Udayor Blog

The ground swell of enthusiasm for a Hindu unity in Kerala, what was a reaction to the decades of power misuse by the minority communities in Kerala, stands paralysed. The heroic efforts by the leadership of the SNDP Yogam, lead by the dynamic Vellappilly Natesan, and the Kerala Kaumudi group, played major roles in that. Which was whole heartedly supported by all Hindu communities in the state, though the NSS played a bit of spoil sport, resulting in a historic process in Kerala. Giving great hopes to the people. But with no viable mechanisms to tap the new enthusiasmm, formation of a political front failed and the BJP front in internal crisis, the elections saw the fruits of this wave of Hindu unity going to the Communist lead Left Democratic Front. Who saw record win in the last elections. Though wearing the old mask of secularism it is everyone's knowledge that they too go by community loyalties in every decision. If the Muslim League or Kerala Congress does it without hiding, the comrades do it with a bit of camouflage is the only difference.

But once the LDF ministry took over there was a clever effort to sabotage the process. Leadership of the second senior partner CPI, Veliyam Bhargavan himself, attributing the win to the new support they gathered from the minorities. Many other decisions of the new ministry were aimed at damaging the Hindu unity principle. Perhaps a Hindu unity move will see the Communists disappear in Kerala, they may be using the government mechanism to save themselves, their political careers. And the trends are for a relapse to the old pattern, where the various Hindu communities are to align once again with the shrewd minority groups. What is to spell tragedy for Kerala in the days to come. There is celebration in the Ezhava community with V S Achuthanandan in the Chief Minister's chair, many others from the community in ministerial births. As if the game is won. Forget that the Hindu community including the Ezhava sector is cornered in Kerala, also that the territories captured by the minorities remains where it was. Personally it was a clever game plan of V S Achuthanandan that worked, he presented himself as the caste hero. Where the clever minority community newspapers and politicians gave the necessary leverages. While acknowledging the good traits of VS, like his championing the cause of the forests, there are also visible lacunas.

For a comparison V S Achuthanandan is not loved by the Hindus in Kerala the way Vellappilly Natesan is and this comrade did not mince words in dumping Vellappilly himself in the early days. The approaches of both, though from the same community, differ. But seeing the new upswing of community consolidation V S Achuthanandan could use it to his advantage is true. Not only that, the first interviews he gave made no mistake, that he is the saviour of the so called 'avarnas', low castes of Kerala. That hiding the fact that there is hardly any difference between the Nairs and Ezhavas in the state right now, both are as bad or as good. And the dalits and tribals cannot be equated with them. The old rhetoric whipped up by the British missionaries to neutralise the warring communities of Kerala, also divide the Hindus, driving the warring people to turmoil who stopped their attempts to subdue this land, is back again. Punishing the supposed sins committed a century back, what if Kerala is now under minority feudalism. That is no issue. V S Achuthanandan could do it with great perfection and get his pound of meat. The divide within the Hindu community is once again deepening, wrong myths being used to widen it. he present indications are that VS, possibly supported by some of the most paranoic intellectuals in the community, may end up fathering a new era of turmoil for the Hindus, divided they are to sink again further.

It makes little difference who runs the state now, that is, who is in the chair. The post-colonial governance mechanism is rotten and the options for the incumbents are not much. Dated British ceremonies and procedures is what governance means and only a strong Hindu consolidation shall be able to change this. But the career politicians are looking at the rewards is no doubt, like a comfortable life, some pittances thrown to their wards and accomplices. The fundamental questions affecting Kerala shall remain out of focus. It is known that the politicians have their own ways of riding the waves of popular movements for their own advantage. What happened here again. Most of them are not intelligenet enough to see through the smoke screen, the larger frame of Kerala society, where the state is heading for. They also lack the vision to take in the options before the government, illequipped and inadequately exposed as they are. Thus the cosmetic approaches are to be used again, adhoc interventions made in all sectors. All of this to be sabotaged by one group or other as the seemingly biased approaches bring negative responses. With a better leadership in the LDF scene would have been different, what the Party perhaps knew beforehand, how both VS Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan were asked to stay away from elections.

