I have been watching the whole drama that has been unfolding after the unspeakable and utterly condemnable act of violence at Muvattupuzha in central Kerala early this month, which has been widely interpreted as the first instance of ‘Talibanist’ violence here, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. A whole manhunt has followed it and this continues to be front-page news in many Malayalam newspapers, especially the Mathrubhumi. This newspaper has been working very hard to homogenize the Malayalee Muslims and make them collectively responsible for ‘Talibanism’. Everyday the news is full of reports of raids on offices of the Muslim organization, Popular Front, and the homes of activists, which apparently unearth all sorts of incendiary material, especially CDs and printed matter. Meanwhile the Mathrubhumi has worked overtime to plant tit-bits that would collapse many Muslim organizations into a single, threatening, monstrous presence. It looks as if the assault which began with the false propaganda around ‘Love jihad’ is careening into a horrendous climax which will undo whatever peace and trust that exists among the major religious communities in Kerala.The manner in which the Popular Front leaders have been trying to ‘explain’ the act as ‘natural’ reveals the dangerous dimensions of what it to come (of course, it is another matter that neither the CPM leaders nor the BJP bosses in north Kerala have ever been really apologetic of the horrific political murders there).
The media is producing tons of ‘evidence’ on a daily basis on how the Popular Front activists have been planning and plotting this dastardly attack.The power of rhetoric is clearly being utilised to the fullest: just the other day, the mainstream media went wild about the alleged attackers possessing several SIM cards, as if possessing many SIM cards is in itself evidence for someone’s links to terrorism. I know many fellows in Kerala who possess several SIM cards and use them for such purposes as the efficient management of multiple amorous interests; would they be ‘suspected Talibanists’? Similarly, the hysteria about the hoards of CDs and printed matter seems to be with the clear intention of misleading readers into thinking that possessing such material is a crime or evidence for assent to Talibanist ideology. Well, just looking around my office, I find my desk and bookshelves full of material that celebrates ‘virtuous Malayalee womanhood’ which demands an impossible repression of anything sexual; I also have plenty of material that argues for a sadomasochist aesthetic. Now does that make me either a good asexual Malayalee woman (god forbid!) or a sadomasochist aesthete? According to the rules set by the mainstream media, I will certainly be a propagandist of sadomasochist aesthetics, because I have multiple copies of an article that defends the same which I intend to hand out to a group of readers who would like to discuss the sexuality debates within feminism! I may also be a good repressed specimen of Malayalee womanhood (alas!) since I have stored for several purposes, plenty of copies of K Chinnamma’s early 20th century proposal to turn all ‘native women’ into mothers with sexualities stiffer and straighter than my Valyammavan‘s (Grand-Uncle’s) stiffest starched mul-mul mundu (a Malayalee dhoti)! All depends on what they choose to find in my room. It is time that our journalists were taught some logic, and helped beyond the statistical fallacy (which, simply put, is the error of reasoning that results from examining a number of episodes, for example, (1) whisky+soda = intoxication,(2) vodka+soda = intoxication, and (3) gin + soda= intoxication, and coming to the conclusion that the most apparent common factor,soda, is responsible for intoxication).
I am of course not saying that I know who were behind this horrible act of violence and that I am sure that the Popular Front were not involved. Given the trajectory of anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been floating around, it may well be the case that this is a foolish, irresponsible, completely unjustifiable, impulsive response by the accused. All I am saying is that the present ‘evidence’ offered by the media by which the accused are already guilty works to not so much actually prove them guilty, as to offer bits and pieces that promptly generate certain false associations that pronounce them already guilty. This is by now a familiar strategy and I am sure there are better ways to report a case investigation in a democratic society, and that there are ways to gain a degree of distance from the police accounts.
