted secularism, a product of the Christian west, as state policy. It was now immoral and such debates were tabooed. To add on to this was the North- Indian bias in Indian history. How India continued to commit the same mistakes and the Indian state took a soft approach to Christianity and the west with calamitous effects. Impact of this neo-colonisation is still not fully realized.
It is not a coincidence that the famous `Kundara Vilambaram' a proclamation by Velu Thambi on January 11, 1809 calls on the Hindus to be aware of the designs of the Christian British and defeat them. He categorically states that `they will put crosses on temples' and 'dishonour the faith and the Brahmins'. Thambi was instrumental in attacking the British forces and the Syrian Christians of Kerala who supported them. Once refugees to Kerala given shelter by the Hindu kings they plotted for a Christian kingdom. Many Christian priests were killed in the Hindu uprising and sunk in the back waters. A major population of the Christians from Kollam, once capital of Venad, fled from the place. But at the end of the day Christians won the game and today the same Christians have come to rule Kerala. Legendary Malabar, Kerala now, has become the world capital of suicides. The ecosystem is devastated. Rich and clever Syrian Christians have captured most of the Kerala lands. The temples are indeed under the Christian rulers, what Velu Thambi predicted with uncanny precision. Paliathachan of Cochin also joined Thambi and gave a call to the `Nayars and Theeyas' to fight the British. Whole of south- central Kerala rose in revolt. British called in troupes from other regions and they were surrounded. Travancore kings also gave a call to arrest Velu Thambi and send forces. How they remained as the insiders thereafter. After a heroic resistance Velu Thambi committed suicide at a goddess temple at Mannady in 1809 as British historians later told. Dead body of Velu Thambi was brought to Kannammoola at Thiruvananthapuram and insulted, where a Christian monastery, United Theological Seminary, now stands in all majesty. Paliathachan was sent out on exile.
The game plans and lessons the British learned in this phase is of crucial importance in the later history of India. A company from a far off little island called Britain who came to trade in spices became the rulers of India with the help of crude tactics and Christianity. Where the faith and the local Christians played a central role. In Kerala having been here for long they knew the values of the local people, what came handy for the Europeans. How Tippu Sultan also targeted the local Christians whom he called `spies of the British'. In Travancore it was a triangle of faiths that clashed, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. When Tippu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali tried to forcibly convert people, what all other Islamic rulers of the time did in India, the Hindu kings of Travancore sought British help. Initially the British did not help as promised but Travancore defeated Tippu. Later the British asked for `protection money and expenses of war', impossible sums from the small kingdom. They trapped Travancore in debt and took over the rule. Not paying back `debt' was painful for the values of the place. They created that `debt' and made the rulers feel guilty. It was a clear psychological device, later versions of history tell that the British took bribes from Tippu as well. These officers were put under punishment and a famous English novel has this story as its theme.
Now the process of conversions to Christianity began, efforts to neutralize the Hindu faith were also under way. Community owned temples were taken over and brought under the British government, what continues to this day. Temple rituals were altered by `laws'. Famous temple centred Kalari culture of the martial people Nayars, where decentralized armies were part of Kerala, was dissolved. What kept the place impossible to colonise so far. Christian institutions of justice replaced the local ones, where the local Christians were pushed in by state orders. They spread exaggerated stories of upper caste oppression and got the lower castes converted. Converts stood by them. Obviously the caste Brahmin phase had created severe caste divisions and these were cleverly used by the missionaries. The refugee population of Syrian Christians and the new converts were given many privileges. Exorbitant rates of taxation, to pay the British, broke the local economy. Fleecing tax was entrusted to the old nobility Nayars who had to face punishment if the quotas were not met. Obviously they became enemies of the ordinary people. Conversions gave tax exemptions and people flocked to Christianity. Many of the British officers went back to Britain and became leaders at the Christian support missions for conversions in India like the Church Mission Society. It was a long term political plan more than faith.
