Thursday, September 21, 2006
Looking Back at Onam
Apart from the voyeuristic pleasures of seeing people celebrate Onam on television screens, what is now understood as the right way of doing it, the only place where I saw a semblance of authenticity was a dalit colony in the city. A place where the so-called low caste 'Pulaya' community stays in Thiruvananthapuram. Here the people were all in jubilation, young and old. The shocking observation to this writer was that the 'Ona pookkalam' is part of faith and ritual, not a secular show of fancy interest. As the older generation told, it is nothing but the 'Siva Lingam' that is set up with clay at the centre. The flowers depict the goddess and once the Pookkalam is ready it is the abode of the god and goddess. That for ten days starting Atham. Where worship is regularly done. Till the day of Thiruvonam. Many of you may know it, I did not, and frankly the last day of discontinuing the Pookkalam was a mystical scene, the boy who did it after several days of penace reaching a state of possession. The whole community dancing in ecstacy.
There are historic accounts that tell about Thiruvonam, some scholars have done original research on this. One of them, Dr. Padmanabhan based in Kanyakumari, tells that Onam was a festival across the southern peninsula. That from Tiruppati to cape and for the wider Tamil country it was a national festival. That few centuries back when Tirupati was originally a Siva temple. Perhaps the contending Vaishnava and Saiva streams were competing at the time for space. Today Tirupati is all out Vaishnava and the Hinduism of the day is an assimilation of the two streams. But the recorded festivities of Onam across the Tamil country had elephant fights and feasts as some documents narrate. In huge arenas made of stone boulders elephants were made to fight and people watched the show like in bull fights. There are engravings of the show in ancient Madurai. Perhaps it was an ancient Saivaite festival later taken over by Vaishnavism, for Onathan is Vishnu, according to Dr. Padmanabhan.
When did the celebrations of Onam in its present form begin is best left to history, hoary past cannot be deciphered beyond a point. Now the Pulayas who were seen celebrating are also known to be related to the Nayars of Kerala. Folk history talks about their having been people judged as lower in status after refusing to accept 'Pula' or ritual pollution, when those who accepted these became Nayars. This was obviosuly at the instance of the priestly religion that came to be powerful and one does not know who benefitted and at whose cost. For physical affluence and social position alone are not the ultimate variables in life, spirituality is as important. How Jesus Christ calls the poor and under privilaged as children of god. However the Onam celebrations of the dalits were certainly better than that of the television viewers. At least there was individual participation, joy and exhilaration.
What was remarkable was that the upper castes nearby, from Nayars down, did not come out of their homes to see the gaiety, leave alone join the celebration. They were all rivetted to the TV screens inside, those who peeped out from inside the walls were afraid that the shall be polluted if they joined the show. For the people here had also arranged several exotic sports items like climbing an arecanut tree pole smeared with oil and eggs white. Those trying to climb kept on falling down as the amused crowd jeered. There were also other events like 'Tumpi thullal' and other items, with a lot of cheering accompanying. It was literally a people's celebration. Is it that these are the real Saivite people who refused to accept the priestly Vaishnavism. Who knows. Obviously it is a more vibrant faith that they have, than the one where paying the greedy priests and bowing before idols alone is called religion. Dependency on priesthood stealing any trace of self respect, also self confidence in matters of faith, they becoming blind believers. Hard options before the Hindu faithful.
It is said that they compulsorily eat non-vegetarian food on Onam day in Malabar, when it is a no no in Travancore. Obviously the land Sree Padmanabha was far more Vaishnavite than Saivite than Malabar and continued to be with the Tamil country till the British left. Historians have recorded how the goddess of the Cheras, fore-runners of the true Nayars, was 'Kottavai'. And do you know what was her favourit dish, our modern beef Biriyani. Yes, the preparation was a mix of meat of oxen with boiled rice, see books of Ilankulam Kunjan Pillai on the ancient Kerala. Why even the Vedic people were meat eaters and the Rg Veda has far too many references to this. Thus Onam as a celebration of the defeat of a noble king Mahabali is also a metamorphosed festival. As history shows the goddess Kottavai later gets amalgamated in to the modern Hindu pantheon. The Onam Pookkalam, where we now have the small 'Thrikkakkara Appan' at the centre may be the left over from a past. A past where every one could do pooja, what eventually became a privilage of the caste Brahmins. Time the other Hindus asserted their rights, dumped the concocted fictions that go as sastram.