But there is a parallel I can’t help noticing — between the present incident and and earlier one I had written about on kafila (1 oct 2009). The latter had to do with another shocking murder, of an innocent man on a morning walk at Varkala, near Thiruvananthapuram, and a dalit organization which had been working in the dalit colonies at Varkala, the Dalit Human Rights Network, was blamed instantly. In a sequence of events almost uncannily similar to the present one, activists of the DHRM were rounded up and accused of the most appalling crimes, with the mainstream media gleefully lapping up the cartloads of ‘evidence’ that the police was discovering on a daily basis and coining such conceptual gems as ‘dalit terrorism’. The violent act in that incident was as mindless and atrocious as in the present one — an act that was politically so damaging that one would be justified to think that only the politically-dumbest person would commit such a crime. In fact, such a person could well be judged as incapable of elementary rational calculation — and could therefore be called dangerously mad. The present act is exactly this. The professor in question had been punished and the matter seemed to have ended there. On the other side, the Muslims in Kerala, especially those active in youth organizations such as the Solidarity, have been under incessant attack recently, and therefore to engage in such violence would be nothing short of political suicide, and this is as clear as daylight to the most ordinary observer of public life in Kerala.It happens, and the police get into their act, exactly like in the Varkala murder case, producing tons of ‘evidence’ to feed the media which utilizes it to homogenize and criminalize a particular group of people. The police have still to produce credible evidence against the ‘suspects’ who have been arrested in the Varkala murder case; it is most likely that they will be let go, like the ‘suspected Maoists’ who were arrested a couple of years back in Kerala who have now been released, of which I had written about in an earlier post (22 Jan 2008).
What really strikes me, however, is the timing of these incidents. The Varkala murder case came just at the point when negotiations around the Chengara land struggle seemed to be reaching somewhere; the anti-dalit tirade did much to diminish the political gain that the dalits had made through the Chengara land struggle. Now, this comes just after the successful thwarting of government promotion of neoliberal predators at Kinaloor in north Kerala in which Muslim organizations were actively involved. And lo! Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Home Minister of Kerala, tells the Kerala State Assembly on 14 July (according to The Hindu, Trivandrum edition,15 July) that “the Intelligence wing of the Police Department was keeping a close watch on certain human rights organisations who were suspected to be indulging in activities aimed at subverting development initatives in the State.” He further hinted that “foreign sources” may be funding these organisations and that “subversive activities would not be permitted in the State under any circumstances”. Too neat, I must say. I am well aware that one should not read too much off such close associations, one simply lacks the hard evidence to do so. But I do feel that the uncanny likeness between the two incidents gives us good reason to insist on critical distance from police versions and on independent investigation especially because the mainstrean media is outdoing the police.
And of course, Balakrishnan’s profound observations may be completely innocent — but that is not the point. His words may be a brave attempt to make hay while the sun shines in between an unrelenting monsoon. Such is the desperation in the LDF: the panchayat elections are approaching and it MUST be won! As the drama unfolds after the violent incident at Muvattupuzha,our political benefactors, the LDF, have been busy with the Great Beneficiary Hunt, in view of the approaching panchayat elections which the LDF cannot afford to lose. In the recent weeks we have been witnessing a amazing proliferation and elaboration of governmental categories who are being handed pensions, cheap loans for housing, noon-meals, medicines — everybody from people suffering from various kinds of chronic and genetic ailments to unwed (tribal) mothers to senior citizens neglected by their NRI children to financially challenged Gulf-returnee women workers — have been sought out and lined up for welfare,and LDF legislators and panchayat members are busy combing their constituencies for anyone who may fit into this amazing range. The festival will last up to the upcoming panchayat elections. However, what I have been discussing — which may perhaps be called the Great Incendiary Hunt — is also part of the LDF strategy which, as even our littlest brats would tell you, has changed with a vehemence — it has moved towards the Hindus, and is determined now to tell them that they are safe from the ‘bad Muslims’.
And in the bargain, one can get rid of the rea…llly baa..dd Muslims too, the ones who thwart neoliberal predators. There is great unity in this — everyone, including the Congress and the Muslim League, would like to be fed by the predators, everyone would love to paint themselves ‘secular’ in the bargain,everyone would love to subsume the meaning of ‘development’ to ‘neoliberal growth’. In addition, the Great Incendiary Hunt and the Great Beneficiary Hunt are strategies that ensure success in the Game of elections, but only there is only one player who can access both. Only the first is available to all players, and therefore no player sacrifices it. The second is available only to one player, the ruling coalition, and therefore the others try their best to delegitimize it — while continuing to access the first the best they can. Since all players are incessantly forwarding-calculating and promises (and lofty political ideals) are nothing but ‘cheap words’ in the universe of such Games, the LDF is likely to access both strategies.
Welcome to the world of political games!
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
wrong parallels. wrong reading. badly ruined the chance.