But VS Achuthanandan used a lobby to capture the chair, obviously there were many waiting who wanted that to happen, what became visible when the Party Secretariat later pointed to the remote control of media syndicates in the game plan. If V S Achuthanandan won, it can easily be portrayed as a win for the Ezhava community, what is presently happening. And the Chief Minister is flaunting that card with a degree of arrogance. Especially so with the CPI leader Veliyam Bhargavan who has thrown all sense of fair play and is now as chauvinistic, or more, as the old minority groups. Causing irrepairable damage to Hindu unity moves and other communities in Kerala. Obviously, left to itself, Kerala's Hindu unity move is heading for collapse. Who enjoys the scene can be easily guessed, also who must be silently plotting from behind to create the scene. VS Achuthanandan is not known to be an astute strategist, is a simple rural leader, easily swayed. And the LDF is as much vulnerable as the UDF to minority vote banks and strategems. It is time the mature leadership of the Hindu community comes forward to restore sanity. That the great dream of a Hindu consolidation is not lost for ever. If that happens it will be a tragedy for Kerala, for whether Nair, Ezhava or Pulaya it is the native idiom of this land. If that is lost, what is now almost lost, it will lead to doom. VS or no VS Hindu unity in Kerala cannot be compromised.

A plot of land with a Kavu, Sacred Grove, belonging to the Nalappat tharavadu in Punnayoorkulam is in the news. Presumably belonging to one individual, Kamala Suraiya alias Madhvaikutty of the family, what is not normally possible in Nair tharavadus where this remains common property of the family. Kamala, now a Muslim, donated this to the state Sahitya Academy. The plethora of beliefs associated with the Kavu must have forced Kamala cleverly pass it on to the government body. And she, now converted and a Muslim, seemingly lied and maintained that it is only a plot of land. She had earlier demolished the ancestral house and sold the land in the area. The 'Sahitya Academy' as the name itself suggests is another decadent outfit, as the part English and part Malayalam name suggests, set up by the state. Many other properties handed over to them remains uncared for but that did not prevent them from taking over the new ‘plot of land’ measuring 17 cents.

Kamala despite her change of faith is insisting that a tree there be protected. This is not to find fault with her on why she acts in certain ways, there must have been reasons. Those who know the inner family history of Kamala Suraiya, also several Nair families in similar circumstances, must know the turmoil of the oppressive faith that the Nairs are carrying. More so the oppressed women which need changes. So there is no point in finding fault with her, she has taken what she found to be the best alternative. Whether breaking the fake morality of an earlier era as a writer or changing faith she did what many others may not dare to do. One gets hurt only because she took flight, she could well have remained a Nair and fought the problems. Now about the Sacred Grove in question it does not seem to be a miniature forest anyway. Her own father, as she writes, having destroyed it long back, leaving couple of trees and idols. If the faithful attribute all her travails to that they cannot be faulted. But the family continues to worship there, so also some of the local people. Now what business has the Sahitya Academy in all this is a curious issue. What are they going to do with this is another question.

Sacred Groves, patches of rain forests preserved in human habitations, form part of the native culture in Kerala. It is beyond what is called religion, the stand taken by the Academy Chairman is a graceful aceptance of that. It is rooted in nature worship and also as prakriti as woman, ‘Kavu’ word also means woman. Though several Hindu communities maintain Sacred Groves this way of worship is predominantly found in Nair tharavadus. This practice is found in many other states in India and also in some other countries. It is a hoary history that these concepts have and the Groves are attributed to various deities. Main among them is the serpent principle, with mystical meanings of divine energy only known to Sidhas. These are popularly called Naga Raja and Naga Yakshi. The Yakshan Yakshi concepts as deities perhaps predates modern Hinduism and this is widely reported from the Jain period. Later Yakshis depicted as evil forces. Jainism was prevalent in Kerala, so also Budhism, where the Groves were places of worship and meditation. Perhaps it was during the caste Brahmin phase that the rigourous practices of idol worship got enforced. Status of ascetics on one hand and women on the other goes down here. Soon, more than faith it became a source of fear, without which it would have been a beautiful faith.

