Bigotry, fanaticism and religious intolerance were foreign to Indian ethos. The virus of divisiveness and the persecution of people on the basis of faith were introduced by foreign invaders
A friend of mine sent me a clipping from Kerala’s leading newspaper, Malayala Manorama, dated January 10. The accompanying translation gave me access to an inspiring example of communal harmony in Kerala. It said that traditional ceremonies of welcoming Hindu pilgrims, who are on their way to the forested hill temple at Sabarimala in January every year, has a sub-event, wherein the pilgrims are also greeted by the entire jamaat at a mosque in the junction town of Erumely. From Erumely, the faithful begin their foot trek through the forest to the temple.
The mosque authorities arrange the ceremony and the public takes part in it. Also, before the ceremony begins, a jewel-bearing pot, made of aromatic wood, is taken on a caparisoned elephant, from the mosque to a local temple nearby and brought back to the mosque for safe custody. The entire event is conducted by the local jamaat.
The following day, there is yet another inter-communal event when two Hindu groups from the temple town of Ambalappuzha add spice to the pilgrimage engaging in some friendly competition, known as Petta Thullal. This is a ritualistic sacred dance to celebrate the victory of good over evil and people from all communities participate as part of the pilgrimage dispensation.
My friend, who drew my attention to this event, says there are several pockets of such communal harmony in central and south Kerala. Most of us do not know that a mosque was built in Kerala during the life time of Prophet Muhammad in 629 AD in Methala, Kodungallur Taluk, Thrissur district. This is believed to be India’s first mosque and also the first to come up outside Arabia, where Islam originated. The mosque has an ancient oil lamp which always burns and is believed to be over a thousand years old.
The scene in Kerala, however, has been changing fast. Communal harmony has been steadily yielding to sectarian violence and intolerance. Hindus, who converted to Islam, have been rejecting their pre-Islamic past, with secularists of various hues (communists and Congressmen) extending overt and covert help. It is worthwhile to recall that it was under the first communist-led regime in the then newly created State of Kerala that the district of Malappuram, India’s first Muslim-majority district, was created, to appease the Muslim league.
Many historians in Kerala have said that the Arab traders who brought Islam to the Malabar coast in the seventh century remained loyal to the local Hindu potentate, the Samoothiri, even when Tipu Sultan from Mysore invaded the ancient kingdom. But Tipu Sultan’s violent attacks and his use of force for religious conversion made the first dent in this backward region. From then onwards till the 1920s’ uprising of the Muslim farming population the tide has changed.
The Muslim league derived its strength from the communal element injected into this part of Kerala. Communist leader and top-level social scientist EM Sankaran Namboodiripad sought to give the Muslim riots of those days a Marxist interpretation, claiming that it was the revolt of poor Muslim peasantry against the rich Hindu landlords of the area. The more recent understanding is that the economic division only accentuated the religious divide.
The Muslim league’s reach and political power in Malabar today is rising. It has enticed the Muslim youth to separatism of the social kind. Recent years have seen an insurgence of Islamist movements, first with the Al Qaeda and now the Islamic State gaining supporters. Islamic fundamentalism is becoming appealing to a larger number of people; the violence in the air magnifies this appeal for imposing orthodoxy on the common Muslim, who is told that his religion is different and that he must seek to distance himself from all types of Hindu cultural and social practices.
Centre-left political parties from the Congress to the socialists and the communists, fish in these troubled waters and compete among themselves in appeasement politics in order to cash-in on the the fundamentalist wave. As a result, any call for reform from within the Muslim community is muted.
In the Malabar region, according to political analysts of Kerala, the emergence of Gulf money has provided a cutting edge to Islamic orthodoxy. Madarssas and mosques have proliferated, with Wahhabi orthodoxy from Saudi Arabia and fundamentalism from Islamist movements competing for uncompromising loyalty.
A majority of Kerala workers who have found jobs in the Gulf and in the Wahhabi cradle of Saudi Arabia are Muslims. Some highly successful businessmen from Kerala have made their millions in the Gulf region. The Christians, working largely as medical personnel, artisans, and teachers, have also benefited.
Every year, Kerala receives billions of dollars in foreign remittance, much of which goes to the State’s Muslim community. This foreign dominance, especially in the affairs of a minority community with an aggressive orthodoxy and exclusivist politico-religious make-up, has had a political impact.
Recall the competitive appeasement between the Congress-led and the Marxist-led political fronts in demanding the release of Abdul Nasser Madani, the chief of the Peoples Democratic Party, a communal, extremist organisation, who had been put behind bars after being charged with the multiple bombings in Coimbatore that targeted BJP leader lK Advani in 1999. Also, the remember the competitive genuflection of the two political fronts when Madani was acquitted. Upon his release, Madani was charged for Bangalore stadium bombings and the Karnataka Government demanded his arrest. Both fronts resisted his incarceration. The Marxist alliance even aligned itself with Madani’s party in the 2009 parliamentary election.
It is no wonder then that successive Governments led by both groups have failed to bring before the law the likes of the Bhatkal brothers, for example. The latter were eventually picked up in Bangladesh after Dhaka authorities cooperated with Indian agencies. The Islamists even conducted a fortnight-long weapons training camp, and both political outfits turned a blind eye to this dangerously anti-national activity, despite a police report.
The story of Kerala is not the story of just one State or a region. The entire sub-continent is replete with such accounts. Bigotry, fanaticism and intolerance were foreign to Indian ethos. The virus of divisiveness and persecution of people on the basis of faith was introduced by foreigners when they invaded the land. The birth of a theocratic Pakistan in 1947 was a logical corollary of this thought process. Unfortunately, this fatal mindset continues to gain strength on both sides of the border.