In Malabar where Pazhassi Raja rose in revolt the scene was very similar, on one side was the threat of Muslim rulers from Mysore whose cruelty to the `kafirs' was beyond description. Younger one of the ruling family in Kottayam, which extended from Tellicherry to Kudaku including the tribal belts of Wynad, Pazhassi Raja too sought the help of the British to fight the Muslims. Had to repent this later and here again faith was central. He wrote to Ayilyath Nambiar, a Nayar chiefton around 1800, `the whites have desecrated Manathana, the abode of Perumal and Bhagawathy (God and the Goddess) and firings have taken place there, I have decided to oppose them'. The early clashes of Pazhassy Raja were also related to faith and heavy taxation. Emboldened by the presence of Tippu and the British the local Muslims started building places of worship at Kottayam bazaar without taking permission from the Raja. Pazhassi ordered its demolition and this angered the British now assuming sovereignty. They plotted to make the small kings to fight each other and made them pay huge taxes. Unable to pay the unbearable taxes many farmers abandoned their villages. Where Pazhassy, who swore by Porkali Bhagawathy, the family deity, took up armed struggle.
The Nayar chieftons, local Nambiar families and the warlike tribals like Kurichiar and Kurumbar stood by him. It was one of the longest revolts that the British had to face in India and lasted for around ten years. Large number of British soldiers and officers had to pay with their lives and the Raja and his tribal warriors had the forest tracks of Wynad to their advantage. The British plotted giving various advantages to the local kings and made them enemies of each other, Pazhassi Raja refused to oblige despite offers of peace. He stood his ground and demanded that the taxes be waived. Later phases of the clash saw the Raja going to the old enemy Tippu himself for alliance. The Moppila Muslims of Malabar, mainly descendants of the Arabian traders and those converted to Islam, now supported Pazhassi Raja. They realized the British motives and forgot the differences. But the British defeated and killed Tippu at Sreerangapatnam in 1799. Pazhassi Raja was their next target. The British famous for their planning was buying time and making preparations in the region for a final assault. Their positions in Sreerangapatnam was reinforced and the plan was to attack from different directions what they did with Velu Thambi in Travancore as well. The small kings had valour but did not have the broad frame of operation in India as the British had. The British officers, called Collectors, since their main job was collecting taxes, took several steps like waving the oppressive taxes from selected people and winning them over. But majority of the people stood with Pazhassi. As a reminder of the colonized minds fossils of the `Collectors' still remain in India.
When the final war came they offered prices for catching the leaders of the `rebels'. The rates were Pazhassi Raja, and his two nephews - Pagoda 5000 (around Rs. 15000/), four people from the Edachena Nayar family - Pagoda 2000. Kurichiar tribals, Palloor, Ittikombath, Mundottil Nayar families were also associated with the revolt and offered prices for heads. Pazhassi called on the people to fight in the name of the hill deities of Wynad and the final assault was planned based at the Seethadevi temple at Pulpalli. But at last they were defeated by a team under the Collector T H Babar and Pazhassi Raja was killed on 30 Nov. 1805. It was Babar who also captured Thalaykkal Chanthu a Kurichia tribal leader. When killed Pazhassi had his wife from the Avinjat Nayar family with him. Getting the reward money kept Babar plotting again and he reported that only a gold dagger and waist band was all that he could put hands on. Pazhassi's dead body was given due honors by Babar who wrote about the great man with respect. Perhaps they had learned the lessons after Velu Thambi's dead body was subjected to insult. Soon the British promoted their own people in the region and made all efforts to keep the war like tribals in control, the forests where they could hide were made British reserves and white officers put in charge. Settlements of Christian in Wynad, mainly the Syrian Christians begins from the south, begins here. As a British officer himself wrote about the time ` the traditional social controls have broken down, any one can loot anything here'. Today Wynad and the hill areas are almost totally under the Syrian Christians and the tribals are thrown out of their own lands. The many of the old Nayar families have been made laborers of the Christians in most places. With the state ruled by a Christian Muslim coalition they flex their muscles and have also destroyed the rain forest ecosystem. Pulppally is a mafia center of the Christian eco-criminals who remain out of the law enforcement mechanisms. Poaching and cultivation of Indian hemp, Gunja, is the core activity here. Where the Christian politicians in the capital have their stakes.