This was how many Nair tharavadus in the immediate past have given up these. The safest means of abandoning these came to be facilitated by some Nampoothiri families themselves, who also maintain Sacred Groves, like Pampummekattu Mana. The concept here is to take out the deities and take them to these Manas and transform the land to other purposes. Building concrete temples became rampant. Large number of Nair families have done this, which costs an amount of money as priestly fee and rituals. There are various views about the Sacred Groves but these patches of rain forests were and are at the head end of paddy fields and were ecologically significant cannot be denied. It remains a traesure house of pristine local biodiversity as well. The Nairs, the old Dravidian nobility, came to protect this is possible. Some say that these are places where spiritually enlightened ancestors and Sidhas, sanyasis, must have been laid to rest. But of late these became sources of fear is certain. Where in most Nair families only the caste Brahmin priest is permitted to enter. Even though these are owned by the Nairs.

That the clever stratagems of priestly slavery played a role is possible, what is visible in many other areas of Hindu life. But the fact that these are pristine forests, wherever these are well protected, point to a great wisdom about the processes of nature. In this sense these need to be protected is beyond debate. Now, regarding the beliefs associated with the Sacred Groves there have been efforts by many saints, like Sree Narayana Gurudevan, who removed the feared idols perhaps because they reinforced a wrong model of spirituality and deep rooted fear. Idol worship as the end in Hinduism is a deviation in the near past where the priestly dictum became supreme. Hinduism is primarily a belief aimed at self-realization. Kundalini sakti, serpent power, is goddess worship here. The saintly orders, like Sidha paramparas, are as important as the idol worship, meant for beginners. But when it is riveted on to idol worship alone the community suffers. Where the reformers were instrumental in changing this. While many others could accept such saintly teachings the Nairs remained glued to the old model.

That the Sacred Groves present a model of nature worship, communion with nature, is very important. Which worships the sacred life giving nature. What is lost in this era of all round eco-degradation. In that sense the Sacred Grove in mention, that of Kamala Suraiya, may not mean much. For the trees were cut down long back as she writes, by her ‘progressive’ father. With only few idols and couple of trees remaining. This is not a Kavu in the conventional sense. But if the family members are worshipping there still it assumes significance. What the same family members ought to have done was to purchase it from the daughter of the family who converted and left. In normal Nair families this remains common property but here it became private is curious. But this did not seem to have happened how the local Hindu youth, fearing that the converted Muslim lady will damage it, took over it and it became a conflict in the area. Kamala Suraiya, with out telling that it is a controversial Kavu, donating it to the Academy. With her womanly intelligence she wanted to win the game. But Nalappattu is not just a family but an old feudal household, local ruling house. Why others too have a stake in it.

That Kamala, a good writer, was brought up outside Kerala and failed to imbibe the nuances of local belief and culture is her tragedy. It is a kind of arrogance that reflects in her writings and postures, not humility as to the limitations of the human intelligence. Even her conversion to Islam did not seem to have saved her. By lofty Hindu values she is a victim of ‘ajnana’, darkness, and may need many births to redeem herself as the Hindu belief goes. Unfortunately for her she could not access the great traditions of Kerala and India and had to face the travails. Perhaps a simple meeting with a great soul would have changed her but she was not humble to receive that benevolence. Caught up as she is in the consumerist values of the day. Where even an ordinary woman may be better off than her. Now looking at the problem as a common issue facing a huge population in Kerala, for she represents a community owning large number of groves, what are the options. One is to go for the path of the native saintly orders, where the fear psychosis will vanish. That of the native Sidhas, who seldom abhor woman or sex, neither family life. They don’t wear uniforms and are happy in being invisible to others.