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Whether the printed matter and CDs are ‘incendiary’ or not depends on the content I would think. Is the author trying to say that they are likely to be considered ‘incendiary’ only from a neo-liberal commitment? As against, say, a communal angle? Whether the responses are ‘hysterical’ or not depends on that, doesn’t it?
I found the original episodeof the question paper itself very surprising for Kerala, given what I thought was the general trend of taking good care to avoid stepping on any community toes. If there is material being circulated that is communal ‘hate literature’, I am sure everyone would like to know and be able to stop it, before things get worse. Communal attacks cannot be compared to political murders in North Kerala; the significance of the former is far more devastating.
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nope.
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In a democracy like ours it is the basic four institutions plus the historical communal amity and the belief of the people in them is the most sacred. The communists in India sees participation in parliamentary politics as a tactics to come into power via parliamentary elections and to debase the bourgeois democracy as a part of their strategy to carry out a people’s democratic revolution that leads to the establishment of one party dictatorship of the proletariat.It therefore is in accordance with their party programme to come into power even by the spread of communal hatred and to degrade the bourgeois democratic institutions.It is also the vain attempt of the casteist leadership of the party to withhold the inevitable democratization process that has been unfolding in Keralam since the first labour strike led by Ayyankali. It also represents the casteist aspirations to block the democratization process that gained great momentum by the accession of capital by the Muslim people since the migration to gulf countries.Sadly the Post Babur Masjid demolition splinter groups in Keralam plays into the hands of these nasty political strategists.In this strange scenario of the left becoming right, the whole spectrum fades into a gray mist of ambiguity except exceptionally brave cries of the people like Devika in the wilderness. Now sanity hopes against hope that the right, sans the Syriyan Christian interests, led by the Muslim League rises to fulfill the historical responsibility entrusted upon them to turn the tables on the left and to carry on the democratization process forward.Sakhakkale munnottu…
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it is best.
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1) Who has done this act of crime ? – Political ? Religious ? or extrimists from both ?
2) Who is benefited by the same ?
3) What is Govt’s good certificates’ intention on Jamaat on the sameday ?
4) Why Jamaat is worried than from the Human wrongs that concerns with an “Eye for Eye” ?
5) Who is getting the political mileage in this act of crime ?
>>>> Torture on Teacher (?) looks like polarising the Muslim politics, to the vested interests of the political heavy weights, than the “clash” on the issue within the Muslim politics…..
NB: Earlier the understanding…..lesser the harassment of the people with these type of Media projections;
I think this is a game by one of the main political party.
The issue I’m pointing here has nothing to do with Jamaat or even the Teacher (?) himself.
We have to beleive in Police, as a citizen, and as part of the protectors of law and order. But police acting for the political parties, to the extent of creating proofs for their advantage is not an open secret now, and even when we have open secrets about the police and the judiciary playing in the hands of politicians.
It’s about the political twist which one among the political party is trying to create among Muslims, scenerio is the present polarisation of Muslim politics against the LDF beofre the hand chopping.
I have nothing to do with Govt’s good certificate for Jamaat, I’m more concerned about the timing Govt is doing the same to tackle Jamaat.
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The parliament attack was happend when BJP gov’t was in need to have such an incident,
9/11 happend when US need to gain a lot by such an incident.
and now, the local body elections are very close and CPM need something to Collect all anti-muslim votes in their box. So God made it happen!. God must be crazy
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how dare you use the sacred name when you post something here…your left hand could be chopped off!
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Reading this article was a great eye-opener. I gained a few tidbits of wisdom:
1. It is really the fault of the ‘trajectory of anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been floating around’ in Kerala society. The folks who actually took part in it were zombies, they could not resist the powerful force fields that exist around the trajectory from lifting their axe wielding hands and chopping off the pesky professor’s hand.
2. The neo-liberal predators did it. You know, neoliberalism is the original sin, the root cause of all that is ill, including among other things, AIDS (who released the virus?), global warming (goes without saying), terrorism (you knew it all along) and marital discord. Don’t ask us to name the predators, though. We are not in the business of naming neo-liberal predators, not any predators, for that matter.
3. There is a great conspiracy going around to thwart the Muslims who thwart the neo-liberal predators by such noble Gandhian acts like flying airliners into tall buildings, going on shooting sprees in school auditoriums, blowing up underground rail cars and double-decker buses, slitting the throats of school girls etc. Well, don’t confuse it with the small scale conspiracy industry working overtime in Kerala right now to gain mileage in panchayat elections. This one is a multinational industry.