The other uprising in south India, that of Kattabomman in Thirunelveli was also similar and had in it almost all the ingredients and inhuman taxation was at the core. Unlike Kerala region Tamilnadu did not give refuge to the Syrian Christians and there was no immediate Christian connection here. What was taken care of by the British who send hordes of missionaries to the Tamilnadu villages, what continues to this day. Kattabomman who infuriated the British by shooting down a British official at the residence of the British Collector at Ramnad took to the forests of Pudukottai. The British who helped the Thondaiman kings of Ramnad against the Muslim invaders took his help and Kattabomman was caught in the forests by the Raja's forces. Legendary Kattabomman was handed over to the British by the king Raghunatha Thondaiman and was hanged at Kayathar in the presence of the Palayakkar of Thirunelveli on 17 Oct. 1799. As a warning to those revolting. Thondaiman got a horse and a Khillet for the service rendered and they continued to rule under the British as a principality, like Travancore, till independence. Where the descendants of Kattabomman and the warlike Thevar community have succumbed to misery and destitution. The British treated them as a criminal community, later known as the `Maravar', meaning guerilla fighters, this community is now in dire straights.
The early uprisings against the British in the South have important lessons for India though these are least understood even after half a century of the British leaving the Indian shores. The European Christian nations and the Arab Muslims were fighting for the trade supremacy in the Indian ocean. Where Hindu India was caught in between. Even after freedom the far sighted British had ensured that the lids remained intact and the Indian union became a member of the British Common Wealth, a crowd of old colonies owing allegiance to Britain, and continued to be an open forum for Christian missionaries and western loot. Only the devices now came in other names and shapes. If it was the East India Company then it is the World Bank and the WTO now. Indebted India continues to pay off the heavy debts, what if the poor in India have not enough to meet their daily food expenses. With its colonial hang over India is run by those who are trained by the west, the successful politicians are those from the London School of Economics. An institution set up during the period of colonization, with its biased theories of the western hegemony. Indian `Collectors' still haunt people, though they don't collect anything now. Within India the hierarchy of caste and the caste Brahmin supremacy are still intact and in many regions untouchability is widely practiced fuelling Christian conversions. Interestingly both Velu Thambi and Pazhassi Raja evoked the ' Protection of the Brahmins' as their major motto. The Hindu – Muslim divide which was broadened by the British eventually lead to the trifurcation of the country but is still alive and helping the western conspiracies. But Indian scholars or the media refuse to look at these central processes of faith as yet, they are afraid. The sagas of Velu Thambi,Pazhassi Raja and Kattabomman are rarely taught to the new generations in the south leave alone the North. Where historians of independent India have failed.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Kerala - Terrorist Camps of Another Kind
On one side when the Hindu population in Kerala have a high rate of suicides there are hardly few Hindu NGOs. They fail to work, pauperised Hindus have no background in this area. While there are hundreds of Christian NGOs, they become the saviours. Lavishly supported with state funds, though they get aid from the international church agencies, these are active not just in Kerala but across India. The state government has a coterie of minority officials and politicians who manage this for the last several decades. They have people in the central government as well, it is an old nexus. Places like Thiruvalla have innumerable agencies which pool in international church funds and send it to myriad organizations across India, from tribal movements in the nooks and corners to famous urban (secular, leftist) NGOs. The latter make the buffer as they give the legitimacy through media statements etc and the church outfits do the dirty work later.
Politically also they are powerful and can swing votes without being noticed. For example some of the Kerala organisations were behind the precipitation of tribal home land movements like Jharkand, many in North East. Later the Hindu organisations cleverly took the winds out of their sails in Jharkhand when the BJP itself demanded separate states. In the North-East they are having a free for all and could turn Nagaland in to a Christian state in no time. Men and money flew in from Kerala. It goes on unnoticed. Meghalaya is a mini-Kerala with the Syrian Christian community from Kerala calling the shots. They manage to place their people in important posts there. Many of the divisive groups also get funded, the 'Hindu India' is different from 'Tribal India', 'Christian India' are common refrains here. Tutored for convenience.