Regarding the future course of action, there are two major options available. One is for the family members of Nalappattu tharavadu to purchase and maintain it, if necessary with their own modifications. The other is for the Academy to maintain it as a better Sacred Grove, they can purchase some more land and make it a live museum of Kerala culture. Allowing a sprouting of trees rather than the idols. What has to be accepted is that these are beliefs that cannot be bracketed within the definitions of modern religions and form the root culture of Kerala. Islam itself has similar root beliefs at many places, though with different approaches. Regarding the responses from ‘wage writers’, and ‘wage speakers’ in Kerala, what they try to do is to get some money and name in this name and they can be looked at with due sympathy. The over populated periodical sector also needs some hot stories to sell. Their illeducated views can be ignored as noise pollution. But for the people to whom this is no newspaper story, who have been protecting this nature endowed land, these are their guardian gods and the matter is thus very important to them.

There are thousands of Kavus spread over Kerala which support the natural balance and micro-climate of the regions where they are located. People with alien minds, trapped in alien beliefs may not understand the inner meanings of the local beliefs and they can be ignored. Without government subsidies few communities are struggling to maintain the natural balance of the Kerala ecosystem, the Kavu at Nalappattu is one. These are relics from an old era where there were no forest departments and environmentalists. Each ‘thara’, unit of administration, was looked after by a Tharavadu. Kavu was the abode of their guardian deity. Later with the priestly and British colonization these little rulers, who once had their own armies and Kalaris, were neutralized. The multiple layers of colonization are difficult to decipher here and the revolt by Kamala is at another level a weak woman’s struggle for liberation. It is a dilemma of a huge population and what is needed is preserving the network of Sacred Groves all over Kerala but without so much of fear. God cannot be taken as a terrorist, let the miniature forests remain as places of greenery and peace, where Mother Nature is left alone.

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) also called voluntary organizations are increasingly becoming a part of implementing government programmes. The rural uplift schemes of the central government like the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) that replaced the old IRDP during the tenure of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government has a major role for NGOs in its implementation. What was also adopted, though with lacunas, by the government of Kerala. The People’s Plan model had made a serious attempt to incorporate the people at the grass roots in to the development process. The local Panchayats and NGOs came to have a major role. But due to inexperienced people handling the scheme there were major failures but the idea behind it was commendable. At the state and central government levels the Social Welfare sector also has a major role for NGOs, apart from development.

Now with a new Left Front government in power and the question of re-launching the People’ Plan process in the cards there are new possibilities emerging. It is time to correct the mistakes committed so far, also correct the deliberate attempts by the vested interests to siphon off state resources as monopolies. In this the most glaring instance was the role of voluntary organizations, NGOs. Due to historic and other reasons the legitimate NGOs in Kerala are almost all run by the Christian church. Thus it became a paradox of those with international sources of funds getting the meager state resources as well. The others left out or becoming beneficiaries of the Church. That when these are state funds that are pooled in to the society, but through the church outfits. Creating a kind of subtle slavery. The welfare and development inputs of the state bypassed the others was the result. How there is a sprouting of old age homes, orphanages etc under the Christian segment where there is none in the Hindu community.

Thus the NGO sector in Kerala, who take state funds, are almost all Christian and of late a few Muslim organizations also have started getting in to this. But the majority Hindu community, whether Nayar, Ezhava, Pulaya or others, could not evolve systems that can pool in state funds and remained in their own community work. Since it requires an amount of exposure to the various state run schemes also the modalities of accessing these the tradition bound communities failed in addressing the problem. How the very same communities with external sources of incomes came to tap the state resources as well. Leading to a skewed society of the minority haves and majority have nots. There is a network of well run Christian NGOs across Kerala and priests frequent the state departments to access these funds. The ministers are also normally from the minorities who ensure the smooth flow of funds to their own communities. This when the others starve of capital.

Now there are institutions that cater to the needs of the other Hindu communities which remain in obsolete approaches and traditions. There is also a stigma attached to these organizations when there is none about the Christian church sponsored organizations. If a white paper is issued about the quantum of money siphoned out by these organizations over time, also the community wise profile of the NGOs receiving state funds shocking details shall be known. What has remained hidden from public notice so far. The native communities with the least exposure to the modalities of the government schemes remain ignorant about these and the ramifications. Large amounts of government funds are also getting wasted or reaching the wrong hands due to this anomaly. The tradition bound NGOs from the Hindu community, untouchables in government schemes, are the biggest losers in this.