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It is a matter of great concern of all who are deeply determined to uphold the values of Islam, secularism, and democracy, the current deliberate attempt to corner a particular community with the intention of appeasing the majority community in order to achieve the goal of communal divide and polarization for political gain and exploitation. This should be understood by all who love the country. We should not allow no stone unturned for achieving, communal harmony, lasting peace and tranquility in the days to come and every moment down the line. May the Almighty bless all of us.
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mrs devika..i agree with your observation generally for the ambiance it creates .on one aspect i have a doubt.how do you know that ‘popular front ‘ is not involved in this. my doubt is based on the factors 1] investigation-is just on 2]there are 13 Muslim organization appearing in different names and most of them have at least indirect friendly attitude towards religious fundamentalism.[evident from their comments]
positive notes]1]you are absolutely right about the media frenzy.it creates a paranoiac atmosphere making the whole Muslim community suspected [now it is nation wide one] terrorists 3]electoral ambitions are playing with fire
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http://www.mathrubhumi.com/online/malayalam/news/story/420558/2010-07-19/kerala
കൈപ്പത്തി വെട്ടിയതിനെ പ്രകീര്ത്തിച്ച് എസ്.എം.എസ്. അയച്ച യുവാവ് റിമാന്ഡില്
Posted on: 19 Jul 2010
മൂവാറ്റുപുഴ: അധ്യാപകന്റെ കൈപ്പത്തി വെട്ടിയ സംഭവത്തെ ന്യായീകരിച്ചും നല്ലതാണെന്നു ചിത്രീകരിച്ചും എസ്എംഎസ് അയച്ച യുവാവിനെ അറസ്റ്റുചെയ്തു. മൂവാറ്റുപുഴ രണ്ടാര്കര കളപ്പുരയ്ക്കല് ലുഫ്ത്തുള്ള (18) യെ ആണ് ശനിയാഴ്ച പോലീസ് പിടികൂടിയത്. ശനിയാഴ്ച രാത്രി തന്നെ ഇയാളെ കോടതിയില് ഹാജരാക്കി റിമാന്ഡ് ചെയ്തു.
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Dear Ammu
I think it is very important that the newspapers reporting should not buy that version about the contents of the CDs etc that the police offers; nor should they glibly rule out the possibility that these may be planted, which is as common a police strategy in Kerala as elsewhere in the country. The material seized from the PF offices, I hear, are of a very mixed nature — and my source of information is someone who actually has attacked the PF as harmful to the cause of the Muslims in Kerala. The Mathrubhumi for example reported that ‘a banned book’, and a ‘controversial book’ had been seized in police raids; inquiries revealed that this actually referred to the collection of articles which they had published on the ‘textbook controversy’ that’d happened sometime back — that’s the ‘controversy’ in the book! Now, on this issue, the PF had sided with the government, to retain the lesson, against the church which had claimed it to be an attack on faith and community. I think we need a double-check on what has been seized and need to know whether the stuff presented as seized material was really seized. And above all, seizing multiple copies of any kind of material form anywhere does not constitute evidence that they have been used for harmful purposes, unless this is bolstered with additional evidence.
And I do not agree with your observation that political murders in north kerala are less harmful. The distinction itself is a dubious one as the CPM is the north is clearly a moral community if not a social one, and recent anthropological work has strikingly brought this out. I also don’t think that it is forgivable that bombs and weapons are stocked amply in the offices of political parties just because the intention is ‘political murder’ and not ‘communal violence’. Women and children may not be attacked in the former, but that does not mean that these offices are not raided by the police even after such murders have taken place. The present case, by the way, can well be described as ‘Kannurist’, as ‘Talibanist’, as far as I can see
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sorry, I meant to say that the offices of the political parties should not be raided, not ‘are not’.
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The post and discussion as such seem to focus just Kerala. Assuming that the communal profile- oriented
machinations against Muslims by the police, mass media and the mainstream parties have rather more to do with the neo- liberal / militaristic strategies of global capitalism we get a different picture. There you will find even Muslim parties rather being reluctant to oppose this communal profiling and hate-spread, rather than to resist it in the name of things like ‘war against terror’.
Where actually lies the genesis of terror is never brought to focus or discussion. Despite the recent reports of many Hindutwa organizations including top functionaries of the RSS having involved in acts of terrorism, these ‘secular’ media, police and parties do not care to reorient their fixation on Muslims, while dealing with the matter of terrorism.