There are historic accounts that tell about Thiruvonam, some scholars have done original research on this. One of them, Dr. Padmanabhan based in Kanyakumari, tells that Onam was a festival across the southern peninsula. That from Tiruppati to cape and for the wider Tamil country it was a national festival. That few centuries back when Tirupati was originally a Siva temple. Perhaps the contending Vaishnava and Saiva streams were competing at the time for space. Today Tirupati is all out Vaishnava and the Hinduism of the day is an assimilation of the two streams. But the recorded festivities of Onam across the Tamil country had elephant fights and feasts as some documents narrate. In huge arenas made of stone boulders elephants were made to fight and people watched the show like in bull fights. There are engravings of the show in ancient Madurai. Perhaps it was an ancient Saivaite festival later taken over by Vaishnavism, for Onathan is Vishnu, according to Dr. Padmanabhan.
When did the celebrations of Onam in its present form begin is best left to history, hoary past cannot be deciphered beyond a point. Now the Pulayas who were seen celebrating are also known to be related to the Nayars of Kerala. Folk history talks about their having been people judged as lower in status after refusing to accept 'Pula' or ritual pollution, when those who accepted these became Nayars. This was obviosuly at the instance of the priestly religion that came to be powerful and one does not know who benefitted and at whose cost. For physical affluence and social position alone are not the ultimate variables in life, spirituality is as important. How Jesus Christ calls the poor and under privilaged as children of god. However the Onam celebrations of the dalits were certainly better than that of the television viewers. At least there was individual participation, joy and exhilaration.
What was remarkable was that the upper castes nearby, from Nayars down, did not come out of their homes to see the gaiety, leave alone join the celebration. They were all rivetted to the TV screens inside, those who peeped out from inside the walls were afraid that the shall be polluted if they joined the show. For the people here had also arranged several exotic sports items like climbing an arecanut tree pole smeared with oil and eggs white. Those trying to climb kept on falling down as the amused crowd jeered. There were also other events like 'Tumpi thullal' and other items, with a lot of cheering accompanying. It was literally a people's celebration. Is it that these are the real Saivite people who refused to accept the priestly Vaishnavism. Who knows. Obviously it is a more vibrant faith that they have, than the one where paying the greedy priests and bowing before idols alone is called religion. Dependency on priesthood stealing any trace of self respect, also self confidence in matters of faith, they becoming blind believers. Hard options before the Hindu faithful.
It is said that they compulsorily eat non-vegetarian food on Onam day in Malabar, when it is a no no in Travancore. Obviously the land Sree Padmanabha was far more Vaishnavite than Saivite than Malabar and continued to be with the Tamil country till the British left. Historians have recorded how the goddess of the Cheras, fore-runners of the true Nayars, was 'Kottavai'. And do you know what was her favourit dish, our modern beef Biriyani. Yes, the preparation was a mix of meat of oxen with boiled rice, see books of Ilankulam Kunjan Pillai on the ancient Kerala. Why even the Vedic people were meat eaters and the Rg Veda has far too many references to this. Thus Onam as a celebration of the defeat of a noble king Mahabali is also a metamorphosed festival. As history shows the goddess Kottavai later gets amalgamated in to the modern Hindu pantheon. The Onam Pookkalam, where we now have the small 'Thrikkakkara Appan' at the centre may be the left over from a past. A past where every one could do pooja, what eventually became a privilage of the caste Brahmins. Time the other Hindus asserted their rights, dumped the concocted fictions that go as sastram.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Policing the Police
Once passing through Kuriathy, a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, I was surprised to see all the people standing in a junction fleeing with out any reason. That was couple of years back and I was new to the city. It was a frantic scene where people jumped walls, climbed on to the top of vehicles parked and ran skelter shelter. Amused I watched in anticipation of some calamity, then saw a police jeep. That was it, respectable people driven to dehumanising terror. As I later found out it was forbidden for people to loiter around in this stretch of the city where, as they claimed, crime rates are on the higher side. But what if the people stand their ground, instead of running away, I asked. Some of them atleast may be wanted in some cases and the rest will not take a chance to be taken in to custody. Once in there can be inhuman treatment awaiting. They knew from experience.