Almost all of the Christian NGOs are run by the Syrian Christian community of the state. Kerala also has a substantial population of Latin Catholics, converted by the Portugese earlier, and other converts but they are not as rich or powerful. Perhaps they did not know the commercial applications of faith. As the Portugese were the arch enemies of the British, the Latin Catholics did not prosper like the Syrians who were clever and converted every time a new European church came ashore. With the Portugese, Dutch, British. The last a watershed for them. They have all the Christian denominations of sub-faiths in Europe and more. Funded by each one. Just as they have Communists, Congressmen.
While operating in the north many of them are good samaritans. Thus 'Father' Thomas Kochery, a fisheries sector crusader from Kerala, is known only as Tom Kochery in the North, the 'Father' prefix and the ceremonial dress are dropped. They have also penetrated the media at all places and can manipulate public opinion, it is all part of planned strategies. The leading Malayalam newspaper from the Syrian Christians, Malayala Manorama can make or unmake governments in Kerala. They toppled the Karunakaran government once with a fake story of espionage in the ISRO, got their man A. K. Antony in the Chief Minister's chair. 60 to 70 percent of secular Malayalis read Manorama still!! It is the Kerala Bible. How now Kerala is 'leftist and secular' but ruled by the Muslim League and Christian Kerala Congress. People fear to tell that they are Hindus, it sounds 'communal'. That is secularism in Kerala.
They created the myth of 'savarna fascism' upper caste oppression to neutralise the Nairs and the Brahmins. Following the foot steps of the cunning missionaries who wanted the leading communities to be weakened. Media reach of the groups rendered the so called 'upper castes' confused, the mass hypnosis made the others suffer a 'persecution complex'. Later this spread all over India. The Syrian Christians were themselves promoting untouchability as history tells, but they keep silent on that and present conversion as the tool of liberation. Their offer of heaven to the tribals in Kerala however ended up as hell, they stole their lands and threw the tribals out. What is forgotten is that there are social hierarchies, not seen by the people, even now. Say, does a peon eat with a Managing Director in the westernized society. But the missionary tales still run. Propaganda mills work over time and the naïve Hindus accept it, fight over that.
As the NGOs go scot free with their silent campaigns, with jargons of secularism and communalism it becomes easy to twist public opinion. What is happening all over India, but least noticed. Thus the Western Christian point of view is reinforced as the only right approach. In a post-colonial society this is easy and the tool of NGO helps in the exercise. Not that there are no NGOs doing good in the country, there are, but the fact that the Christian NGOs and funding agencies are controlling the field cannot be brushed aside. For they have tremendous capacities as they work among the grass root people. Obviously it is linked to the global economic imbalances with the Christian west controlling the world capital, resources, in the post-colonial world. How these become sensitive and tabooed topics and the western values, views and even laws are used to stop such debates. The Indian idiom suffers as a result and that cannot be in the good interests of the country. That includes all the people living in India, the minorities included.
Politically also they are powerful and can swing votes without being noticed. For example some of the Kerala organisations were behind the precipitation of tribal home land movements like Jharkand, many in North East. Later the Hindu organisations cleverly took the winds out of their sails in Jharkhand when the BJP itself demanded separate states. In the North-East they are having a free for all and could turn Nagaland in to a Christian state in no time. Men and money flew in from Kerala. It goes on unnoticed. Meghalaya is a mini-Kerala with the Syrian Christian community from Kerala calling the shots. They manage to place their people in important posts there. Many of the divisive groups also get funded, the 'Hindu India' is different from 'Tribal India', 'Christian India' are common refrains here. Tutored for convenience.
