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Kerala Government Must Crush
Fundamentalist Forces

By The moderator, Indiathinkersnet yahoogroups

Much has been said about the incidents at the Marad beach,Kerala. Whatever has been said and done ,Kerala is not communalised and there seems to be little scope of communalisation of the state in comparison to the states like Gujarat,for several reasons. Interestingly Kerala also has become a national topper in maintaining law and order according to the recently released India Today surveys.


Communalisation has become a reality in India and no state may
be immune from it.It would be finer truth if we admit that
communalism has been with us ,even before independence.
The Brits reacting to the post-partition bloodshed,argued that
the division was not caused by the Brits,but the Hindu-Muslim
divide had been there in every village for many years.
Now we see the resurgence of communalism (religion based
sectarianism) .There are several national ,regional and global
reasons for this phenomenon.


Hindutva brand of communalism and the Islamist brand complement each other.They need each other for survival and growth.Kerala has been one state where the RSS has had it's greatest growth in the number of shakhas.Recently VHP launched it's trident distribution programme.The RSS has created several hundreds of front organisations posing as socio-cultural organisations.

The destruction of the Babri Masjid caused panic and apprehension about the vulnerability of the community.The radical Islamist outfits bloomed in this environment.The RSS shakhas function within the temple compounds and as demonstrated at Marad, Islamist outfits have found haven in a mosque.The RSS in Kerala has been involved in bloody political murders all over the state. In fact one would not be wrong in finding the RSS on one side of every political murder or violence.The Islamist radicals
of Marad were seen to be heavily armed.The RSS in Kerala
has a fine reputation of being involved in bomb making and
improvised explosives.


Not much is spoken about the incidents that shook Marad an year ago or so.At that time,it was the Hindutva radicals at work.The Chief Minister refused to visit Marad at that time.This time around he dashed to Marad.Following the violence last time around,the government set up relief camps based on religion,something uncharacteristic of Kerala.This was strongly protested by activists like the former justice VR Krishna Iyer and the leftists.The launch of the trishul diksha programme by Ashok Singhal was an
indication that worse was to follow. Islamist fundamentalists
were readying for a show down.


Marad violence has been a boon to the Hindutva fundamentalists
who were desperately looking for means to expand their constituency in Kerala.Reportedly the hindutva hartal on May 3rd
had some elements of Moditva in that the hartalists (strikers)
in Calicut asked the religions of individuals.


The present government sadly ensured that none of the strict
anti-fundamentalist policies put in place by the former government
are in operation.The leftist government at great odds with both the
RSS and the Islamist outfits promulgated an ordinance which
made registration (with the police) and permission to function
compulsory for any organisation imparting any form of physical exercise.Mr AK Antony saw that the ordinance lapsed and that no new law is enacted.Mr Antony reportedly received help in the elections from both the RSS and the PDP (of Abdul Nasser
Ma'adni).The CM does not intend to ban the trident distribution
programme and he considers it a religious function.Praveen
Togadia showered praises on him.

The Hindutva media also refers to incidents over an year ago that
happened in a small hill-town of Pathanamthitta.This town had no past or even present history of communal violence or division.There was some violence which attracted national attention.It started with the RSS sticking posters celebrating the destruction of the Babri Masjid. It has been found that the violence was stage managed not necessarily by Islamists but vested interests which belonged to mainstream political parties.There had been some business rivalries between a bus fleet owner who is believed to be a benami of some SNDP leaders (and other big shots) and competitors.His buses were burned not as part of communal tension but as part of business rivalry. The brand new BJP office which was located in the heart of a Muslim colony was burned down.The reports are that it was not the locals but outsiders who were involved.There have been no further reports of any sort of communal tension or polarisation in the small town .However the Hindutva media talks of it as if there was Godhra type incident.These exaggerations are part of the propaganda war to incite Hindus to take up arms and go communal.


There are those who see vested interests ,including business
interests (linked to tourism around the Marad beach) who wanted to cleanse the place of the wretched fisherfolk. The effects of globalisation on this poor beach is now debated hotly.One strong reason for attraction of youth at Marad (as may be elsewhere in Kerala) to fanatic outfits is loss of jobs and unemployment.People tend to overlook such important aspects as the analysis is done with communal goggles.


It may not be wrong to assume that both the Hindutva and Islamist outfits are fortifying themselves.The Hindutva forces have been waging propaganda war.They are looking to elements in the Hindu community of Kerala who formerly supplied men to the then native armies.They are reminded of their past-lost glory and their bright future under a Hindutva regime. The RSS shakhas teach that the Muslims are linked to the ISI and they are going to create mini-Pakistan in Kerala. The RSS has also taken up the issue of religious conversions. At the same time the Islamists are banking on the growing resentment in the Islamic world post Babri,post Guajrat and post Saddam.They have been reportedly stockpiling
weapons too.

These being the facts,the Kerala society as a whole has not turned communal .However there are elements who would want Kerala to go the Gujarat way.The demography, history,economics and political empowerment of different sections make it difficult for any one section to impose domination.The forces of Hindutva are desperate to break even in the state.The weakening of the left,the (near) death of the rationalist movement and the advent of the godmen and godwomen have made their job much more simpler.


The government must crush the Hindutva and Islamist forces in the state.Their shakhas and camps must be shut down. Any sort of physical training for cadre must be contained. The criminal gangs must be contained.The propaganda machinery of the Hindutva and Islamist forces must monitored closely and they must not be allowed to spread their lies and hate.Finally the people of Kerala must not allow their souls to be sold to the forces of communal fascism.