How Muslim and Islam have been made problematical than ever thanks to continuous spreading of hate and attribution of terrorism to these could perhaps be examined . Especially in the context of post 9/11 global situation, even the most sophisticated of police systems of the West behave in utterly biased and rude manner to people bearing Muslim names.
Last week I had an experience in the USIS Centre, Kolkatha while undergoing the usual formalities of security check . I was among the invited audience to the presentation of a paper on ‘Feminist Economy’ by my academic friend. Apparently Identifying me as an Indian from another state the security man wanted to know my name. If I had given a Muslim name he would definitely have upset and have demanded further proof of identity.
Two of our friends had to manage emergency flight from Kolkatta to Bangalore and they managed to board the flight just 15 minutes before the take off and with just reporting with the PNR number and only one of them carrying the id card. I could not help Imagining the perils these women friends might encounter when either or both of them had Muslim names even while this was just a domestic flight!
Imagine the hazards that may be awaiting the brilliant young son of a Hindu- Christian couple , who just two decades back in time, gave their son the lovely name of a Sufi poet!
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Devika, your post seems to be quite relevant in the context of the following link; kudos.
http://www.mathrubhumi.com/online/malayalam/news/story/420558/2010-07-19/kerala
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Many intellectuals and so-called culture leaders in Kerala are still loyal to the ISI wing in Kerala [NDF or PFI]. They are grateful for the money.
It is good that masks are being opened.
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well…well…it is the same script.perfectely designed to unfold..go out and carry out your agenda in the name of god…politics..religion.then come the police investigation,the raids,which leads to more raids,which leads to the persecution howls,starting from the perpetrators first echoed by the infallibles..suddenly the barbaric act of chopping off the hand of an individual is no more a primary concern..but the following police investigation and the seizure of incrimenating records burns the minds of few.
would devika please pronounce and guide the kerala police how they should proceed in their investigation to book the perpetrators of this henious crime and give them the maximum punishment…so we the less intellects can feel that we are still in a civil setup where we are free from the clutches of the vote oriented politicians,perks oriented intellectualls and the dreadded religious fanatics.
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Is ‘War Against Terror’ in Kerala Following the Bush Doctrine?
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Dear Devika,
Thank you for the pattern-breaking excellent article. Reading it I wished if you were able to support the arguments postulated in your article with more cognitive determinants. I could not help recollecting a well known saying of Artemus Ward which is exactly applicable to the current situation prevailing in Kerala. “ It is not so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It is the things we know that just are not so”. Vehement media propaganda coupled with the wrong police arrests and irresponsible statements from our ministers and police officials, prejudices and reservations plague both experienced and educated professionals and less informed people alike. These prejudices, reservations and wrong and erroneous beliefs as of now arise primarily from the deliberate overutilization of detrimental political tactics intended to cling on to the power or to retake the lost one. Police and bureaucracy is spuriously creating some clusters of non-existing “Talibanism” and converting it into myths whereby we get ensnared and entrapped in the inescapable and scary cobweb of clustering illusion masquerading in the guise of non-existing “Talibanism” in Kerala. Just add with it our people’s perceptual illusions and cognitive shortcomings. This sets a fertile soil for a messy paranoia that’s going on now in Kerala however unrepresentative and ambiguous, inconsistent and unpalatable it is actually . What Francis Bacon said in Novum Organum is true. “ The human understanding supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds; and although many things in nature be sui generis and most irregular, will yet invest parallels and conjugates and relatives where no such thing is”. So, our media and government see “Talibanistic” order where there is nothing like it in Kerala. Our media tunes the most irregular into something very regular and general with non-existing parallels, conjugates and relatives.
