The Rise and Fall of Secularism in Kerala

Pseudo-secularism has lost its supremacy in Kerala in the information war and common man in Kerala has started realizing the real aim of vested interest groups who had brainwashed them with their selective interpretation of secularism to achieve social and political supremacy

One of the leading novelists in Kerala P Vatsala, recently startled the intelligentsia of the state when she said at a public meeting that she is proud to be a Hindu and showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi lavishly.  Further, she took on the leader of left writers forum (called PUKASA in Malayalam) and exposed their hypocrisy.

This was just unimaginable in Kerala till a few years ago when it was fashionable for writers, film personalities and others belonging to the intelligentsia to be critical of Hinduism in public to prove their “Secular” credentials. This was a culture forced by the Left in Kerala, especially by CPI (M) offering benefits to those who yielded and using threat and violence to subjugate others refused to yield.

For the 'progressive' in Kerala, Hindu culture is associated with superstition and Hindu Saints are mocked as Demi Gods (Aal Daivam in Malayalam). Hindu religion is portrayed by the Left as full of discriminations based on castes. However, Communist and pseudo-progressive groups are particular not to offend the religious sensibilities of Muslims and to a certain extent Christians and never attack the contradictions in their belief.  

In government schools, where majority of children in Kerala once studied, they were brainwashed to feel that Hindu scriptures approved discrimination and the Hindu Past of Kerala was associated with feudal oppression. The curriculum always tried to misinterpret and misrepresent Hindu lifestyle and hid the shocking cruelties and blatant discriminations that existed and are existing in organized religions.

Vatsala has now exposed the hollowness of Kerala Model Secularism and dared to declare that the “King is Nude”. Many others knew that earlier but didn’t have the guts to say it publicly. But now with the social and political conditions in India changing, things are changing in Kerala also. Pseudo-Secularism, a hypocrisy popularized in Kerala by the Left has now started to lose its popularity in Kerala now. Hindus in Kerala are now realizing the way out of the Labyrinth of Pseudo-Secularism to which they were thrown in. Pseudo-seculars are really panicked as their labyrinth has started crumbling. Their reaction to this is on expected lines;SECULARISM IS IN DANGER, COMMUNALISM IS ON THE RISE, they are wailing. However, the common man in Kerala is not losing their sleep over the secular moaning and is not impressed by the verbal jugglery of pseudo-secularists.

Now why all on a sudden secularism became a not so admired word in Kerala and the social engineering of Muslim-Backward Unity which the pseudo-secular mafia was trying to implement is at a standstill. The political, social and spiritual structure which the pseudo-secular mafia was trying to build in Kerala replacing the existing system is showing signs of cracking. Why is this happening? How did the public saw the real faces of wolves who approached them wearing the veil of goats?

The answer is simple. You cannot fool everyone forever. If secularism means everyone renouncing their special rights based on religion and deciding to become humans, it is really great. But if a group of people interpret secularism in a selective way and implement it to establish their supremacy then, on the day the exploited group realizes the ploy, they will retaliate. Moreover in Kerala, extremist groups infiltrated secular platforms and secured supremacy turning Hindus away from it.

 Let us analyse the situation to understand the story.

Though Kerala also had the history of communal violence and mass killings like any other Indian state or country in the world (remember the communal pogrom known as Moplah Riots) there are some positive aspects also in Kerala’s social life. Here people of all religions live side by side and the Ghetto culture is not widespread. All Keralites speak Malayalam. (Unlike Muslims in Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Karnataka who speak Urdu and local language, Kerala Muslims speak only Malayalam). The food habits and costumes of all Keralites are almost similar. Puradh system became common in Kerala only by 90s.

But despite all these there positive aspects, tension has been brewing in the social set up and communalism has also grown in a covert way. While Kerala was polarized on political lines from 1960s to 1980s, by 1990s Kerala society started getting polarized based on religion. What were there reasons?

They are; 1. Information revolution gave the public access to facts 2. Growth of political and economic power of Minorities leading to growing disparity among Hindus and Christians and Muslims, 3.Rise of Terrorism and Backlash against appeasement of minorities from Hindus. Rise of terrorism means in Kerala infiltration of secular parties and non governmental organisations by extremists and taking control. Though the Hindus have not realized the depth of the plan, the vitriolic attack in the name of secularism has created an aversion to Secularism among them

Information revolution

Once, information was the monopoly of pseudo-secular groups in Kerala. There were two systems only; one lead by communists and other by Congress and allies. Communists denigrated Hindu culture while preaching secularism and always turned a blind eye to the glaring inequalities and contradictions among minority religions, Congress and allied groups did not denigrate Hindusim initially, but they toed a soft pro-minority line accepting the supremacy of minority leaders and sidelining Hindu culture slowly. Media also toed an anti Hindu culture line in social issues and thus the available information was selective and against Hindu culture.

