Kerala: The Death of Adi Shankaracharya’s Own Country

Kerala: The Death of Adi Shankaracharya’s Own Country

The enticing advertisements by the Department of Tourism by the administration of the Indian state of Kerala entice visitors with seductive images of natural beauty in the tropics, capping it all with the slogan “God’s Own Country”. However it is becoming increasingly apparent that this begs the question, exactly whose ‘god’ does this refer to? Which kind of ‘god’ now dominates this south Indian state?

Sanctuary in Hindu Land

Kerala has a rich history as one of the most diverse parts of India. It is a major tourist destination where people go for the relaxing tropical climate and lush scenery. This timeless image belies the fact that it was in this part of India that major strides were made in scientific knowledge. In the fifteenth century Indian mathematicians in this part of the subcontinent were responsible for landmark theorems in developing series expansions for trigonometry. This remarkable work was completed a full two centuries before the invention of calculus in Europe and is now considered to be the first example of what in maths is known as power series.

Hailed as a haven of tolerance it was here that the ancient community variously known as Nasrani, Saint Thomas Christians, but mostly as Syrian Christians thrived long after its mother church was suppressed in its once thriving heartland of Syria and Iran. Before being offered free passage to Israel in the 1950s, there was also a thriving Jewish community. Accorded rights and privileges, Jews dominated not only trade but were also heavily present in the military.

India has the little known distinction of being the only country where Jews flourished free from anti-Semitism and it was in Kerala which can specifically boast of a king of Cochin who in 1550 went further than any other sovereign ruling a Jewish minority. Nathan Katz in his book ‘The Jews of India’:

“Probably India is the only country on earth so civilised that in war, out of deference to its esteemed Jewish soldiers, no battles were fought on the Sabbath.”

The state also boasts perhaps the earliest Muslim community in India, as the Moplahs or Mappilahs date back to the seventh century, tracing their descent to Arab traders settled along the Malabar coast.

It was around this time that one of India’s foremost spiritual figures Shankara was born, in the village of Kaladi in Kerala. He was barely a teenager he attracted many disciples and wrote commentaries on the Brahmasutras, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita which were later compiled into the Bhashyas, writings which stand at the very pinnacle of Indian philosophical writing.

Shankara is perhaps best known for engaging other schools of philosophy in debate. In this it was said that no other teacher could match him. Travelling throughout India he established ashrams and mathas (spiritual centres or monastaries) as he engaged in debate with other spiritual masters. This included reaching as far as Kashmir. Here at the temple dedicated to Saraswati (goddess of learning) he won the debate with all other scholars, a feat until then never achieved by a philosopher from southern India. At the age of thirty-two this most respected son of Kerala retired to the cave of Kedarnath in the Himalayas where he is said to have achieved samadhi (complete absorption of the individual consciousness in the self at the time of death).

The Cradle of Martial Arts

The land itself is said to have been created when Parasurama, the eighth avatara (earthly manifestation) of Vishnu, threw his axe into the sea and Kerala thus emerged. Parasurama is also credited with crafting all martial arts, notably Kalaripayattu. Originating from at least 3000 years ago, this is the ancient martial art of Kerala and the mother of all martial arts and is based upon the principle of “a sound mind in a sound body”.

The traditional training of Kalarippayattu is always done inside a specially constructed practice area. Kalaris are the schools where training in this martial art form is imparted by Gurukals or masters. The Gurukkal system consists of rigorous physical training besides training in self-discipline.

The weapons used are the sword, Dagger, Shield, short sticks, spears while the co-ordination of the body and mind is given maximum importance in this art. It is from Kerala that Bodhidharma is remembered as both a kalari master and as the “father of Han-Chinese Shaolin Fist”. The Yi Jin Jing also credits Shaolin kungfu to Bodhidharma.