Why do they want to do it? Who are behind it. Here, we need to explore and unearth other dimensions from a third eye view beyond and above what we do see apparently. Democracy is after all based on counting of heads rather than weighing what is inside it. Most of the problems related to democracy stems from one of the fundamental problems of democracy mentioned herein. So, each and every political party working in democratic system does not hesitate to do anything to win the votes and each and every society under the democratic system gets a government it deserves. Looking from the keralite political landscape, BJP both on national and state level is in doldrums and the upper class Hindus have not yet decided where to switch their loyalty in terms of the only available political options of LDF and UDF. This time, CPM looks to be actively wooing for it relegating it unnecessarily into seemingly Hindu communal outfit forgetting its own ideas and ideals . Communist parties in India also have been on wane since they do lack the luster of ideology especially after the disintegration of Soviet Union. Rather than moving into the extreme end of Capitalism in praxis with diehard Marxist dogmas related to religion as we had seen in Singur, Nandigram and Kinalur, they could have evolved into a Secular Social Democractic Party accommodating all communities and filled the glaring political vacuum existing for long time in India. They seem to have failed in it. They lost West Bengal irrecoverably. The undercurrents in Kerala also do not give a different picture. I want to elaborate on Muslim League since the issue discussed and debated herein ( disappointment and desperation among Keralite Muslim masses vented out in the form of violence and extremism) has more to do with them. The soil has been eroding under the feet of Muslim League as it was quite evident from many elections. IUML is a party which is doomed and destined always to be on the wrong side of the history ( Just take the examples of Partition of India, Emergency, Demolition of Babri Mosque, Bagalpur Riot, Badakara- Beypur elections, Naser Madani Issue ect) and it has nothing in its scabbard to attract the educated Muslims. It is and was the largest single cause for the current predicament situation of Indian Muslims since it had a crucial, decisive and incontrovertible role in the partition of India . Moreover, it was not able to uplift Keralite Muslims educationally and socially despite being in Power almost for 35 years although it had availed almost complete support of Keralite Muslims. Muslim League as a party became fat at the expense of Keralite Muslims. You may just compare the legacies of Muslim League to Keralite Muslims and the support Muslim League got from the Keralite Muslims. ( here legacies of Zainudheen Makhdoum, Samuthiri, Makthi Thanghal, Vakkam Maulavi, Khilafat Movement all of which had taken place in Kerala even before Mulsim League had taken visible form in Kerala has to be subtracted. Historically, Muslims were a business community and were not a backward community in Kerala socially and economically. Muslims came as merchants and continued to be merchants for a long time. Still they do hold a say and sway in the Keralite business. Then you have to minus the roles played by all religious organizations which has been very much active in Kerala, even before the formation of Muslim Leauge, in the upliftment of Keralite Muslims. Again, the flow of Gulf money as detailed by P.T. Kunju Mohammad in a recent Madhyamam Weekly also has to be taken into consideration in social and educational surge that is being seen among Keralite Muslims. Kerala Muslims did not suffer from the traumatic tragedy of partition also. – the case would have been almost same for Muslims in other state also if there was no partition – . Except in Tellicherry, Kerala did not have so far any major communal riot targeting annihilation of Muslim resources. Then, we may wonder how Muslims became backward in Kerala despite Muslim League being in power for 35 years?! – This is called Magic of Muslim League in Kerala! Its existence itself is on the social and educational backwardness of Muslims in Kerala. It seems to be a party that is afraid of Muslims growing educationally and socially since it might cause further erosion of soil under their feet. Then how Muslims will be able to prosper if they follow Muslim League? This proves Muslim League has nothing to do with the ideology of Islam ( they don’t claim it also) nor with Muslims as a community ( which they do claim fervently ). It just uses the label of “Muslim” to exploit the communal feelings of innocent Muslim masses for the benefits and vested interests of elite class clinging with them. You may compare legacies of Muslim League in Kerala towards the upliftment of Keralite Muslims again with the greater legacies of other communal organizations of Kerala towards the uplift of respective communities and the much lesser support they got from their respective communities . From communal point of view, Christians have been enjoying the power and all the facilities arising out of it since the time of British since they were aligning with the British globally and locally (you may not see many Freedom Fighter from the Keralite Christians as a whole in comparison with other communities in Kerala. Further more an historical comparison of Malabar and Travancore during the time of freedom Struggle also will help to understand the difference) while Muslims were fighting against colonialism globally and locally. During the pre-independence period, In Kerala Chrstian community was stronger than Muslims demographically. Moreover, the British wanted to appoint friendly, reliable and “trustworthy” Christians in the governmental power