With the communication and information revolution, the glaring inequalities in other cultures also came into light. Though media continues to be controlled by minority groups in the fight to gain Supremacy they are also exposing each other thus letting Hindus know the huge injustices in their culture also. The young generation who uses net now knows very well the discrimination based on birth that denies rights to blacks and native Americans and Black Muslims and tribal Muslims of Arabia. The atrocities of Islamic State and other terror groups can’t be hidden anymore. Everyone now knows the mass killings by Communists in the name of secularism. Hindus have thus realized that compared to the inequalities in other cultures Hindu culture is far more egalitarian and democratic.

Growth of Political and Economic Power of minorities in Kerala

Organised religions of Christianity and Islam had been co-existing in Kerala during the past centuries.  However , Hindus had the upper hand in society. But this has changed over the last few years.

As Christianity and Islam are transnational religions, they have got international economic and political connections. This has given them more money and power in the form of foreign aid and as the world is becoming a global village. Flow of unlimited funds from Europe and the Western countries to Kerala through church sponsored institutions has opened unlimited opportunities to Christian community in Kerala. Foreign funds helped the church and NGOs to open different institutions and thus they increased their reach and influence.

In the meanwhile the rise of the Middle East has improved the economic status of Muslim community and their organisations in Kerala. While from 1960s to 1980s Christians were the richest community in Kerala, now Muslims have replaced them as the richest. The Muslim population in Kerala has also risen to over 26 per cent of the total population. The increase in population in Muslim dominated Malappuram district has resulted in more MLAs for Muslim League and they have more (five) ministers in state cabinet which contributes almost 20 per cent for Muslim League only. Kerala Muslims are highly educated and in competitive examinations and entrance tests to medical and engineering courses they win top ranks also.

Muslims are undoubtedly the richest group and are educationally and socially forward in Kerala. They are addressed as Sahib, Muthalali (means owner of wealth) or Kakka (the elder) etc in Kerala. Majority of land is owned by them and they are the highest foreign exchange earners from Kerala. They have never been discriminated against socially. But all governments give them reservation in jobs, in educational institutions, financial aid to widows, low interest loans, pensions to teachers of their religious schools etc, many of which are not available to even scheduled castes. But look at the plight of Nairs who get a pittance from the government and still supposed to bear the secular burden.

Anybody who questions the social inequalities in Kerala gets branded as anti-secular and RSS follower. Pseudo-secular groups, especially the Leftists used to divert attention of lower caste Hindus by highlighting the so called discriminations practiced in the past against them by the upper caste. But at present, the youth among backward and scheduled castes in Kerala are mostly concerned about present day discriminations rather than discriminations in the past which are misinterpreted to suit the interests of some groups now. The result is they are no more enthused in the pseudo-secular narratives.

Rise of Terrorism in Kerala

Rise of terrorism in Kerala is another reason why Hindus have lost affinity for Secularism. Terrorist organisations  in Kerala recruit from fundamentalist groups. Fundamentalist groups gained prominence in Kerala in 90s when the Left established links with them to gain their votes. (Eg. Are Jamaat, PDP lead by Mahdhani, Moreover, The rise of fundamentalist groups in Kerala was indirectly helped by the ideological campaign of the Left against Hindu culture. Since none, including the Left never attacked flaws in the ideology of Muslim fundamentalist groups, they could convince the society easily as a best ideology. This created a situation in Kerala conducive for their growth. The left parties and Congress compete with each other to bail out workers of fundamentalist groups even if they are caught by law enforcement agencies.

Terror groups in Kerala float frontal organisations and acquire huge assets. They operate hawala rackets and drugs and gold smuggling. They engage in Love Jihad and kill at will. Extremist groups have infiltrated Congress and CPM in Kerala and changed the meaning of Secularism practised by these parties. They make highly aggressive attacks on Hindu belief system. They interpret every Hindu custom as against secularism. They pressurise political and cultural organisations to portray all that is linked to Hindu culture as related to RSS and BJP. Even terrorists and Pakistan are praised by the secularists. Naturally Hindus of all castes have found this too much. This extremist variety of Secularism is in fact the root cause that destroyed secularism in Kerala.

It is difficult to write everything because of lack of space. Are these not enough reasons for the common man to move away from pseudo-secularism? The real need in Kerala now is equal justice for all followers of all Dharmas. A Muslim country like the UAE recently passed anti-discriminatory laws. There needs to arise in Kerala a situation when everyone irrespective of their religion has equal access to all rights and covert operations of pseudo-secular groups should end. Then Kerala will become the real land of Mahabali where there is justice for all and discrimination against none.