Malays believe that Bodhidharma introduced preset forms into silat which would of course make him an important influence on Asian martial arts in general. Kalaripayattu is used for self-expression in dance forms, in theatre and in cinema and as such has also greatly influenced the evolution of Kerala’s theatre and dance forms, most prominently Kathakali and Theyyam. The former has attracted a compelling global audience.

The Lab of Modern India

In addition to its much vaunted communal harmony the state has also boasted the highest literacy rate in modern India, the highest life expectancy which in fact is in line with developed countries, and has made determined efforts to tackle poverty. While the latter has been successful much of it is due to remittances sent back by expat workers in the Gulf.

These amount to the highest amount of remittances in any Indian state. Hence while the state’s economic development has been lauded, few have commented on the distortions caused by the latter factor.

The very fact that Malayalis feel the need to work in places like Dubai where they are treated as virtual slaves should make us question just how successful Kerala has actually been. Politics has been dominated by the Communist Party dominated Left Democratic Front and the Congress dominated United Democratic Front, with the former being more powerful. Indeed the state’s prosperity is often claimed to be the work of far-sighted communists – a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. In 2008 there were 32 million people in Kerala while two and a half million workers in the Gulf originated in that state. This meant that one in six employed people of the Kerala, a state where unemployment stands at twenty percent. Families of expats enjoy a higher standard of material wealth with better consumer goods.

The Emerging Axis of Evil

As well as questioning the supposed success story of Kerala and its attribution to a series of communist governments, recent events cast doubt on whether the south Indian state is such a haven of communal harmony as it is often touted. The flow of money from the Gulf was often the result of work Muslim expats from Kerala, especially in Malappuram district, an area specifically carved out by the Communist government headed by E.M.S Namboothiripad to have a Muslim-majority area as a captive vote bank. In 2006 Hindus were reportedly being marginalised and discriminated against by an Islamicised administration. With increasing amounts of rape, economic blackmail, kidnapping and forcible conversion, Hindus were reportedly leaving the district. The destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992 had repercussions in the state as elsewhere in India, even if they were more muted. In December 2001 communal clashes broke out when the extremist Muslim National Democratic Front demanded that the Babri Masjid be rebuilt.

On 2 May 2003 8 Hindu fishermen were killed by a Muslim mob in Kozhikode district on Marad beach. A judicial commission concluded that the Indian Union Muslim League was directly involved in what became known as the Marad massacre.

Also in 2008, four youths who were shot dead by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir as part of a team of militants trying to cross over to Pakistan were found to be from Kerala. The Communist Party, as is common with the rest of India, had courted Muslim support by playing to fears of Hindu ‘fascism’ and ‘communalism’.

Yet by 7 August 2010 it was the communist state chief minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, who warned that Muslims were trying to turn Kerala into an Islamic state using demographic arsenals of financial inducements to convert and deliberately marrying non-Muslim women. Despite the fact that Achuthanandan emphatically stated that he was referring to Islamic extremists and not the Muslim population in general, his break with stifling political correctness nevertheless led to him being accused of employing the incendiary language of ‘Hindutva’.

His concerns were highlighted by the rise of the Popular Front of India, founded in 2006. This menacing new Islamist body is centered in Kozhikode and the police claim it has links to al-Qaeda. It was formed from 3 groups including the National Development Front of Kerala, which was involved in the Marad massacre.

Based on paramilitary Nazi-style uniformed cadres, the PFI leader Nasrudheen Elamaram says his organisation is expanding because there is a feeling among Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis that they have been cheated. But much of the Islamicisation is due to returnees from the Gulf bringing back not just money but the puritanical and intolerant ideas of Wahhbism and Salafism – just as happened in places such as Egypt. The dress style of Malayali Muslims, once almost indistinguishable from their Hindu neighbours, has now become more pronounced with Arab-style hijabs and purdah.