centers. Quite naturally, they wanted to keep the antagonistic and warring Muslims away from all power centers. During this phase of history, Muslims in Kerala were politically strong as they were fighting against the British colonialists though their presence in governmental offices and power centers had come to very low level. Furthermore, Muslims as a community had boycotted even the language of colonialism as part of their struggle against colonialism while Christians were seen educational institutions with the covert and over support of the British Government. This is now considered as Christian contribution in the educational upliftment while legacies of Muslims in the freedom struggle were deliberately forgotten to an extent due to the partition of India. Muslims’ boycott of even the language of the colonialist was even before Gandhi had started boycotting British products and institutions. Keralite Christians has been continuing to hold this power even after independence as British had left leaving them behind in the bureaucracy. At the same time, their population has been shrinking in Kerala while Muslim population increased due to many reason. Now, even though Christians enjoy much greater share in the power and governmental offices, they constitute only 17%-18%% of Keralite population while Muslims constitute 28%. I am sure anybody can smell the festering envy and jealousy among the Muslim masses in Kerala towards Christians despite the fact that Muslims in Kerala have achieved enviable surge in the field education due to their employment in abroad, especially in Gulf. On the other side, Christians have become fearful of losing their grip in power due to Muslims’ rise in population and education. Both sentiments are acting against one another. Some elements in Christianity vent it out in mongering hatred and heresy while some elements in Muslim community vent it out turning to a kind of extremism and violence in their desperation. Some experiments devoid of crystal clear vision were done in the name of MDP,PDP and INL which proved to be a kind of exercise in futility even though disappointment with IUML and erosion of soil under their feet continued. Its beneficiary was by and large LDF. As Spinoza had said, “ nature abhors a vacuum”. New entrants into this vacuum are PF and JI with diametrically opposed approaches. PF plays on emotions while JI works on intellect. PF has been spreading its net among the Muslims communalists in Muslim League and Marxist parties while JI has been creeping into Muslim elements of Marxist party as an ideological alternative. Moreover, JI, its youth, Students and women wings started to work among Adivasis, backward classes and even among other communities of Kerala as a well oiled machine from a seemingly Islamic humanistic perspective. During the last legislative Assembly election, JI having already attracted educated Muslims from Muslim League and as an only ideological organization capable of attracting Muslims back to the Islamic fold from Marxists, developed a grand strategy to win back Muslims from the Marxist fold. It gave unprecedented support to LDF which surprised everybody but non-among JI activists. This strategy gave new eyes, ears and listeners to JI’s ideology and political stand and gave them a bigger political clout than they really had deserved. This strategy raised JI’s reach among the people at the exponential rate which otherwise was accustomed to move ahead at snail’s pace. Simultaneously, its youth wing Solidarity was in the forefront of social struggles and social services from seemingly humanistic perspective allegedly stemming from its Islamic vision and values. Hitherto, Marxists were attracting Muslims into its fold from any kind of alliance with any Muslim organization. Now, for the first time in their history both CPM and DYFI felt the sting and heat of JI support as it felt losing the ground among the Keralite Muslims ( Actually, Marxist party had already taken greater share of Muslim votes in Kerala than of Muslim League in 2006 election) while JI and Solidarity had started eating their ears sitting on their shoulders. This was detailed in a crystal clear way in CPM’s new policy-draft and Pinarayi Vijayan’s Kollam speech. CPM wanted some Dieu of Machina to turn the table into its favor and against JI. First, it started lashing at JI and Solidarity using Kinalur episode as a triggering point, but were not successful enough even though Media ( especially Deshabhimani and Kairali), Mafia and Marxists cadres were used at its optimum. JI and Solidarity were able to overcome this Marxist tirade since they were and are used to live among the people, with the people and for the people for long time. All parties working based on democracy in Kerala seem to be asserting dominance, power and supremacy over the people as they are democrats ( all political ideologies other than that of Islam speak to people the language of dominance and Supremacy over people – No wonder if we see them becoming tantamount to demagogues! ) while JI and solidarity seems to be serving the people from the perspective of an astonishingly beautiful political concept of demo-guards ( Instead of democrats – to speak coining a new terminology!) CPM forgot one basic principle related to media. Media’s prime purpose is to make see the things that people are not able to see. If people are able to see themselves in person and media give a different and distorted version of it, people will reject the media and media will lose the credibility. That’s why Kairali’s broadcasting and Deshbahimani’s reporting of Kinalur episode proved to be an “ operation credibility erosion”. Then, CPM with the support of other lobbies successfully tried to make a wedge between Muslim League and JI when