So to correct the deviance through years it is only proper that these communities and their community organizations be brought under the implementation schemes of the government. Thus the leading organizations like the Nair Service Society (NSS), Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) Pulaya Mahasabha, Yogakshema Sabha, similar organizations of other communities need to be brought under the armpit of the delivery mechanisms of government. Since it is due to the rampant corruption and incompetence of government departments, that lead to the failure of translating the macro-level programmes on the ground, the NGOs came to have a role cannot be denied. Here, if only one community takes the benefits it is not justice. What has been happening so far where the church sponsored organizations are having the kill for so long. Since the others did not know the implications it remained hidden from public view, these monopolies cleverly kept it hidden.

What can be done is to advice these bodies to restructure themselves with proper value addition and management inputs and then based on set criteria allow them roles in implementation of programmes. Each community organization in a locality can be incorporated and based on their inner strengths entrusted with implementation of programmes for the locality cutting across all sections of people. A consensus evolved based on merits of administering the schemes. Specific criteria for accessing various schemes based on the capacities can be set up and the organizations graded according to these. Already the SNDP is running micro-credit programmes successfully and there is no reason why they cannot do well in implementing state programmes. The progress so far is reportedly very promising. These organizational units have major strengths and the chances of funds getting wasted are very less.

Same is the case with others, some of whom may need short term training programmes to enable them implement these. It will help simultaneously meet the problem of unemployment in these communities and also inject capital in to the capital starved sectors. The stigma attached to community organizations need to go, there is no reason why the Christian organizations, say the YMCAs, are not having any stigma but the NSS or SNDP has it. It is a wrong approach and needs immediate correction. The large network of the NSS, to take an instance, is 6000 units strong, spread over the state and most of them having buildings and infrastructure but presently idling. The various community leaders ought to take it up as a serious issue and demand that this be implemented by the new state government.

It is a tragedy that the amount allotted for SC/ST welfare keeps getting lapse as the government mechanisms fail to use it. Reportedly up to Rs. 200 crores in this head from the central government was lost during the tenure of the previous ministry. In Rural Development, as the union Minister of Rural Development himself told a Press Conference in Thiruvananthapuram, as much as Rs. 125 crores lapsed. This due to irresponsible behaviour of the previous government who did not use it, a big sin as the needy millions are ignorant of what happened. Thus it is only proper that the state government gets out from the old stigma of community organizations, except Christian and now Muslim organizations, and incorporate them in to the implementation schemes. The modalities of this can be worked out in consultation with the concerned organizations, who may need to make appropriate changes from within.

After all the small irritants cleared, the new team under a people's chief minister, as Shri V S Achuthanandan has come to be known, is about to begin its work. Time those who love the state and its people stood by them. With all the potential that is available, also within the limitations of the electoral democracy in a post-colonial polity, a sense of hope is discernible. Appointment of a new chief in the state Planning Board, the apparatus announced to over see the working of the government are all pointers to a responsible government. Also a responsible Party, for the people have entrusted tremendous faith in the coalition lead by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Perhaps the entire country is watching Kerala.

Now the main issues that the state is facing needs immediate and long term strategies, to correct the drift that has set in. The state for the last several decades has been held at ransom by vested interest groups. What in common parlance is called 'vote bank politics'. Each minister trying to bleed the state as much as possible to feed selfish interests and own community interests. What had come to its peak in the outgoing A K Antony and Oommen Chandy governments. This trend has to be stopped and the state has to look at common goals. Cancerous growth of vociferous community groups destroy the larger body is a common sense observation.

Kerala has unique problems and need unique sloutions. Thus a state economy caught up in the flood of international remittances is a unique problem of Kerala. Where there are no custom built solutions in the constitutional safe guards. Neither there are options within the federal statutes. These need daring solutions if the ailing state economy is to be saved. For as it is the international remittances to the state exceeds the central budgetary allocations. How the state plan process goes haywire. The social implications of this, like those with external sources getting fat at the other's cost, or the central sectors becoming capital starved, are to be tackled.

