In Memory Of KeralaBy Binu Mathew
25 January, 2003
Stacey, my friend from Dayton, Ohio, called me up on the night of January 13. She was frantic. She said her uncle was stabbed by Hindu militants somewhere in India. I had just watched on TV the news of an american missionary who was attacked by Rashtriya Swaya Sevak (RSS) men near Trivandrum, capital city of the south Indian state, Kerala. While i was watching the news i did not think that it will anyway connect me directly to the incident. As it turned out, Mr. Joseph Cooper, the protestant missionary who was attacked by Hindu fanatics was Stacey's uncle.
Mr. Cooper had come to Kerala to speak at the Koppam Protestant Convention organised by the Puliyam Friends Bible Church. He and his fellow church members were waylaid by the armed gang while they were being escorted back to their vehicles from the convention venue at around 9.45 p.m.
Seven other persons, including a preacher and his family accompanying Mr. Cooper, were also injured in the attack. Mr. Cooper sustained a deep cut on his right palm. The assailants first exploded a cracker to create panic and attacked them with short sticks, swords and crowbars.It was my moment of shame. Stacey had asked me whether it would be safe for her uncle to travel in Kerala. She also had heard about the state sponsored pogrom in Gujarat in which more than 1000 muslims were murdered by Hindu fanatics,earlier this year. I was proud of the secular tradition of my state, its hospitality and the peace loving people. I believed that nothing of the sort that happened in Gujarat will ever happen in my state. In a moment i was proved wrong. It was also my moment of truth. The Kerala i looked on with wonderment as a child, and grew up into a young man proud of its traditions, is no more.
My shock was even more with the events that followed in the subsequent days. The public debate
took a disturbing turn with the blame being put on the missionary himself. Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP) demanded his arrest for making "communally inflammatory" speeches that were "insulting to the practioners of the Hindu faith". The chief minister of Kerala, A. K. Antony, himself a Christian and belonging to the Indian National Congress, refused to name R. S. S as the assailants, even though seven of its functionaries were arrested by the police. He might have been thinking about the votes he might lose in the next elections if he angered the Hindu fundamentalists.The condemnation of the attack was also from the usual quarters namely, the religious leaders of the minority communities, the communist party led Left Democratic Front coalition and a few activists and intellectuals. It was indeed shocking to see majority of the intellectuals and the general public turning a blind eye to this shameful attack. While talking to people belonging to the Hindu religion, many of them well educated, I found most of them echoeing the Sangh Parivar propaganda or maintaining a studied silence. Now, one thing I know for sure, the social fabric of Kerala is torn for ever.
This pattern of blaming the victim and justifying the crime in the name of hurt sentiments is repeating itself with a disturbing frequency in India. In October last year, five Dalit youths were hacked to death by VHP activists in a village in Haryana state for slaughtering a cow and the VHP leadership took the stand that it was a reaction to the killing of the cow which is sacred to the Hindus. Three years back, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children were burnt alive while sleeping in their car by VHP activists in the state of Orissa, it was also explained as a reaction to Staines' conversion motives. The Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) deposed in the supreme court the other day that they had no evidence that Staines was trying to convert the leprosy patients among whom he was working.
It is surprising to see that the same strategy is working in Kerala too which has made giant strides in the field of literacy and with a strong tradition of social reforms. Kerala has 90% literacy and the presence of media is very strong here. News papers reach almost 60% of kerala homes, television 50% and radio 90%. Kerala boasts of electing the first ever communist government in the world. The communist party is still a strong presence in Kerala politics. Kerala also had social reformers like Sri Narayana Guru, who said, "One religion, One Caste and One God for humanity".
Even Christianity is not a new entrant in Kerala history. The Kerala Syrian Christians pay allegiance to the Patriarch of Antioch , Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church. The christian tradition is that Apostle St. Thomas came to Kerala in AD 52 and established churches here. Portugese, the first colonisers, coming with their evangelical zeal was surprised to see christians here. But the local christians had not heard of the Pope! Later a faction of the Syrian Christians, under the influence of the Portugese, declared allegiance to the Pope and accepted Roman Catholicism.
During the course of history a lot of people accepted Christianity. But most of them were from the Dalits (lower caste Hindus) who were living on the outskirts of Hinduism. They were untouchables and were not even allowed entry into Hindu temples. Many Dalits in many parts of India still desert Hinduism and accept Islam or Budhism which are more egalitarian in their relationship to fellow religionists. This is what angers Hindu fundamentalists. Without trying to correct the centuries old evil of untouchability and intolerance of people belonging to the lower castes, Hindu fundamentalists attack those religions to which the Dalits turn for self respect and social acceptability.
The families of the dalit colony were Mr. Joseph Cooper was preaching had accepted christianity decades ago. Indian constitution gives every citizen the right to practice and propagate the religion they choose. What happened in the Puliyam Colony was not anything illegal, but only a reflection of the religious intolerance that is spreading across India.
Hindu fundamentalism is slowly entrenching itself in Kerala society which is one of the places worst hit by the onslaught of globalisation. The economy is in shambles. The state coffers are empty. The government is signing every piece of paper put forward by the Asian Development Bank, a subsidiary of the world bank, to gain a paltry loan, knowing fully well that it wil surely destroy the already fragile social security system. Unemployment is three times the national average. Almost six million youths out of a population of 30 million are jobless. Agriculture, the mainstay of the state's economy has collapsed. Prices have plummetted and farmers are committing suicides. Public sector industries are being sold off for a song by the government. Traditional industries like coir, handloom etc have collapsed. The government is trying to sell off natural resources like river water to multi nationals like Coca Cola and Pepsi, that too at places where the population face severe water shortages.
This is a fertile ground for the growth of religious fundamentalism. The youths are captivated by the definition of the 'other' by the Sangh Parivar ( Hindu fundamentalist organisations of which the ruling Bharatiya Janatiya Party is the political wing). Kerala has 3500 RSS shakhas (military training centres, where youths are given training drills using crow bars and small weapons and also ideologically conditioned)
On the intellectual and cultural front too the sangh parivar has got its foothold. They own two news papers, and one of them shouted for the arrest of Mr. Joseph Cooper! They are winning over intellectuals with political allurement and those who do not toe the line are threatened. Recently, writers Kamala Das ( kamala Suraiyya now as she recently converted to Islam), Paul Zacharia and educationalist and historian Prof. K.N. Panikker were issued death threats, while, most of the fellow writers and intellectuals looked the other way.
We know that what happened to Mr. Joseph Cooper is not an isolated incident. It is only the beginning of a well orchestrated plan hatched by the Sangh Parivar. It is with sadness and fear that i am writing this article. Sadness for the death of my home land as i knew it and i wanted to, and fear for the darkness and silence that is increasing with each passing day.
Binu Mathew is the editor of the webjournal www.countercurrents.org. He can be contacted [email protected]