Almost all of the Christian NGOs are run by the Syrian Christian community of the state. Kerala also has a substantial population of Latin Catholics, converted by the Portugese earlier, and other converts but they are not as rich or powerful. Perhaps they did not know the commercial applications of faith. As the Portugese were the arch enemies of the British, the Latin Catholics did not prosper like the Syrians who were clever and converted every time a new European church came ashore. With the Portugese, Dutch, British. The last a watershed for them. They have all the Christian denominations of sub-faiths in Europe and more. Funded by each one. Just as they have Communists, Congressmen.
While operating in the north many of them are good samaritans. Thus 'Father' Thomas Kochery, a fisheries sector crusader from Kerala, is known only as Tom Kochery in the North, the 'Father' prefix and the ceremonial dress are dropped. They have also penetrated the media at all places and can manipulate public opinion, it is all part of planned strategies. The leading Malayalam newspaper from the Syrian Christians, Malayala Manorama can make or unmake governments in Kerala. They toppled the Karunakaran government once with a fake story of espionage in the ISRO, got their man A. K. Antony in the Chief Minister's chair. 60 to 70 percent of secular Malayalis read Manorama still!! It is the Kerala Bible. How now Kerala is 'leftist and secular' but ruled by the Muslim League and Christian Kerala Congress. People fear to tell that they are Hindus, it sounds 'communal'. That is secularism in Kerala.
They created the myth of 'savarna fascism' upper caste oppression to neutralise the Nairs and the Brahmins. Following the foot steps of the cunning missionaries who wanted the leading communities to be weakened. Media reach of the groups rendered the so called 'upper castes' confused, the mass hypnosis made the others suffer a 'persecution complex'. Later this spread all over India. The Syrian Christians were themselves promoting untouchability as history tells, but they keep silent on that and present conversion as the tool of liberation. Their offer of heaven to the tribals in Kerala however ended up as hell, they stole their lands and threw the tribals out. What is forgotten is that there are social hierarchies, not seen by the people, even now. Say, does a peon eat with a Managing Director in the westernized society. But the missionary tales still run. Propaganda mills work over time and the naïve Hindus accept it, fight over that.
As the NGOs go scot free with their silent campaigns, with jargons of secularism and communalism it becomes easy to twist public opinion. What is happening all over India, but least noticed. Thus the Western Christian point of view is reinforced as the only right approach. In a post-colonial society this is easy and the tool of NGO helps in the exercise. Not that there are no NGOs doing good in the country, there are, but the fact that the Christian NGOs and funding agencies are controlling the field cannot be brushed aside. For they have tremendous capacities as they work among the grass root people. Obviously it is linked to the global economic imbalances with the Christian west controlling the world capital, resources, in the post-colonial world. How these become sensitive and tabooed topics and the western values, views and even laws are used to stop such debates. The Indian idiom suffers as a result and that cannot be in the good interests of the country. That includes all the people living in India, the minorities included.
What NGO Charity Hides
The popular model of NGOs, non-governmental organisations, in the country evolved in the Christian west. In India, fiercely so with states like Kerala, this sector is almost totally controlled by the Christian church, international Christian donors and their allies. Some of them have budgets mounting to several crores with their beneficiary list across India reading like a 'who is who' of Indian society. This list ofcourse also include hard-core church agencies involved in conversion. They make inroads to respectable NGO movements mostly through surreptitious means. Money has its lure and many succumb and do their bidding later. There is an army of people involved in this most subtle divisive activity in today's India.
Many 'secular NGOs' are actually secretly aided by these people. Some of them quite famous. Those trying to eek out a separate identity in the NGO sector will find it difficult. Despite setting up of agencies like CAPART (Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology) by the ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India, the promotion of secular NGOs in development sector has been minimal. While the Hindu groups have tried to organise these, lack of professionalism and exposure to the resources become a handicap. Thus these very same agencies succeed in getting the government funds as well. Over and above the international church aid they have. To the ordinary people the 'generosity' come from the local Christian priests and that in concrete terms and they follow them.