The core issues facing Kerala have been neglected, deliberately, by the various governments and shallow issues made central. This has to change. The wide spread poverty that exists in various sectors of the society when a very small group has come to monopolise resources has been reported by many studies. The latest being the KSSP study that gave shocking data about Kerala, the communist state. What it means is that the state has wider rich - poor divide than elsewhere. How to tackle this is a challenge, if this is not done the results shall be devastating to the state. This is a boiling vulcano. The disease has become chronic.

Perhaps there has to be daring initiatives like taxing the extra rich with international sources, to pool in resources to the deprived, asking the public sector banks to cough out money to the capital starved sectors, what they have refused to do earlier, among the many solutions possible. Obviously these shall be resisted and only a resolute determination shall work. Especially so since these groups have media muscle power. The unemployment scene in Kerala needs concrete steps to tackle and this has to be taken as a part of the devlopmental model. For this shall stand corrected if the capital starved sectors are given capital and skills. The ailing and idling public sector has to be resurrected if possible with private participation.

The state presents its biggest threat in the degradation of the natural resources, encroaching forests and legitimising that was a major objective of vote bank politics
so far and in this there was a continuity from British times. The governmnet has to take stern action in this sector and weed out the enemies of the state. For the water balance of the plains is dependent on the forests on the hills. Whoever destroys it are common enemies of the people. This is an area where the new Chief Minister has raised a lot of hope. What has to be proved in action. The mad rush to make palatial mansions as houses needs to be stopped, it has eaten up the river sands, rocks and wetlands. Perhaps taxing big houses is an option.

The near dead agricultuer sector needs fire fighting approaches and here again the state has taken the wrong road so far. The rubber crop, mostly under the Syrian Christian community, had been promoted with heavy subsidies and the paddy crop of the common people left to die. This has created an economic and environmental catastrophe as paddy cultivation is linked to the water balance of Kerala. Loss of paddy fields thus affect the wetlands and water availability in the state ecosystem. It also affects the food availability of the state. How Kerala has rampant malnutrition levels. But this did not merit any priority so far.

The frontier areas like IT sector, where Kerala has great advantages as a major global IT highway pass through this small state, needs professional approach. With some of the best IT professionals across the world belonging to Kerala their service can be made use of to tackle multiple needs of the state. What has to be taken care of in this is the chemistry of Kerala population, where the skilled are capital starved and this has to be addressed through tailor made solutions. Injecting a judicious mix of international capital in to these sectors. That a more equitable social order results in the future.

Education remained a monopoly of the Christian church in post-colonial Kerala, what has been terribly damaging to the state. For it is here that the young minds are molded. If Kerala lacks in self confidence and courage the most important reason is here. The urge to commercially exploit this sacred duty of bringing up our young ones needs to be corrected. The education department has to take cocrete measures to revamp the public sector institutes in education. Perhaps a series of institutions selected for value addition, like the old Model Schools, shall be advisable. The students have to be weaned away to healthy alternatives.

The delivery systems of government and the other institutions have been polluted over a period of time and these needs to be depolluted. These have become places to accomodate the near and dear of the powerful and the rich. The state goverment officers and staff in Kerala are among the most unproductive as a comparative picture shows and this is directly linked to the unionising trends. No answerability is there now and every wrong doer is shielded by the powerful unions. This is an area where the Party, more than the government, has to intervene from within.

Kerala facing some of the most menacing problems in India and sliding down the scale, as reports tell Kerala is worse of than all neighbouring states now, needs courageous and pro-active solutions and strong will to implement these. Hue and cry created by teh vociferous groups should be ignored and the people should see results in another three years, that is the gestation period for five year governments. And with the global processes of monopolisation eating in to every country Kerala can do some wonders in state planning. What the others can emulate. For the world is looking for solutions and the Communist parties in India have great advantages. India is indeed a big country, if the people stand together it shall be a great country.