Some social thinkers have opined that the criminal and the police are both from the same stock, they both have the same mindset and have an object-mirror image relationship. Possible as they are both in close contact and move about in the same social terrain. For a post-colonial society like India the western colour of Khakhi is in itself alien and arouses the fear of the slave to the master. Perhaps some deep rooted fears in the collective unconscious. It is not just in Kerala that this happens, across India this is the case. But in some places liek Tamilnadu the name is changed, they call the police 'Kaval' in Tamil. That is a big change as the name atleast does not threaten. Though the colonial hang over of Indian police remains western countries have changed a lot, the image of a friendly policeman escorting a child across the road is a live image of British police that appears off and on.
In Thiruvananthapuram it is forbidden to walk on the streets after it is dark, what has killed all night life in the city. An young painter friend who just got out of his studio in Palayam for a cup of tea at 11 pm in the night was picked up by the patrolling police. Taken to the station they misbehaved with him and put him behind the bars. The trauma he underwent was so intense he was on the verge of becoming a murderer, collected all the details of the policemen who misbehaved and started planning for their murder. Eventually good sense prevailed and he left Kerala for a long time, just to cool off. The power that the police force is given is certainly necessary for maintaining a civil society. But when it exceeds the limits, hardened officers and men in the force becoming menacing, the tolerance limits are reached. It is a tragedy that the political activists who face the tragedy later become champions of the same forces and enjoy the fear they generate, the same police jeeps escorting them with loud shrieks.
The drama of state craft in a post-colonial society has its magnetism. Thus a Minister once sworn in behaves differently and starts hallucinating. Democracy is a haloed word but the imperial governance mechanisms left over by the British now in practice in India, particularly in Kerala, is different. At best it is a blind repetition of the rituals, at its worst it is a swinging pendulam of oligarchies, interest groups pulling that side and this. Those who have the most colective strength wins in this game. The high talk of justice and participatory administration is theory. So it is not just the police who areto be blamed, it starts with the arrogant ministers down, who live in a make believe. It is after all a slave society just liberated, unable to decipher why institutions of governmnet are there, why statutes are there. They just follow in ceremony, sadly it is the least suitable people who come to rule, to whom it is just power and privilages. Administration is no where in focus.
Some social thinkers have opined that the criminal and the police are both from the same stock, they both have the same mindset and have an object-mirror image relationship. Possible as they are both in close contact and move about in the same social terrain. For a post-colonial society like India the western colour of Khakhi is in itself alien and arouses the fear of the slave to the master. Perhaps some deep rooted fears in the collective unconscious. It is not just in Kerala that this happens, across India this is the case. But in some places liek Tamilnadu the name is changed, they call the police 'Kaval' in Tamil. That is a big change as the name atleast does not threaten. Though the colonial hang over of Indian police remains western countries have changed a lot, the image of a friendly policeman escorting a child across the road is a live image of British police that appears off and on.
In Thiruvananthapuram it is forbidden to walk on the streets after it is dark, what has killed all night life in the city. An young painter friend who just got out of his studio in Palayam for a cup of tea at 11 pm in the night was picked up by the patrolling police. Taken to the station they misbehaved with him and put him behind the bars. The trauma he underwent was so intense he was on the verge of becoming a murderer, collected all the details of the policemen who misbehaved and started planning for their murder. Eventually good sense prevailed and he left Kerala for a long time, just to cool off. The power that the police force is given is certainly necessary for maintaining a civil society. But when it exceeds the limits, hardened officers and men in the force becoming menacing, the tolerance limits are reached. It is a tragedy that the political activists who face the tragedy later become champions of the same forces and enjoy the fear they generate, the same police jeeps escorting them with loud shrieks.
The drama of state craft in a post-colonial society has its magnetism. Thus a Minister once sworn in behaves differently and starts hallucinating. Democracy is a haloed word but the imperial governance mechanisms left over by the British now in practice in India, particularly in Kerala, is different. At best it is a blind repetition of the rituals, at its worst it is a swinging pendulam of oligarchies, interest groups pulling that side and this. Those who have the most colective strength wins in this game. The high talk of justice and participatory administration is theory. So it is not just the police who areto be blamed, it starts with the arrogant ministers down, who live in a make believe. It is after all a slave society just liberated, unable to decipher why institutions of governmnet are there, why statutes are there. They just follow in ceremony, sadly it is the least suitable people who come to rule, to whom it is just power and privilages. Administration is no where in focus.