The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana(SGSY) of the BJP government, launched in 1999 for rural uplift, did not foresee this background and resulted in the Hindutwa government's undoing. SGSY, which followed the old Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) of the Congress government, aimed at promoting village organisations and since the NGOs meeting the various criteria were almost all from the Christian segment they began getting government funds. They also got a new stamp of acceptability and became the government itself to the villagers. With their professional and team approaches they accessed the government funds set aside for the purpose, developed good rapport with 'result' driven beurocracy and made an empire of sorts. Huge numbers of rural poor became captive to their whims and fancies. More important they became victims of Christian propaganda.
That is what matters in elections, as subtle messages against a political party shall be immediately absorbed by the innocent rural folks who consider these saviors with eyes of worship. In Tamilnadu where SGSY was implemented with great success some of these NGOs caused traffic blocks in cities like Madurai. The Self Help Groups of women they formed in villages run to thousands and when they come for a meeting the entire city gets jam-packed. These are the core areas of Indian psyche and the Christian NGOs managed to enter there. That with state sponsorship. Yes, BJP's SGSY programme with its nationalist fervor must have improved the quality of life in villages is certain. But it also indirectly became its undoing.
Many of these NGOs are already quite powerful and wield might in rural interiors. They have liberal funds and the staff hiring terms is as attractive as any corporate giant. It is the antithesis of the Hindu concepts of 'Sewa' and 'Tyaga'. Though some of these activists generously supported by these sources wear, often worn out, Indian dress (what the development circuit calls the 'NGO uniform'). They travel luxury class and stay only in star hotels though. Since they have got used to the 'comfortable' life they do anything for a price. Many of the secular intellectuals of India are these paid workers. Since the operations are discrete it is near impossible to trace their links. A famous river valley protection movement later was penetrated and they are now allegedly supported by the same sources. Some Christian priests in the game from Kerala, who now decide things, have dropped their priestly dress and the `father' prefix in name when in the north of the country.
In time these NGOs can be dangerous as they are building up a parallel system of governance rooted in the villages and people's movements. Which can eventually weaken the centralised government mechanism of today. With their indebtedness to the external donors they are extremely vulnerable to pressure tactics. How one often finds some individuals with Hindu names seen attacking the Hindu movements. They also support academics in various research programmes and international tours and they also fall in line, are also at their beck and call. Since the battery of donor agencies is spread over various countries, mainly Europe and USA, also elsewhere, it is too difficult to trace them down. They also belong to a mosaic of Christian faiths some of them enemies of each other in their own regions. With liberalisation their roads are smooth as NGOs can now access funds without much government monitoring. Not many know about these gray areas of Indian polity.
P R J Pradeep
Many 'secular NGOs' are actually secretly aided by these people. Some of them quite famous. Those trying to eek out a separate identity in the NGO sector will find it difficult. Despite setting up of agencies like CAPART (Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology) by the ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India, the promotion of secular NGOs in development sector has been minimal. While the Hindu groups have tried to organise these, lack of professionalism and exposure to the resources become a handicap. Thus these very same agencies succeed in getting the government funds as well. Over and above the international church aid they have. To the ordinary people the 'generosity' come from the local Christian priests and that in concrete terms and they follow them.
The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana(SGSY) of the BJP government, launched in 1999 for rural uplift, did not foresee this background and resulted in the Hindutwa government's undoing. SGSY, which followed the old Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) of the Congress government, aimed at promoting village organisations and since the NGOs meeting the various criteria were almost all from the Christian segment they began getting government funds. They also got a new stamp of acceptability and became the government itself to the villagers. With their professional and team approaches they accessed the government funds set aside for the purpose, developed good rapport with 'result' driven beurocracy and made an empire of sorts. Huge numbers of rural poor became captive to their whims and fancies. More important they became victims of Christian propaganda.