Poverty cannot be the cause of this as even educated Muslim women are now taking to this Salafi style Islamic attire. The PFI’s media arm, The Inter Media Private Limited, held by the Thejas Publishing Charitable Trust, has been very active in publishing hardcore Islamist propaganda in Kerala’s very own Malayalam, as well as Tamil, Kannada, English, Hindi and Urdu. Support has been attracted through its organisational capability, notably by the synchronised paramilitary parades which its cadres performed on 15 August in 2008 and 2009 across in Nuremberg-style rallies in cities across the south Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Muslims in Kozhikode thronged the roads and packed into the city stadium to watch the march. In 2008 it chose the Hindu stronghold of Mangalore to stage the provocative display. In 2010 the rallies were banned by the Kerala government.

Tapping into Muslim anger, it is not only on its image of strength and iron discipline (in the wake of perceived powerlessness among the Muslim minority following the release of the Sachar Report) that the PFI owes its success. Like the Muslim Brotherhood and similar Salafi groups the hardcore organisation has been active in social and public health initiatives, offering career counselling, distributing educational aids and study material, and running motivational programmes like the ‘School Chalo’ campaign every summer. Its medical camps are also popular. But by far the biggest inducement for Muslim youth to join the PFI is jobs. “We have been fairly successful in building an organisation.

There was a change because employment was given to Muslim girls, boys and Dalits,” says Elamaram. The police however claim that the PFI goes beyond providing jobs. “All Muslim youth joining the PFI are given mobile phones, motorcycles and money. The organisation also assists in job recruitments in the Gulf,” says Vinson M Paul, ADGP, Crime. The PFI claims Muslims are powerless against the Hindu majority, citing violence following the destruction of Babri Masjid and more recently in 2002 in Godhra where Muslims were massacred in Gujarat.

Since 2008 the PFI and its political wing, Social Democratic Party of India, have set up committees in 15 states and already have a significant following in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The PFI’s formulations of “total empowerment” for Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and Backward Castes and connect it with other parties.

The Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF), led by perfume magnate Maulana Badruddin Ajmal and with significant power in Assam politics, has declared solidarity with the PFI. Smaller outfits such as the Milli Ettehad Parishad in West Bengal and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhgam (TMMK) have joined the PFI-led national alliance of Muslim groups and parties.

This sinister development has only been possible through decades of anti-Hindu hatred drummed into Kerala by the powerful Marxist groups that have dominated the state and have long been violent to what they perceive as ‘Hindu’ interests.

In 1996 the BJP’s Kannur district secretary Panniyan Chandran was killed by Communist Party (Marxist) criminals in front of his wife. BJP Then on 1st December 1999 at around 10.35am, the class teacher of Mokeri East U.P. School in Koothuparambu near Panur in Kannur district and vice- president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha Kerala State K.T. Jayakrishnan was conducting class for his 6th standard students. Suddenly, his bodyguard (provided by the state government to protect his life due to threats from communist criminals) disappeared and seven Communist Party (Marxist)  activists entered the class room, shouted slogans and warned the students not to move, blocked the class room’s entrance, took sword-sticks and razors in their hands, came near Jayakrishnan and stabbed him several times which led to him collapsing to the floor. But the heartless communist criminals did not stop and continued to stab him to death.

After confirming his death, a CPM man wrote a warning to the witnesses — children and other teachers — on the blackboard that if anyone gave evidence to the police or the court, they would be killed. They left the place in procession, walking along the public road brandishing the blood-stained weapons as if they were celebrating a victory.

The most horrible murder was committed in front of students less than 11 years old. The young children were shocked as their most respected class teacher was brutally murdered in front of them.  The incident created psychological problems for many children who had to undergo counselling. In July 2012 members of Campus Front, the students wing of National Development Front, brutally murdered Vishal Nagar Pramukh of the ABVP.

Under such Red Terror the state of Kerala, sacred to Hindu lore and mythology, has become India’s major exporter of beef in an abattoir system by which cows are brutally killed by being beaten to death slowly with hammers. As Maneka Gandhi states on India’s primary producer of leather and beef:

”Travancore was the God’s own country. Kerala though is embodied by Devils.”

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