they made unwanted and un-required hue and cry on meeting that took place between Muslim League and JI ( Both LDF and UDF want to make already thin MU thinner and thinner!) since they were afraid of the fact that the ideological face of JI with its cadres among itself, Solidarity, Students and women wings and well oiled network will make Muslim League again a formidable force. CPM and other lobbies in Kerala were able to implement it successfully since Muslim League had fell in their trap as usual out of cowrdice. You may compare it with the audacious stand taken by K.M. Mani in UDF when the merger with Joseph had become a disputed issue. After making a wedge between Muslim League and JI successful, CPM seems to have moved ahead when they got Muvattuppuzha episode and is trying to make maximum out of it by doing the “Great Incendiary Hunt . Some Christian lobbies also with its deep and strong hold in Keralite police, after failed Love Jehad campaign, seem to be trying to settle the score and exploit the situation. Moreover, as explicit from Josef –Mani Merger, Christian lobby is afraid of losing the continued hold on power since demography of Kerala is not in favor of them and our democracy is fundamentally based on demography. I am not sure who is behind Muvattuppuzha episode . I hope the time will unfold it. Here also, regardless of who did this heinous crime, JI and Solidarity were able to play a sincere, creative, constructive and intelligent role when they reached at hospital and donated the required blood. Again media seems to have failed and lost its credibility when they refused to report such a positive news which helps to cement the concept of peaceful co-existence, tolerance and harmony. This beautiful intervention also seems to have failed CPM. I can feel the flair and fragrance of true Islamic culture and civility from this donation of the blood, which is really a bold and beautiful action. Personally I do want this to be true face of Islam while CPM is seen depicting this beautiful face of Islam only as a façade and other ugly and awkward faces in the Muslim community as ‘truly Islamic”! What a predicament and what pitiable condition!
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Moslem terrorism in Kerala is only a business. Stripped off its economic gains to the small businessman, unemployed boy, media man and professional intellectual, terrorism would slowly die in Kerala. It is not any Jehadi fervour that drags Kerala men to terrorism. It is not any human rights spirit that draws the Kerala intellectual to speak for terrorists.
It is all a question of money. The Jehadis pay and the intellectuals bray for them. Once the money dries out, or once another group pays more; Kerala’s intellectual community would begin to attack Moslem terrorism.
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“Police and bureaucracy is spuriously creating some clusters of non-existing “Talibanism” and converting it into myths whereby we get ensnared and entrapped in the inescapable and scary cobweb of clustering illusion masquerading in the guise of non-existing “Talibanism” in Kerala. ”
Do you think cynical Kerala does not see through the terrorist propaganda? We know that the PFI etc are ISI/LeT agents.
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“Moreover, it was not able to uplift Keralite Muslims educationally and socially despite being in Power almost for 35 years although it had availed almost complete support of Keralite Muslims.”
The underlined portion from the ‘grand narrative’ of Mr Civillo speaks aloud the relevance of Muslim League in Keralam. It is just like we look forward to the Indian National Congress to fulfill the aspirations of Indian common people, even though it has been a failure in that direction so far, that we perceive Indian Union Muslim League to carry out its historical role in the democratization of Keralam.
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Dear John Civillo
You have done a good comment on the subject. But the detailed stand on IUML and JI can be reabsorbed from different angles as well (I hope you should get it from different people to help ourselves), than the outer views apart from deep realities, substracting the future!.
Christian – Marxist – other heavy weights………manipulation has tackled the JI, which IUML atleast had its share of bargain though meagre.
Muvattupuzha issue…..as everybody says “unknown”, JI apart from blood donation, has done their greater part of helping the Muslim division in favour of Heavy weights political parties, which before the incident was a political polarisation from Muslim side as a whole against the LDF.
JI’s political stand with CPM wasn’t a holy one though it looked like mear hypocratical diplomacy, who couldn’t withstand the after effect of the same to themselves as well as to the Muslim youngsters who got betrayed to CPM from the lofty stands JI (?).
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Dear Basheer Sab,When you first forwarded the mail of John Civillo I was bit impressed by his style of writing.It was bit on intellectual level also.But the last one is purely political and shows the dirty shaddow of Jon Ciivillo.Some ideots still think that we Muslims are ignorants and we dont understand the dirty game played by others.Jamathe Islami is very good in playing this dirty game and they are trained for that.
If you go deep and find out the real face of this Jon Civollo, you may come to know that either he is a Jamathe Islami activist or and ardent enemy of Islam and Muslims.
It is better to ignore this John Civillo.
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read my response in malayalam for this article in my blog.click my name
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