That is what matters in elections, as subtle messages against a political party shall be immediately absorbed by the innocent rural folks who consider these saviors with eyes of worship. In Tamilnadu where SGSY was implemented with great success some of these NGOs caused traffic blocks in cities like Madurai. The Self Help Groups of women they formed in villages run to thousands and when they come for a meeting the entire city gets jam-packed. These are the core areas of Indian psyche and the Christian NGOs managed to enter there. That with state sponsorship. Yes, BJP's SGSY programme with its nationalist fervor must have improved the quality of life in villages is certain. But it also indirectly became its undoing.
Many of these NGOs are already quite powerful and wield might in rural interiors. They have liberal funds and the staff hiring terms is as attractive as any corporate giant. It is the antithesis of the Hindu concepts of 'Sewa' and 'Tyaga'. Though some of these activists generously supported by these sources wear, often worn out, Indian dress (what the development circuit calls the 'NGO uniform'). They travel luxury class and stay only in star hotels though. Since they have got used to the 'comfortable' life they do anything for a price. Many of the secular intellectuals of India are these paid workers. Since the operations are discrete it is near impossible to trace their links. A famous river valley protection movement later was penetrated and they are now allegedly supported by the same sources. Some Christian priests in the game from Kerala, who now decide things, have dropped their priestly dress and the `father' prefix in name when in the north of the country.
In time these NGOs can be dangerous as they are building up a parallel system of governance rooted in the villages and people's movements. Which can eventually weaken the centralised government mechanism of today. With their indebtedness to the external donors they are extremely vulnerable to pressure tactics. How one often finds some individuals with Hindu names seen attacking the Hindu movements. They also support academics in various research programmes and international tours and they also fall in line, are also at their beck and call. Since the battery of donor agencies is spread over various countries, mainly Europe and USA, also elsewhere, it is too difficult to trace them down. They also belong to a mosaic of Christian faiths some of them enemies of each other in their own regions. With liberalisation their roads are smooth as NGOs can now access funds without much government monitoring. Not many know about these gray areas of Indian polity.
P R J Pradeep
Friday, October 14, 2005
Red Alert: Stop Signing of Smart City
Oommen Chandy, Chief Minister of Kerala has declared that he will go ahead with the signing of the redoubtable Smart City project in Kochi in December. There were serious allegations raised about the project from various quarters and that including the opposition. Lot of confusion prevails about the project and the dramatis personae involved. There are allegations that this is a ploy of the lobby to capture prime land in the city through nefarious means. Aired by none less than the CPM leader and Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan. IT community within and outside Kerala had also expressed their disagreements.
With the Congress lead Oommen Chandy government in Kerala having lost its people's mandate, as proved in the last parliamentary elections and the present local body elections where they were miserably rejected, they have no moral or other right to go ahead with a massive project like this. Among others the leading `Mathrubhoomi' daily had requested the Oommen Chandy government to maintain status quo and continue only as a care taker government till next elections. Since they had lost their support, not to take major decisions. Pinarayi Vijayan senior leader of the CPM has asked the Oommen Chandy government to resign from power without delay. The signing of this key project is declared in this backdrop.
Opposition Leader V S Achthanandan had categorically stated in public that this is a clever attempt to snatch land in the city in the name of generating employment. There are many questions regarding the Smart City project remaining unanswered. The Malayali community across the world working in and associated with the IT sector as also many major industrialists have raised doubts about the plan. To sign the memorandum of agreement at this stage, when the Oommen Chandy government has lost all hopes of returning to government, is a dangerous move and has to be opposed. Anyone knowing the functioning of the present government and the loop holes they create to make money and do favours to near and dear at public expense can read the writing on the wall.
That the present minority lead government of the Christian and Muslim political parties had contrived again and again to use the government apparatus for their own advantages is well known. The sale of the Kovalam Hotel at throw away prices to a Malabar based Muslim gentleman, later resold, with the covert support of the Muslim League Minister P K Kunjalikutti is an instance. That this ministry had contrived to dispossess the tribal populations of their encroached lands, despite a federal statute, to favour the Christian settlers is also known. Large areas of forests and the state land are being stolen using dubious means every day. The various ministries are being utilized for ulterior motives is no more news and the senior officers of government are being humiliated if not supporting these sinister moves. A nexus of minority officers and politicians are running the state.
That the infamous Global Investors Meet (GIM) flaunted by the same Muslim League Minister, before his exit after a series of immoral activities, was a ploy to bestow largesse on minority businessmen is a classic case now exposed. In this case again large areas of land was allotted to the stooges of the ruling parties, as stray news reports said. This was again an issue taken up by the Opposition Leader as well. Land allotted to fake companies and fake projects. It is well known in the capital that the GIM secretariat was manned exclusively by the minority community officers and politicians and many `companies' sprang up over night. `Projects' faxed to various people for submission from the secretariat. All of them given special privileges under state patronage. While the propaganda about the jobs remain the players made their kill.
Hence it is very important that the Oommen Chandy government is stopped from signing the agreement on behalf of the people of Kerala as they no more represent the people of Kerala. They have to be also advised to desist from making any commitments in the remaining days if they are not going to resign with immediate effect. They cannot be allowed to loot the state anymore and such attempts shall be taken note of very seriously. If at all the Project has to be taken up that can be done by the newly elected government. There is no emergency situation prevailing that this project has to be signed hastily by the present government who have lost the people's confidence.
With the Congress lead Oommen Chandy government in Kerala having lost its people's mandate, as proved in the last parliamentary elections and the present local body elections where they were miserably rejected, they have no moral or other right to go ahead with a massive project like this. Among others the leading `Mathrubhoomi' daily had requested the Oommen Chandy government to maintain status quo and continue only as a care taker government till next elections. Since they had lost their support, not to take major decisions. Pinarayi Vijayan senior leader of the CPM has asked the Oommen Chandy government to resign from power without delay. The signing of this key project is declared in this backdrop.
Opposition Leader V S Achthanandan had categorically stated in public that this is a clever attempt to snatch land in the city in the name of generating employment. There are many questions regarding the Smart City project remaining unanswered. The Malayali community across the world working in and associated with the IT sector as also many major industrialists have raised doubts about the plan. To sign the memorandum of agreement at this stage, when the Oommen Chandy government has lost all hopes of returning to government, is a dangerous move and has to be opposed. Anyone knowing the functioning of the present government and the loop holes they create to make money and do favours to near and dear at public expense can read the writing on the wall.
That the present minority lead government of the Christian and Muslim political parties had contrived again and again to use the government apparatus for their own advantages is well known. The sale of the Kovalam Hotel at throw away prices to a Malabar based Muslim gentleman, later resold, with the covert support of the Muslim League Minister P K Kunjalikutti is an instance. That this ministry had contrived to dispossess the tribal populations of their encroached lands, despite a federal statute, to favour the Christian settlers is also known. Large areas of forests and the state land are being stolen using dubious means every day. The various ministries are being utilized for ulterior motives is no more news and the senior officers of government are being humiliated if not supporting these sinister moves. A nexus of minority officers and politicians are running the state.
That the infamous Global Investors Meet (GIM) flaunted by the same Muslim League Minister, before his exit after a series of immoral activities, was a ploy to bestow largesse on minority businessmen is a classic case now exposed. In this case again large areas of land was allotted to the stooges of the ruling parties, as stray news reports said. This was again an issue taken up by the Opposition Leader as well. Land allotted to fake companies and fake projects. It is well known in the capital that the GIM secretariat was manned exclusively by the minority community officers and politicians and many `companies' sprang up over night. `Projects' faxed to various people for submission from the secretariat. All of them given special privileges under state patronage. While the propaganda about the jobs remain the players made their kill.
Hence it is very important that the Oommen Chandy government is stopped from signing the agreement on behalf of the people of Kerala as they no more represent the people of Kerala. They have to be also advised to desist from making any commitments in the remaining days if they are not going to resign with immediate effect. They cannot be allowed to loot the state anymore and such attempts shall be taken note of very seriously. If at all the Project has to be taken up that can be done by the newly elected government. There is no emergency situation prevailing that this project has to be signed hastily by the present government who have lost the people's confidence.
